The Center for Creative Community

Bidding At the In-House Volunteer Fair

@ -- permission for use-with-acknowledgment .
Draft, September 1997
Ivan Scheier

Once we have windows of work on prospective or re-assignable volunteers and job factors on (interested) staff, how do we put them together for the best matches. Need Overlap Analysis in Helping (NOAH) from the 1970’s was the first proposed strategy. The following updates are intended to be more concrete and practical.

1. Do A Glad Gift Game in which staff as well as volunteers participate. The unusual feature of this for volunteer job development is that staff would also be helping volunteers - not a bad idea at that. But if this bothered anyone, you could have staff involved in the game as receivers only, though I’ve got some problems with this.
2. Work Assignment Grids in which there is a mix of staff along with prospective volunteers along the top horizontal axis. Variation here could be that staff would automatically be assigned the "coordinator" or "supervisor" role in the project. Also, please note that this process would only work for projects or jobs that could be broken down into independently do-able components.
3. Volunteer Coordinator, probably/desirably in association with a special volunteer/staff task force or committee, Reviews Staff Job Factors and Volunteer Work Windows, and develops options of optimal matches, then checks these with the staff-volunteer matchees. Add to the volunteer window of work for the purposes of this matching process, how much time the volunteer has to invest plus, if possible, some validation information on claimed competence in her/his glad gifts. Add to staff job factors, some sense of how much time (and experience) the staff person has to invest in teaching the volunteer and otherwise developing her/his potential (especially in regard to quests).

In-House Volunteer Fair. Same background as above but done "live." I believe it would work for anywhere from 4 to 5 to a dozen staff, and anywhere from 8-10 to 30-40 volunteers. Each staff person presents and "markets" their job factor while volunteers listen (and ask questions). Then each individual/staff goes to their own table or booth and volunteers circulate to discuss and negotiate possibility they might help. Could also go the other way with volunteers presenting their windows and staff "bidding" on them. (I’ve seen something very much like this and remember one staff person’s comment: "I feel like a kid in a candy shop!"

From the Volunteer Side	From the Staff Side
Values	Spinoffs
Glad Gifts	Dreams
No "No-Nos"
Quests

 



 

 





 Return to the Main Table of Contents

Ivan Scheier
Stillpoint
607 Marr
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, 87901
Tel (505) 894-1340
Email: ivan@zianet.com

For comments and editing suggestions please contact Mary Lou McNatt mlmcnatt@indra.com