AVI USA’s Volunteer Recruitment and Retention Training
AVI USA’s annual trips to Auroville are an immersive experience. Working 10 months at a distance, connecting through virtual, electronic space with our Auroville friends and partners, we suddenly wake up with the Auroville sunrise, our feet touch with the red soil and gaze upon the unfolding dream of the city of dawn. It is a time to reconnect with old and new friends and continue our search for how to best accomplish AVI USA’s mission to serve Auroville.
As our Auroville programs and Auroville partner relationships grow stronger, we are actively building programs to maintain our connection while fostering a sense of AVI USA community within Auroville. In the last few months, Matthew Andrews, AVI USA’s CEO and principal connection to the multitude of Auroville programs we work with, has organized two in-person workshops. It’s a precious opportunity to connect directly with our partners, and the two workshops were designed create a collaborative environment within the AVI USA partner groups. The in-person workshops will be be followed by monthly virtual workshops for the rest of the year.
The first workshop, The Donor Development Training was filled with new and creative ideas that our partners have started integrating. You can read the article on our blog. The second workshop focused on the equally important aspect of cultivating volunteers.
The Volunteer Retention and Recruitment Workshop opened the discussion about developing projects by attracting enthusiastic, and potentially longterm volunteers. Finding and keeping volunteers within a growing project brings new ideas and energy. It gives a sense of change and progress, easing the workload on the existing project members. Ideally volunteers are much more than simply free labor or shortcuts to covering immediate needs of a project. Discovering their innate talents and needs can lead to creative growth, expansion and fostering a valuable sense of community inside the project and within local circles. Volunteers give the signal that community members can easily contribute to a project in an informal way, which expands the reach of any enterprise.
Volunteers generally have a true inner calling to join specific projects, whether they have just finished a course of study, are taking time between jobs, or are have additional time to devote to a heartfelt passion. Honoring the volunteer’s inner calling helps them more deeply connect to their work and have a real stake in the outcome of their work.
Images from the workshop held on March 12, SAIIEN hall, Auroville
During Matthew’s workshop the participants were again divided into focus groups, and each group worked out a strategy for one project to attract and keep volunteers. Auroville, by it’s nature,offers many volunteer opportunities. Many project and AVI USA partners are often approached by potential volunteers, both from within and outside Auroville. Some of the ideas brought up in the focus groups focused on finding the right fit between a project and their volunteers, as as well as designing strategies to harmonize both the needs of the volunteer, what they are hoping to learn by joining a project with the current needs of a project. This is often one of the hardest situations to navigate. After the groups defined a working volunteer strategy, the focus group leader shifted to another group, and the worked out plans were heard by a fresh audience and discussed.
One of the cases discussed was the Auroville Dog Shelter. Auroville Dog Shelter is an example of the challenges in recruiting and retaining volunteers. The Auroville Dog Shelter team is never at a loss for very short term, excited volunteers who want to spend time with the dogs. However, their expectations, spending quality play and nurturing time with the dogs, are often dashed by the gritty work of cleaning the premises, sanitation and health work, shelter-housing maintenance, and mass cooking for the dogs. The personal connection with dogs disappears with the priority of caring for the busy shelter as a whole. As enthusiasm for spending time with the dogs disappears, so do the volunteers.
The Dog Shelter, through some creative and synchronous meetings, has come up with a new plan. Instead of putting more effort into attracting Auroville based volunteers, they have established a relationship with a Mettupalyam University, where new students will come every few months for a regular rotation at the shelter. The incoming student volunteers are coming from the veterinarian program, a perfect fit for the shelter! Their commitment is for a few months at a time, with an agreed upon start and end point to each volunteer cohort. The shelter can plan activities for each incoming group, with initial introductory trainings, and schedule advanced activities towards the middle and end of each period volunteer cohort. Knowing the number of volunteers showing up, days of the week and abilities will make a huge difference to a more joyful and beneficial experience for both the shelter and the student volunteers!
For Auroville volunteers an overall curiosity about the Auroville experiment, along with a natural service orientation. Offering and sharing experiences that give new volunteers a sense of the community give them a taste of Auroville life. Sharing the ways in which projects accomplish their work – and involving volunteers in a variety of aspects in their initial weeks, gives them a sense of what work they resonate with the most, and what their contribution can be.
Trying to force someone into a position that is uncomfortable or they are not suited for can backfire quickly. Some volunteers appreciate hands-on work, whether digging in the soil at a farm or garden, helping with set up and breakdown of events, or other physically oriented tasks. Some are great with creating relationships and getting to know everyone and their roles. Others are great organizers, or speakers. Identifying a volunteer’s affinities will expand their position quickly and even reveal a previously unimagined pathways of service, especially if the roles are stable and allow for growth. Focusing on the needs of a volunteers work can have a great impact on the volunteer’s experience and innovative work in the project.