Tag Archives: Volunteers
Guest Blogger: Sara Conley – Volunteer Week
Posted on 16. Feb, 2009 by Kenny.
Last week my wife wrote a couple of posts. If you missed them, you can catch them here and here.
I know I’m biased, but I felt she had some really good things to say. She’s actually worked on my staff as well as another campus’ staff as a volunteer director. She rocks. When she was a nursery director, only two times did she ever have someone no-show. Two times people, that’s unheard of. She developed an incredible report with her teams and she always knew who would be there, who wouldn’t and who’d be filling in.
So, I invited her to guest blog all this week. It’s Volunteer Week and she’s going to hit several issues regarding volunteerism. Here are a few examples:
- Your ministry attitude toward volunteerism
- Your ministry’s volunteer culture (didn’t know you had one… you need to read this one)
- Cold Call recruiting (sometimes you have to do it)
- Volunteer training
So, I’ll be blogging some this week as well, but if you only have time to read one post a day from this site… be sure to read Sara’s!… Read the rest
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Volunteer Expo (Extras)
Posted on 12. Feb, 2009 by Kenny.
Okay, Sara talked about several great things here. So, I’ve attached images of all the files we used. Feel free to use them to get some ideas:
Here is the poster we hung in all the bathrooms:
Banners over each of the three areas:
Actual logo of “I’m In”
Live Production Trifold:
Kids Quest Trifold:
Hospitality Trifold:
Sign up cards (we had these at the booths as well as in the programs):
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Volunteer Expo (Part Two)
Posted on 11. Feb, 2009 by Sara.
Here is “part two” of the blog post from yesterday.
5. BE ORGANIZED.
Think through the details of your event and plan accordingly.
We recruited for three ministries at our recent expo. Each ministry was assigned a color. Banners, balloons and booth paperwork in these colors quickly visually distinguished the ministries from each other.
Each booth was equipped with sign up cards, trifolds listing job descriptions for volunteer positions, pens and clipboards. The children’s ministry booth also had applications and background checks available for every recruit to fill out on the spot.
6. PLAN FOLLOW UP.
As a recruiter, I hate to see people fall through the cracks. By Sunday night following the Expo all the data entry of our prospective volunteers was complete.… Read the rest
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Volunteer Expo (Details)
Posted on 10. Feb, 2009 by Kenny.
Okay, I thought I’d elaborate on something Sara mentioned, but it provided to be a huge success. At the very end of the service, the staff member who oversees live production was doing announcements. She made the announcements and then ended with a big push for live production. She went on to talk about the power you have as a light and sound operator… plus who doesn’t like to where the cool headsets. Then the staff member who oversees hospitality came out telling everyone that if they really want to be where it’s at, they’ll want to serve in hospitality. He “randomly” selects someone from the audience and asks them what they want most on a Sunday. She obviously reads from a script revealing that she’s a fake and as she talks about wanting connection, people run in bringing her coffee and a muffin.… Read the rest
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Volunteer Expo (Part One)
Posted on 10. Feb, 2009 by Sara.
Hi Friends!
My sweet hubby Kenny invited me to chat with you about a subject I love dearly – volunteer recruiting.
My, oh my. Children’s ministry is a hungry beast when it comes to volunteer recruiting huh? Ever feel like you’re nonstop asking for volunteers? I’ve been there.
Today, we’ll specifically chat about Volunteer Expos.
Recently at Gateway Community Church I was hired as a contract employee to plan a volunteer expo. Our goal was 150 total new volunteers for three ministries in the church. Guess how many people signed up? 350! Can you believe it?! We had more sign up than we hoped for! Wow!
This was not my first Expo. I’ll share with you a few things I’ve learned.… Read the rest
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Volunteers: When you don’t have enough (Part 2)
Posted on 29. Oct, 2008 by Kenny.
I was hoping to get a little more feedback from my previous post about how you fill the gaps. If you didn’t read it or didn’t have a chance to post, I’d still like to hear some more ideas. You can post your comments with this post or the original one.
So, if you’re recruiting or you need to recruit to fill some holes, what do you do in the mean time?
Last year at the Orange Conference I heard Craig Jutila talk about this. He said, whatever you do, don’t fill the spot yourself. You’ll get stuck and if you’re the leader, how can you lead when you’re stuck in a spot that should be filled by someone you’re leading.… Read the rest
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Volunteers: When you don’t have enough
Posted on 28. Oct, 2008 by Kenny.
I’m really curious about something.
One of the most popular subject to discuss in children’s ministry is the recruiting, retention and leading of volunteers. Why? Because we all need ‘em. I’ve never met anyone who had all the volunteers they’ve needed. When I was just starting out in ministry and feeling the responsibilities of recruiting, I felt comfort in the fact that a really big church down the road that I respected for their excellence and quality in ministry was also in the midst of trying to recruit several hundred new volunteers. Even when in Malaysia several years ago when doing some CM training, several local CP’s would come up and say, “but you don’t understand. It’s different here. We never have enough volunteers!” It’s a global challenge.… Read the rest
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Gateway’s “new” elementary program
Posted on 09. Sep, 2008 by Kenny.
It’s been a very busy summer. The week I got here I shared with my elementary production director (my only staff member in the elementary area) my vision for what elementary ministry would look like in the fall. It would look almost completely different from anything I had ever done as well. So we’ve been working very hard all summer to build new teams to launch our new program. Essentially we doubled our volunteer force already (it had gotten pretty skimpy) and I’d say we still have about 20 more people to fill out our teams. So this is what it looks like now.
Elementary Production
We have four production teams. Each team consists of a leader, two actors, two worship leaders and two tech/A/V volunteers.Each team works one Sunday a month.… Read the rest
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Lame Excuse: The Gibeonite deception
Posted on 08. Jul, 2008 by Kenny.
Has this ever happened to you? A volunteer who’s been serving in your ministry for a few months informs you that they need to step down. You ask why and the throw down the stinkin’ God card. “I feel the Lord is calling me to do something else.” Again, I haven’t heard this one in a while as I’ve been in churches lately that were a lot less “spiritual.” Where I’m at now they just stop showing up. 
What the heck are you supposed to do with that? Who am I to argue with God?
Actually, this one isn’t that difficult. It’s Joshua chapter nine. The Deception of the Gibeonites. Just before this chapter, God had given very specific instructions. He told the armies of Israelites to wipe out all the enemies.… Read the rest
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Grow up and feed yourself already!
Posted on 08. Jul, 2008 by Kenny.
My son Titus is making a certain situation amazingly clear for me lately. In the process of us moving to Austin, we interrupted his eating development plan. Okay, maybe there wasn’t really a plan, but he was moving forward, baby. Before we got to Austin, he was starting to eat little bits of food on his own. When we were living in a one roomed hotel in Austin for a month, he was back to eating baby food out of the jar while sitting in his umbrella stroller. Fortunately we are back in a house and he has his own highchair now. We’ve made every effort to cut up little bits of food for him so he can feed himself. Guess what?… Read the rest
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