How to Keep Your Event Volunteers Happy

| Posted: 07-05-2008 | Comments: 0 | Views: 1 | Rating: (133)

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A couple of days ago I had a conversation with a volunteer, who we’ll call Bob, in which he said, “I know online registration is the way to do it, I’ve used it at another organization, but they say we don’t have the budget for it here, so
we’re doing it manually.”

Bob’s chuckle at the end of this explanation was very telling.

Free labor is a myth. Volunteers are in demand. Finding and recruiting these people takes time and effort and, although there are no salary costs, there are expenses involved. These can include:

• The equipment they require
• Possible office space
• Someone to train, manage and supervise their efforts.

More importantly, if you want to keep your volunteers happy and keen to offer their time again, you need to make sure that they feel their contribution is valuable. Getting them to manually send out and receive registrations, fax and phone confirmations, process payments and data entry, especially when they are aware of the automated systems that are now available to do it for you, is not the best use of their skills. A smarter use of their time would be getting them to:

• Market your event to drum up more participants and generate more revenue.
• Find sponsorship for your event to help cover costs.
• Put more effort into the actual planning of the event, so it runs smoothly, is enjoyed by the participants and has them wanting to attend the next one.
• Follow up with people to thank them for attending the event.
• Strategizing how to make your organization run more efficiently and achieve the goals you have set.
• Not only will your volunteer’s efforts bring in more money for your organization, but you will have given them a stimulating experience.

Another comment from one not-for-profit organization that recently stopped me in my tracks was, “We don’t need online registration because our Treasurer manually processes registrations by fax.”

You wouldn’t think of paying your lawyer to pick up your office supplies, would you? Or getting your mechanic to troubleshoot your computer?

The problem here, which I’ve found to be common in not-for-profit and charity organizations, is the perception that they have no allocated budget for online registration. It’s like saying that you 'aren’t going to buy a computer because
it’s an expense.' In most cases, if you don’t have a computer, you can’t run an organization. The same applies with online registration and event planning… You can’t afford not to use it. Here’s why:

• People now expect to be able to register for events online and if you don’t offer this you stand to miss out on registrations and therefore revenue.
• Online registration costs are minimal when compared with those you’ll be saving by no longer doing it manually. It will also pay for itself by ensuring happier, more efficient and productive employees and volunteers.

When you consider these factors, online registration can be thought of as an investment, rather than an expense.

ePly is a complete online event
registration service that covers every phase of the online registration process: form planning, design, programming, testing, payment processing, refund management tools, registration limits and tools to gather all the reports you
want so you can focus on what you do best: planning the actual event.

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Article Tags: Work, Happy, Manual, Volunteer, Registration, Event

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About the Author:

Jim Romanik is the President of
ePly Services, a full service online event registration software company that provides the tools needed to manage registration for your events so that you can focus on what you do best: planning the event.

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