Friday, July 19, 2013

Never put Volunteers in "Maintenance Mode"

This article has been siting in my inbox for a bit, NEMA Reactivates Emergency Volunteer Corps To Handle Disasters
It was disturbing to me on a couple of levels, the first was the title. Why are they reactivating? Why were the deactivated? Volunteer organizations are not something that you build and forget. It takes work to build a solid high performing volunteer organization and in some respects takes more work to keep it at that level. I hear people who don't understand volunteers say things like "well we have enough, we should put that in maintenance mode". That is code for less work on that item. Sadly that is when programs start to fall apart, because no one is caring for the organization.

The second was a quote in the article " Otegbade who decried the poor participation of volunteers during emergencies, urged them to see themselves as major stakeholders in disaster management". Really? Have you heard "Praise in Public Counsel in Private"? Another one from my Military life "You are responsible for everything your troops do or fail to do"
Maybe Commodore Otegbade needs to look at the volunteers and think, if we are having to have this conversation, maybe its not them.
So just some finer points:

Volunteers join an organization to DO
You as the leader have the responsibility (to the volunteer and the community) to provide worthwhile training and practice to keep the volunteer sharp
You as the leader must walk the walk and never put your volunteers in "Maintenance mode"
Being a volunteer leader is sometimes an exhausting job, but you are making a difference!

Okay I am done now, go do great things!

@disaster_dave

Otegbade who decried the poor participation of volunteers during emergencies, urged them to see themselves as major stakeholders in disaster management. - See more at: http://leadership.ng/news/130713/nema-reactivates-emergency-volunteer-corps-handle-disasters#sthash.trD49POn.dpuf

NEMA Reactivates Emergency Volunteer Corps To Handle Disasters - See more at: http://leadership.ng/news/130713/nema-reactivates-emergency-volunteer-corps-handle-disasters#sthash.trD49POn.dpuf

NEMA Reactivates Emergency Volunteer Corps To Handle Disasters - See more at: http://leadership.ng/news/130713/nema-reactivates-emergency-volunteer-corps-handle-disasters#sthash.trD49POn.dpu

NEMA Reactivates Emergency Volunteer Corps To Handle Disasters

- See more at: http://leadership.ng/news/130713/nema-reactivates-emergency-volunteer-corps-handle-disasters#sthash.veNfNw4q.dpuf

Sunday, July 14, 2013

What do you do when they come

We like to look at our operations and think we have a plan and it will all go along nicely. But what do you do when they come. You know the individuals and groups you wrote into your plan. Because we all wrote the Israelis into our plans right? Or the biker group that takes over a disaster area and runs it with military efficiency they are in your plan too, right?

So what do we do? Turn down the help because its different? If you experience a catastrophic disaster, you will need the help. So the fix is to plan for the unexpected now.

Because the biggest disservice you can do for your community is to not be ready to accept help as in this excerpt (underline is mine) from the article here.
"At the time of the Hanshin earthquake, the concept of “disaster-relief volunteers” was not well known. When we set out to help, I first visited the Nagata Ward office and told an official that I wanted to volunteer. The official there told me to write my name on a sheet. That was it — he couldn’t explain anything about the volunteer situation."

Make your plan flexible enough that no matter where people come from you can assign them a task to accomplish.

@disaster_dave

Sunday, July 7, 2013

A New Better Volunteer Model

In time of disaster the volunteers will come, but as we move forward in planning it seems to me that we need to engage the none profit community. And then I saw this - SRC United Way Has New Role in Emergency Response.

And I thought yes that is the plan. So what are the benefits?

In a disaster the government will be busy and with falling budgets may have to divert human capital to run volunteer centers
As a non profit, they could do volunteer management for many organizations
As a central point for the community move volunteer to where they are most needed
A central point to collect ALL volunteer hours helps the municipality meet its share of the Disaster recovery cost
Other non profits may be more comfortable working with other non profits
And finally As the United Way is community focused they make a great partner for preparedness before the disaster

Negatives? I don't really see any, anytime we can involve a non governmental partner in the planning before a disaster is a plus.

So who is running volunteer management in your community?

Disaster Dave