I was speaking to an experienced REALTOR® who had been a volunteer on his board for many years. We were talking about the difficulty of recruiting new volunteers, so I asked for his opinion and this was his advice:
- Don’t lie. When you’re asking someone who is a commissioned sales person to give up their time to volunteer, explain to them exactly how much time it will take, what time the meetings start and how long they are. Also describe if there’s any travel out of town involved. Never waste their time.
- Don’t start your recruitment efforts late in the year just before the nominating committee meets. Why don’t you make it a process that you follow all year where you identify the rising stars, give them plenty of notice that they are going to be asked to volunteer.
- When I started volunteering, no one asked me about my background, my skills or what I’d be good at. They were just glad to get a warm body. Spend the time to get as much information from your volunteers as you can so you can put them in the right spot and not waste their time or the boards time.
I was very glad for that sage advice. Are you following any of those suggestions?
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