[Note: This is a continuation, in some respects, of the discussion of my entry The Opposite of Love Is, as well as cellio‘s entry Organizational Behavior 101]
At the Congregational Meeting last night, I commented to the leadership on how they were treating volunteers. This morning, I received a mail message from the Executive VP, which said:
Thank you again and again for all that you have done. You have never been
underappreciated. In fact, hopefully your trophy wall at home shows this. The
Helping Hands acknowledgement, another plague I presented to you during
another term for all of your work, etc. These were all given with sincere
respect for your time and effort.When you said last evening about don’t forget to appreciate your volunteers-
if you have another suggestion re: this- please let me know. Knowing what it
is to give thousands of hours of volunteering (and sometimes feeling
unappreciated), I feel that I have always tried to come up with a way to
recognize the efforts of others.
I wanted to share my response to her, and to see if other folks had additional ideas and comments. What I said in response to the above was:
For me, plaques and trophies are not the answer. I’ve gotten to the point they
go in a box, as there isn’t the wall space. So what is the answer.
First, I think is treating folks with respect for their skills and
contributions throughout the year, not just at recognition points. Consider:
The Torah teaches us to respect our parents. It doesn’t just say on Mothers
Day or Fathers Day.
As opposed to wall space on people’s home, public recognition also helps.
Consider a public wall of volunteer recognition in the office. Certainly,
photos of all officers should be up in the office (small ones) so that people
can easily recognize officers.
With my conference, we’ve had a long debate on how to recognize volunteers.
We’ve done gift certificates, specialized gifts, and special dinners. Our
recognition budget is on the order of $4K, which is high. I certainly get the
most use out of the certificates (I’m listening to some of the CDs right
now), but I think the real answer depends on the volunteers. This means you
need to take the time to get to know them, and then you can know the right way
to recognize them in the way that is most meaningful to them.
