Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Creating something is never easy, whether it’s publishing a newsletter or planning a dinner. It’s even harder when those working on the project are volunteers. Any work that gets done has to be accomplished between work and time with family and sleep and meals and the numerous other things that consume our time. No one gets paid if things go well, or fired if things go badly.

Working on Trinity News and on a magazine for young adults called Episcorific, as well as many church retreats and events for nonprofits, I’ve encountered some of these challenges in one form or another. There are certain things that can help when working with volunteers on big projects.

• Be patient: Things take longer when you are working with unpaid volunteers. Accept this, work it into your timeline, and don’t worry too much.
• Establish deadlines: Talk about your timeline early on. Do you have a backup plan if your deadline isn’t met? Make sure everyone can say no if they really can’t meet the deadline.
• Be clear about how decisions are made: Does someone on the staff or vestry have final say about what goes into the newsletter, for example? Can the priest veto a decision if s/he’s not comfortable with it?

• Have a coordinator: Make sure someone is clearly in charge of coordinating meetings and other events or reminding people about deadlines. If no single person is in charge of setting up meetings, it’s easy for everyone on the planning team, for example, to assume that someone else will do it, and the meetings never happen.
• Match skill sets to tasks: Don’t ask a disorganized person to setup the meetings, for example, or make sure that you’re confident the person in charge of decorating for the event has good taste. This is more difficult to keep in mind when you have limited volunteers, but just because someone is available to do a task, doesn’t mean they should.
• Have a backup plan: This isn’t always possible, but it’s helpful to have a backup plan if something falls through. If someone doesn’t submit his or her article for the newsletter on time, do you have something else to fill the space? If someone gets sick, do you have someone else in mind to make sure the event happens?
• Allow people to say no: Make sure people have the option (up to a point) to back out. Better they say they can’t do it, then say they can but never actually accomplish the task.
• No guilt: While you may need to send reminders, church work should not become a source of guilt. We can keep each other accountable, but people will stop volunteering if they feel bad all the time about the work they should be doing but just can’t find time to do, or agree to help out because they feel guilty.
• Forgive: Something will probably go wrong. It’s OK. Be ready to forgive each other and yourself.