Friday, May 15, 2009

Inventory skills/Interests from potential volunteers

Hello Colleagues:

Does anyone have an example of a one page inventory skills sheet that can be completed by potential community volunteers? We are conducting a volunteer "job fair" type event and would like to help match potential volunteers with the opportunities that interest them the most. Thanks in advance for any information you provide.

Regards,

Art

Art Lersch Associate Professor CNRED Educator UW-Extension, Lincoln County Phone: 715-539-1072 Fax: 715-539-8323 Hearing impaired relay: 711

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good morning Art,
There are at least two of these types of volunteer skill inventories posted on the volunteer development page:
http://www.uwex.edu/ces/4h/resources/mgt/volunteer.cfm
If you need some additional tools or resources, your 4-H Youth Development staff people may be able to assist you. I am also available if you need additional resources or assistance
Sue

Sue Pleskac, Professor Youth Development
4-H Volunteer Leadership Specialist
1433 150th Street Centuria, WI 54824
715-485-3254 (phone) 715-485-3256 (fax)
711 Wisconsin Relay

Andy said...

Art,

Like an employment job fair, employers need to recruit volunteers by constructing job descriptions. Nobody wants to simply volunteer and some people want to volunteer for activities that may not necessarily relate to their skills. For example, an attorney doing legal work 60 hours a week may not want to volunteer for legal work. If I were going to put emphasis on one thing, it would be to have everyone at the job fair construct volunteer job descriptions. The agencies then needs to interview potential volunteers to get at the skills question. Volunteers are simply staff that don’t get paid. It’s not out of the question to require the submittal of a resume. If you don’t expect much from your volunteers, that’s likely what you will get. In other words, if you were hiring a paid staff member, you wouldn’t hire that person based on a simple list of skills. You would want to see a resume and you would want to check on references, etc. I have attached one sample worksheet that should assist your organizations in writing job descriptions.

You can also find the attached document here:
http://tinyurl.com/voljobdes


Andy

Professor Andrew B Lewis
Community Development Specialist
Center for Community and Economic Development
University of Wisconsin Extension
610 Langdon Street, Room 328
Madison, WI 53703-1104
Tel: 608-263-1432
Fax: 608-263-4999
E-Mail: andy.lewis@uwex.edu
Web: www.uwex.edu/ces/cced

Andy said...

See also:
Articles on Volunteer Work Design (Energize Inc.)