Providence Planning 08 01 2006

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Revision as of 19:00, 1 August 2006 by Ideath (talk | contribs) (save early, save often! see the minutes take shape!)
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  • Date: August 1
  • Facilitator: Seamus
  • Scribe: laurel
  • Minutes Checker:
  • Place: meeting room

Attendance

Shawn, Dave, Kerm, Liane, RFS, laurel, Seamus

Old Commitments

  • Liane and Dave - visit the warehouse and ask questions and report back - IN PROGRESS
    • Dave was on vacation; we haven't heard back from Providence; he'll call them tomorrow.
  • Proponents of the warehouse plan - continue to seek input - IN PROGRESS
    • The action and receiving committees have met about it.
    • Plans keep turning into bigger things than we can actually do.
  • Outreach - work on a plan for volunteer outreach - IN PROGRESS
    • Shawn and Sophia will be talking about this at the next outreach meeting.
  • Richard - look at the database, figure out what kind of data could be retrieved, and report it to Council and Providence - PARTIALLY DONE
    • Data has been mined, could be massaged more to yield better info, will be reported
    • Grouping jobs can help us figure out patterns in volunteer work and retention
    • See volunteer discussion below for preliminary results
  • Liane - try to find out about landlord permission for container - DONE
    • We're good to go
  • Seamus - bring up the container issue on the Directors' list - DONE
    • Funding for container has been approved by the board
  • Richard - bring hours recording processes for builders up in the staff meeting - DONE
    • Kathie did it; more hours will be recorded in build area; Kathie and Sophia are working on new processes
  • Richard - present news of Providence at the council meeting - DONE
  • Seamus - bug Dave about filling in numbers in income/expense estimates - DONE in the meeting

Volunteer program developments

(Shawn, currently reading Volunteer Management 101. She's wearing a feisty black and white scarf and top and an insouciant air tonight.)

Volunteer outreach

Plan for volunteer outreach is to hit up organizations that have been recommended, like parks and rec and orgs that serve our adoption volunteer demographic. Idea is to get our information to the staff in those organizations because they will be around longer. It's a lot of footwork. Recommendations for potential organizations are welcome.

Richard says the number of volunteer hours has levelled off. Dave wants to see a comparison between staff hours and volunteer hours to see if there's any correlation that might imply that volunteers are more likely to work when they can get more attention. Knowing the ideal staff to volunteer ratio will definitely be useful in planning expansions.

Volunteer Retention

HR is largely working on ways to make sure staff on the floor are more attentive and have more time on the ground. The culture of how to deal with volunteers is in evolution.

  • (Liane) Volunteers tend not to have sufficient information. Often not enough people at the front desk to answer questions
  • Volunteer intake is not working well; people have to wait around.
  • It may be time to implement a formal orientation; the time could count toward their hours. Why didn't we do this when we were on it before? Didn't have time. (Dave) Orientation should be optional. People would be welcome to participate in one if they want. (rfs) Part of the problem is not that people aren't told, but that it's confusing. Scheduling will still be a problem. (Kerm) Maybe we should have a person available to answer questions at the end of each shift. (Shawn) Having an orientation not necessarily at the beginning of a volunteer's time is appealing so that less time is wasted.
  • Group brainstorm: issues that might be addressed by having an orientation
    • Early information overload

New Commitments

  • Liane and Dave - visit the warehouse and ask questions and report back - CARRYOVER
  • Proponents of the warehouse plan - continue to seek input - IN PROGRESS
  • Outreach - work on a plan for volunteer outreach - IN PROGRESS
  • Richard - continue working on data mining and interpretation
  • Dave - fill in numbers in income/expense estimates

Next Meeting

  • Facilitator:
  • Scribe:
  • Minutes Checker:
  • Reporters to other meetings?
  • Date and time:
  • Place:
  • Unfinished business for the next meeting?
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