Different people have different reasons for volunteering. Some people will want to get involved in meetings and decision-making, whereas others are happier just to come in, do their task and go. By maintaining a good relationship with your volunteers, and making sure that you talk to them about what they enjoy and how they see their role, you should be able to find out from them the level of involvement that they would prefer.
You will have to make sure that volunteers who would like to play a greater role are encouraged to and that there are no barriers to their involvement. Make sure that volunteers are invited to meetings and that there is some explanation of the purpose of those meetings so that the volunteer knows if it is important for them to attend. Also make sure that all volunteers who are interested receive relevant minutes and papers beforehand to enable them to prepare. You may need to check that meetings are being held at times when volunteers can attend, that venues and meeting formats are accessible for volunteers with disabilities, and that volunteers’ expenses (including care of dependants, if meetings are held in evening or at weekends) are being reimbursed.
Remember that volunteers may feel nervous about contributing, particularly if meetings are very formal. Be prepared to explain how meetings work, what the Chair does etc. and, once in the meeting, encourage the volunteers to participate. Make sure that all staff understand why the volunteers’ ideas and participation are important to the meeting, and do not allow their opinions to be dismissed. There is no point in encouraging attendance by volunteers if it is only for the sake of appearances; their contribution needs to be genuinely valued.
Even if volunteers do not want to attend meetings it is still possible to get valuable feedback from them. You could try formal research methods such as questionnaires, suggestion boxes, exit interviews etc. However do not underestimate the importance of talking to volunteers about the organisation and what they are doing. Making time to talk to volunteers both formally as a part of supervision and informally as part of your interaction every day is the easiest way to show that you are listening and that their opinions matter.
