“I won’t join your committee, but I will bring dish soap.” When Idea Friendly says to give everyone a small but meaningful role, that means to make it easy for people to help, even a little. The sign at the animal shelter in Skowhegan, Maine, said “In need of dish soap.” You can drive past…
At the International Association of Fairs and Expositions Convention, we were talking about finding more volunteers and taking care of the ones you already have. I said: “I don’t follow up on stuff that doesn’t need to be followed up on.” If someone volunteered to fix up the garden boxes and they didn’t do it?…
Kathryn Witherington says the Idea Friendly Method has rewritten her perfectionist brain! She’s working on an affordable housing project in Walla Walla, Washington. Lately, she’s been trying to rethink the way people can contribute to their organization without being expected to join a committee or become a formal member. Kathryn said she recently met a…
When we were talking about finding more volunteers in a virtual session with Radically Rural, some people brought up liability as a barrier to all kinds of volunteer projects and events. I get why this came up. Somebody in your town probably brought up liability when you shared an idea, too. “You want to let…
It’s not just you. Every small town struggles to find enough volunteers to do all the projects and events and ideas. Cassandra Boniface with the Township of Stirling-Rawdon, Ontario, told us how they flipped the volunteer recruiting process. “We created the Active Community Expo (A.C.E.). It’s held at our local arena, and is essentially a…
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