Staff and Volunteers: Dealing with the Toxic Volunteer and Screening Volunteers

Hi Chickadees,

So today I say these two resources on twitter and I found them super informative and helpful and I wanted to share them because I thought they might just help you too. I learned so much!

Both of these articles deal with volunteer screening and management. Most day camps have some kind of volunteers and volunteer management can be a crucial aspect to your job description.

Volunteers can be the most amazing resource and the most frustrating part of your job. And trust me when I've said I've had to deal with both types.

When you get a great volunteer they can be simply irreplaceable. We had this one volunteer last summer, Red, and she was fantastic. She was so helpful and willing to get involved. She never complained and was always there to help. I honestly don't know what I would have done without her. I wish I could hire her to be my full time assistant.

But in the past I've also had to deal with the lazy, irresponsible just frustrating volunteer. I hate to say it but sometimes you wish they wouldn't volunteer. But the problem is that sometimes these volunteers have been around longer then you have, they are board members kids, they went to that camp as kids, or they are well liked. So you have to make sure you handle the situation with tact. In her article, The volunteer as bully = the toxic volunteer, Jayne discusses the perfect way to deal with these individuals. She provides a list of tips and tricks to make sure you don't step on too many toes and don't provoke the bully volunteer.

Jayne's Trips and Tricks

• Document everything so that if you have to go to senior management you have evidence of your concerns.
• Be consistent with rules with all volunteers.
• Be willing to loose the bully volunteer and be ready to deal with the backlash with tact and decorum.
• Don't trash talk the volunteer, EVER.
• Look out for misinterpretations or misunderstandings of your actions and correct quickly.
• Don't think the situation will resolve itself on its own. Be proactive.

This is just a brief list of those tips and tricks...head over to her article and read it for yourself to get further information about each of Jayne's tips.

The second article is also written by Jayne and it's about Screening volunteers for attitude. In this article Jayne talks about how you can screen volunteers to make sure you get the best possible ones. Here she provides assessment questions that can help you make sure you get highly-responsible, long-term volunteers with good attitudes. Head over to the article to see the long list of questions Jayne provides.

Here are the actual hyper links...

http://www.charityvillage.com/cv/research/rvol75.html

http://www.charityvillage.com/cv/research/rvol73.html

Special thanks to Jayne Craven's for writing these super helpful articles, Charity Village for posting these articles on your site, and Winning Kids (aka Melodie Bissell - my mom) for tweeting about them.

For other great articles, sites, and resources about providing safe environments for your kids check Winning Kids Twitter Page or website.

I hope and pray you can find dedicated, passionate helpful volunteers this summer.

Yours truly,

The Ditzy Day Camp Director

How to: Create a Website (if you don't have iWeb)

So don't fret dears without a Mac, I didn't forget about you. If you have a PC and you're interested in creating your own day camp website by yourself here is a website that could help.

http://www.weebly.com/

I have used this one before and it is super easy and free. It's not as easy as say iWeb on the Mac but it the same premise of drag and drop. There are many templates and content elements that you can easily re-arange. One of the great features is that it all done online so you can use a Mac or a PC and you can do it at any computer anywhere. Another great thing about it is that hosting is included (you won't have to pay for a domain host).

Now the one downfall of weebly is if you use their hosting services you're email will end with .weebly.com. So for example it would be campfun.weebly.com. If you don't care about that, then it's no problem. If you don't want it to end with the .weebly part you can use your own domain hosting but I'm pretty sure you'd have to pay for that.

But it really is a great source and super easy to use. Head over to weebly.com and check it out.

How to: Create a Website Using iWeb

So this is a follow up post to my last one, creating a website.

So our day camp website campsenda.com was made by your's truly the ditzy day camp director. I have no website design skills and no technology skills. Seriously, I am a the technologically illiterate ditzy day camp director but I managed to put this website together in a few hours (okay a bit more then a few but that's only because I'm a perfectionist). Trust me it was SO easy.

Now I own a mac and I was introduced to this amazing program called iWeb.

Trust me it is as easy as designing say a scrapbook. You just drag and drop all the things you like onto the page.

There are all these great layouts and designs you can choose from, or you can just make your own.

Using this program you can add pictures, audio, music, videos, clipart and tons of widgets. And all you need to do to put them in is drag and drop them on the page.

Don't know what a widget is? Don't worry, neither do I. :) The dictionary says it is a a small gadget or mechanical device, esp. one whose name is unknown or unspecified. Still not sure what that is but it basically means you can add internet tools like a countdown clock (we have one of these on the main page of our website), youtube videos and much more.

Some other really cool feature are the fact that you can create a blog, create hyperlinks to outside sources or your registration sheet, and set it up so people can email you right from the website.

Then after you're done designing to your hearts content you fill in the site publishing information.

Note you might need a little help from your internet provider or from a domain company for this information. And then you click publish site and you're done!

Yep, it's that easy! Plus Apple has step by step instructions, question forums, and a how to video on their website. Hope that helps you design a beautiful website. I'd love to see it when you're done - send me a link or post below.

Now don't worry if you're not a mac user...I'll look up some helpful websites and do it yourself website design and post it soon.

Have fun learning website design.

The Ditzy Day Camp Director

Creating a Website

So since this is my second year going at this I sorta know the things that work and the things that didn't work a bit better.

One of the things that was a great marketing tool was a website. People heard about our camp for the first time because of the website. It also was a great forum for posting updates and information, and pictures so parents and kids could see.

Now creating it was a pretty scary thing because I have no experience in creating a website or in website design. Now if your camp is anything like ours you might not be able to pay a big fancy company to make it for you.

So this is the time for you to knock people's socks off with the impressiveness of a website.

Head over to our website campsenda.com and I think you'll be impressed by the look of a website thrown together by a 20 year old student with no website or internet ability.

Son't worry it's super easy! If you don't have technology, internet, website design skills no worries. It's super simple and easy to do. I'll post a follow up blog with what I used to create ours.

P.S. let me know what you think! What do you like or what don't you like? I'd love to hear your input.

The Ditzy Day Camp Director