Animal Welfare Professionals

When you have an event where volunteers will be used and that event is managed by an event coordinator and volunteers are managed by a volunteer coordinator, how do you best handle the delegation of duties when it comes to volunteers?  For example, who is responsible for putting together the volunteer job descriptions/duties for the event and identifying how many volunteers are needed- the event coordinator or the volunteer coordinator?  If this is a new event, who would be responsible for training the volunteers prior to the event on how to carry out their duties or to give any specific instructions for that day- the event coordinator or the volunteer coordinator?  What about scheduling?  And what about oversight on the day of the event?  We seem to run into issues sometimes with overlap of these responsibilities and that causes at minimum confusion, at at worst it's creating some tension that doesn't need to be there between the coordinators.  I think if I can better define each one's role/responsibility this will solve it, but I'm looking for some advise before I do.

Thanks!

Shelly

The event coordinator is the person who knows how many volunteers s/he needs and what their duties are. The volunteer coordinator, knowing who is best suited for specific tasks, organizes the volunteers. The event coordinator instructs the volunteers on their duties, the volunteer coordinator makes sure there are enough volunteers to get the event done. They have to work together on it.

Look at it this way - the event coordinator is the employer, the volunteer coordinator is the employment agency. The employer tells the agency what type(s) of employee they need and how many. The employment agency locates the employees who are best suited for the task. The employment agency gives the worker a general overview of the job and its requirements but it is up to the employer to train the worker on the specific tasks.

This topic is one that our organization struggles with, as well. We don't have an official event coordinator, so it is a bit tricky. I am the volunteer coordinator, so I have a difficult time with having volunteers staff events. We're a small organization (10 staff members) and our volunteer force isn't huge (~40 volunteers with service each month), so it's difficult to secure volunteers for events. When I do secure several volunteers for an event, they are often unclear as to their roles, get poor communication, or end up feeling unnecessary. It is important for me to have my volunteers feel valued and respected, but I don't currently feel that that is the case with events. Does anyone have advice? 

I try to give as much direction as I can, but I'm not in charge of the events, so there is only so much I can do.