Volunteer Recruitment and Recognition

Grace Lindqvist, chapter chair of NANA's Pacific Northwest chapter and executive director of the Federation of Regional Trail Stewards, teaches the course built around her own rule: "You recruit before you need them, not after." Her chapter fills committee seats and event roles from a standing volunteer pipeline rather than scrambling before each event.

A volunteer role description that states the real time commitment in hours per month, not a vague "as needed," so a volunteer knows what they're signing up for before they say yes and before they burn out three months in.

Building recruitment into a chapter's regular calendar, roundtables, orientation sessions, member renewals, instead of a single push before an annual event. A pipeline built this way means a committee chair already has three names to call when a seat opens.

Recognition practices that scale from a free chapter shout-out to a small stipend, matched to what a chapter can actually sustain year over year, so recognition doesn't quietly stop the year a budget tightens.

A simple hours log that doubles as documentation for a future volunteer-of-the-year nomination or a member's own resume, kept in whatever spreadsheet or database a chapter already uses.

Chapter chairs, committee chairs, and staff who recruit and manage volunteers at the chapter level, particularly chapters that only recruit reactively, right before an event needs staffing. Bring your current volunteer roster; the tracking module builds directly onto whatever log a chapter already keeps. Pairs with the Volunteer Recruitment and Recognition Toolkit.

• Build a volunteer role description that states the actual time commitment

• Recruit committee volunteers year-round instead of only before an event

• Design a recognition practice that fits a chapter's size and budget

• Track volunteer hours in a way that supports a future award nomination