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Volunteers are perhaps the most critical, yet neglected, resource in all communities -- but especially in those with little or no professional staff. Staff, commission chairs, and elective officials need to be able to realize the potential and appreciate the gifts that community members bring to the process and the outcome of any planning endeavor.

Commissions and boards numerically make up a very small percentage of the people in a community, yet they make decisions and recommendations that affect everyone. Strong and successful communities provide opportunities to increase and nurture the number and caliber of people involved. The key question is how do you use volunteers wisely? How do you prevent or alleviate burnout, create appropriate niches, increase their effectiveness, and be able to say your community was proudly served by itself?

Having spent a number of years in counties and small towns -- where creative use of volunteers is essential to stretch limited resources -- I have found some simple, but highly effective, ways to encourage and enhance the use of volunteers.

1. Increase your volunteer pool.

We have all lived in communities where most of the work is done by the few mainstays of the community. They sit on all the committees, and seem always willing to help. When they finally leave, either because of burnout, retirement or relocation, the community finds it has lost much of its "institutional memory." Assuring continuity is one important reason to involve more people in local planning.

Although most planning commissions are appointed by the elected body, there should be other committees engaged in research work, surveys, and so on -- work that needs to be done. Planning boards cannot do it all. Your planning commission should keep a list of projects on which you could use additional help, and make it available to others, including elected officials and community leaders. See Sidebar Tips on Planning for Volunteers.

It has been my experience that people will help if asked. Volunteers do not need to be interested in becoming future planning commissioners. In fact, some might not have the qualifications to serve in the position you do. But that doesn't mean they can't provide useful assistance. When asking for help, however, limit your expectations to what can realistically be expected. Perhaps one day of giving a field walk around their neighborhood to those working on developing a plan for that part of the community. Or perhaps someone loves genealogical research; their skills might be transferable to historical research or data collection.

Ad hoc committees are valuable as training grounds for strong community volunteers. Make a habit of asking new or different people to help on something short-term before they are asked to sit on a commission or board for a multi-year term. Some of today's most valued community leaders were once those "new faces" who were just waiting to be asked.

Find out a person's full-range of interests -- not just what they do for a living. A volunteer in one community where I worked suffered terrible burnout and swore she would never get involved in her community again because she had participated on a committee in her field of professional expertise. So she felt like she was working day and night! The key would have been to use her strong organizational skills in a different volunteer setting.

2. Train volunteers.

Whether a person is going to sit on an ad hoc committee, or on an established commission or board, it can take months to become well-versed in the ordinances, regulations, plans or circumstances that you have asked them to review, administer or develop. Don't make assumptions about your volunteers' level of knowledge. Provide materials that help new volunteers learn more quickly: checklists, summaries, and training / orientation materials. A well-organized three-ring binder, stocked with useful information, can work remarkably well.

One good method of adapting new volunteers is to pair them off with established members so there is someone for them to ask or learn from without their having to take up an entire meeting asking basic questions. Even more importantly, this ensures that new members do not feel disenfranchised from the decision making they are supposed to be a part of.

3. Make your enemies your friends.

This is perhaps the most rewarding but difficult adage to aspire to in creatively using volunteers. There always seem to be several members of the community who are distrustful, or interested in derailing a project or process most of the community wants. Take them off the sidelines and involve them. This is difficult. It requires patience and creativity on the part of the chair and other committee members. Many will fear that involving "critics" will make it even easier for them to derail a project. But, by choosing their task or assignment carefully, you may get a wealth of information and bring much more diversity into your planning process. If you choose just to ignore the naysayers, you may actually be strengthening their hand.

4. Say "thank you."

I know this sounds mundane, but I cannot stress it more emphatically as a way to keep good people involved and committed. Make sure committees, elected officials, ad hoc committees, and boards all take time out to somehow, some way, say "thank you." Who should be thanking whom? Who cares! The point is we all thrive on appreciation. The more creative and the more often it is given, the better. If you wait for the "appropriate" body or person to come forth to do this you may be waiting a very long time.

I once surprised a commission with a party instead of the assumed work session for absolutely no reason but to say thank you. The mileage of good will and good feeling from that small gesture was immeasurable. Once a year send thank you notes to each of the members of your committee or commission, even if their term is not up. They will stay energized and willing to do other projects if they know they are appreciated while they are serving, not after they have finished or left the board.

There are lots of other ways to motivate, keep, and "grow" new volunteers. Just remember that most every member of your community has something to give back. It is up to us to figure out how it can be used wisely. Protect and nurture your volunteer resource -- it makes a community what it is and what it will be.

Editor's Note Volunteers: Young & Old If your planning commission is thinking about increased utilization of volunteers, think about working with your local high school and with your area's "RSVP" (Retired Seniors Volunteer Program) coordinator. Supervised high school students can help distribute and tally surveys, gather information, and conduct interviews -- to name a few possibilities. They may be especially helpful if you are working on an update to your municipal plan -- and while they are helping you, you will be helping them become more active and involved in their community. The RSVP program can help you find retired individuals willing to volunteer their talents. RSVP volunteers in Bay County, Florida, for example, recently surveyed passengers on twelve paratransit routes, obtaining important information for the County's transit development plan. Of course, don't forget those between high school and retirement. Over twenty states have offices that can help communities set up volunteer programs. There are also consultants (such as Susan Ellis -- see her sidebar, "Tips on Planning for Volunteers") who specialize in helping develop volunteer programs. There's no reason planning commissions shouldn't tap into the excellent resource volunteers can be. Tips on Planning for Volunteers by Susan J. Ellis The best way to involve volunteers is to plan in advance just as for new employees. Determine exactly what job descriptions volunteers can fill, and then be proactive in recruiting to fill those positions. Consider the following questions: What would we like to do more of, if we had the extra help? What might we like to not have to do ourselves, if someone else liked doing it? What might we do a bit differently or to a targeted audience (in Spanish, in sign language), if someone with the necessary skills were available? The best volunteer assignments are those that have clear goals, visibly accomplish something, and can be done in discrete time periods -- say, three hours at a time. Recruitment is easiest if volunteer job descriptions are product oriented rather than schedule oriented. This means asking people to commit to finishing a project by a certain deadline, rather than having to appear on site every Tuesday morning. On the other hand, knowing in advance that you need coverage of the reception desk during staff meetings allows you to do active recruitment for volunteers available, say, every Friday from 2:00 to 4:00. Susan J. Ellis is President of ENERGIZE, Inc., a consulting, training, and publishing firm specializing in "volunteerism." She is also author, with Katherine Noyes, of By the People: A History of Americans as Volunteers (Jossey-Bass 1990). The Light at the End of the Tunnel by Perry Norton It is encouraging to read something optimistic about the potential of a pool of volunteers. Conventional wisdom has it that the pool has shrunk with the increase of women in the labor force. And we often read that volunteer ambulance corps are desperately seeking new recruits, as are the Scouts, PTA's, and so on. But, I'd rather take Eileen Hennessy's testimony, and suggest one way in which that pool could be mined -- speaking now, of volunteers to assist in the work of planning commissions. One problem potential recruits have is that they're afraid they might be in for something very long term. I suggest that they would feel different about it if the light at the end of the tunnel were visible from the beginning: A Six-Month Task Force on Off-Street Parking; A Three-Month Survey of Open Space Usage; A One-Month Analysis of the Worst Traffic Intersection in Town. Editor's Note: Retired planner Perry Norton occasionally provides his perspectives for the Planning Commissioners Journal.

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