Volunteer Management

This weekly reading was all about gaining and retaining volunteers. Gaining and retaining volunteers is very crucial to campus media. It is often hard to get members to join a campus media group because people don't think they will have enough time to commit themselves to the group. Some people also do not like to join because there isn't any big incentive for them to join, they're not getting paid and they're not getting school credit. I think this class is a great way to get students involved in campus media because we are getting school credit for doing this. The campus media organizations know they can rely on the students in our class because we have to be involved in order to receive credit. Hopefully this class can make a big impact on campus media organizations and eventually the organizations can rely solely on volunteers again. As we read in the reading, it is important to make these organizations as structured as possible. Volunteers should be screened before being accepted into the organization and there should be a written policy manual that all members will follow. Also, it is important to give each member of the organization some responsibility so they feel important enough to stay in the organization. People will stay in organizations if they feel they are wanted and more importantly needed in that organization.