Theatre is a collaborative art, and that collaboration is strongest when it extends to the parents and guardians of your program. Your first line of volunteers is always your current parents and guardians. Our focus as educators needs to stay on our students and at some point, we have to create a decent work/life balance, but so many times we get bogged down with the business management of our program. Let's face it, who is more likely to drop a ball: the juggler with 10 balls or the juggler with 1? You are the with 10 balls, but your parents can be the juggler with 1. It’s time to share your juggling balls with your parents and you’ll be surprised what they can do!
First, successful volunteers come from . There is no way your parents can meet your expectations if you never make those expectations clear! For our program, our parents became so organized that we created a parent booster group that functions as its own 501(c)(3). For some programs, starting off with a parent booster group makes sense, for others, creating a parent booster group can be a long-term goal.
Either way, think about what projects drain your time and energy the most. As a diving board, think about these questions:
- What projects prevent me from spending more time doing what I would rather be doing
- What else would I do if I had the time, skills, or resources?
- How can your program be improved?
For me, a few projects came to mind:
- Managing and running the ad sales for our show program
- Managing and running our box office
- Managing and running our publicity (hanging show posters, submitting press releases, etc.)
- Designing, laying out, and printing our show programs
- Managing and running our concessions
These projects can be the basis of great volunteer positions. Businesses do not begin hiring people before they figured out what they needed that person to do, and now you have just figured out what you’d like them to do. But how do you get them to actually do it?
Consider beginning by writing volunteer position descriptions. Detailed job descriptions are written in business because they serve as the blueprints for recruiting, managing, and retaining those people. That same idea can be applied to your volunteers. Think about it, our student troupes are successful because there are specific job descriptions that let everyone know exactly what they are responsible for. Now, not every volunteer opportunity needs a job description (like a one time position to pass out flyers), but if you have a complex project for a volunteer, writing down your thoughts will help you to consider all the aspects of the project, so that the prospective volunteer is clear about what they will need to achieve, and whether they are the right person for the role.
Think about the big picture: a position description speaks volumes about your program. It shows that you are organized and professional. It tells prospective volunteers that you are serious about what you do and that you respect and appreciate their contribution. And it shows that you have thought about how you want to involve volunteers in your programs.
You will recruit more volunteers when they receive written expectations as they know what they are committing to, and by determining what skills, abilities, and qualities you want for the position, you have a much clearer idea of the most suitable volunteer before you even begin recruiting.
You will also retain more volunteers with written position descriptions because it validates their role as an integral part of your theatre team and boosts volunteer’s confidence. I think the phrase I say most often and most sincerely is: “We couldn’t have done it without you.”
One of our biggest challenges as educational theatre programs is our community’s transience. With a new roster of students every year, our volunteer roster is also constantly changing. Written descriptions can come to the rescue once again, by providing continuity and assisting with knowledge management.
Okay, now that you want to create these job descriptions, how do you begin? Consider the following:
- Volunteer Title
- People like to know that their role has a title. This title shape’s the volunteers understanding of the role and gives them a sense of identity. A good job title captures the purpose of the role. A few of our volunteer titles include Proscenium Circus Ad Sales Manager, Proscenium Circus Program Designer, etc.
- Responsibilities
- What is the volunteer expected to achieve in this position? What is the overall goal? Try to focus on the goals of the position rather than detailed descriptions of duties and tasks. There can be many ways to perform a role and still achieve its objectives. If you focus on the responsibilities of the role then volunteers can choose the best way to do the job.
- Purpose/Impact
- How will the volunteer's work affect a project's outcome or your program’s mission? Remember, your volunteers are volunteering because they believe in your program and its mission, and they want to make a contribution. By including your program’s mission statement in the volunteer description, it affirms the contributions your organization makes to your community. If you can, go a step further and clearly articulate how that volunteer position connects with and contributes to the achievement of your mission. In short, it shows how important they are to you!
- Skills
- What skills or knowledge will be needed to achieve the goal or complete project? If you had a previous volunteer, what skills did they bring to the position that helped them achieve success? Try to distinguish the skills necessary and those that would be nice for a volunteer to have.
Other things you can consider including are the time commitment, who they are supervised by, benefits for the volunteer (free tickets to see shows!), etc. Once you have these written down, you can begin to compile them into a volunteer handbook or guide. As a volunteer becomes comfortable in their role, they can even have input on the job description.
We’ve managed to find parent volunteers to take on the five projects listed above, and because one person is able to solely focus on each project, we've gotten stronger (and I finally have some time for my yoga self-care!). Our ad and concession sales increased as parent volunteers were able to bring their own ideas to the table. Our program has more newspaper coverage as a journalist writes our press releases. Our program looks more professional as a parent graphic designer puts it together and negotiated a better rate with the local printer in exchange for ad placement.
These projects are complex and come with a lot of responsibility. To reflect that level of responsibility, the volunteers in these positions are part of our parent boosters board. The board member volunteers often break up the project into smaller parts and recruit their own volunteers to help them.
Okay, okay, not every day is a magical success, but you have to start somewhere. Perhaps you can start by finding someone to lead each of these projects, or at least serve as your co-pilot for the project until they can fly on their own. Maybe you can make a goal to bring on one new volunteer position each year, or write one job description each year. Maybe you are a volunteer managing guru and you can create a volunteer position that their project is to help write all the volunteer positions and make your very own theatre program volunteer handbook.
Even better, if you have written job descriptions for your parent volunteers can you share them with the community so that we might all learn from your experience?