So what happens when the guy who is overseeing your event’s site (city park or venue), doesn’t make the time to meet with the volunteer coordinator?

The worse case scenario is all the volunteer floaters are shifted to his needs.

Volunteers can potentially be pulled from other areas too. So in essence, committee members who took the time to assess their volunteer needs and meet with the volunteer coordinator are penalized for someone else not taking responsibility.

Volunteers may not necessarily be dressed properly for the physical needs of the job. Moving a nicely dressed person from the fully staffed VIP sponsor tent to work in the parking lot may make this person think twice before signing up next year.

So what happened to the event site committee chairman?  He’s now doing versus managing. He was last seen with garbage bags hanging out of his back pocket and had several trash bags on a dolly heading toward the dumpster.

Sadly some volunteers will most likely not return the following year because of where they were re-assigned. The volunteer coordinator did create a Plan B, but also understands the importance of tough love. Had she rewarded this bad behavior by guessing what his total needs were and scheduling all his volunteers, he might do this every year moving forward. The volunteer coordinator found just enough volunteers to get the basics covered, requiring the event site chairman roll up his sleeves. We trust he’ll be the first to meet with her next year.

To learn more about event and festival management, check out “Secrets to Successful Events:  How to Organize, Promote and Manage Exceptional Events and Festivals.” For those with event planning experience, consider, “Secrets to Successful Events Resource Guide: 42+ Easy-to-Use Tools and Resources.” Both are written by internationally known author and speaker Lynn Fuhler and are available on Amazon and at major booksellers.