Activities

3 Questions

Using the Sample Position Descriptions below, answer the following three questions.

  1. How do you handle this situation?
  2. How is this a screening issue?
  3. What are the boundary issues?

Sample Position Descriptions

View Sample Position Description PDF

Scenario Example

You are a manager of volunteers for a reading buddy program at your local public library. This program matches adults with children to assist them with the development of early literacy skills – it is geared towards children in elementary school who are struggling with reading.

It is a beautiful Monday morning in early June and you have just arrived to your office after an energizing conference you attended the week before. You arrive to only 2 messages on your voicemail, one is from a volunteer of six months and one is from the Executive Director of your organization.

The volunteer is upset because when he was in last week (when you were at the conference) there was a school group visiting the library and there were no tables available to work with his reading buddy. The volunteer made the decision to use the room at the back of the library instead of one of the tables in the open area. There was a lot of chaos and business happening in the library; as a result he partly closed the door so that the reading buddy could better concentrate. Their time together went well and they finished on time. When he walked his reading buddy to the front of the library to meet the parent, he was met with an angry response. He doesn’t understand what the problem is and thinks the parent is over-reacting.

The other voicemail message is from your executive director explaining that she received an angry phone call from a parent who wants to know why a reading session was conducted behind closed doors.

Answer these questions:

  1. How do you handle this situation?
  2. How is this connected to screening?

Tying it all Together

  1. You have decided to take your Executive Director out to lunch to discuss your strategy around volunteer engagement. What is on your agenda?
  2. You have scheduled a special staff meeting to discuss volunteer engagement and the support you need from staff. What do you cover?