Some notes for leading a structured conversation designed to guide people through thinking about community care / looking after your volunteers. It’s more than just a CoC.

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  • Have you ever done volunteer work before (unpaid work, usually in your own time)?
    • How much did you do and how did the work make you feel?

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  • When is asking for unpaid work too much?
    • A few minutes or an hour here or there? (example: simple bug fix)
    • How would you feel about being asked to spend several hours, days or a week doing unpaid work? (possible examples: reviewing a long paper, or reviewing abstracts for a conference).
    • What about if you were asked to spend several hours a week for several months at a time? (e.g. organising a conference)

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  • Have you ever felt burnt out from volunteer work?

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My tips:

  • If you’re managing volunteers - be as generous as you can afford to be
    • Stickers are great, but a few stickers for hours of work can be a bit of a slap in the face.
    • One of the best forms of payment is… money!
      • That isn’t something we always have available to us though :sob:
    • You should also do other things for your community and volunteers whenever you can:
      • recommendation letters - half an hour to write but they can be the difference in making a job, or not.
      • sharing exciting/useful opportunities and championing your members
        • e.g. conferences with travel bursaries (example - eLife sprint)
        • Funding fellowships
        • Nominate them for awards!
        • Bring them into the leadership [with caution, don’t burn them out further!]