How Not to Manage Your Volunteers

There's a small voting-rights-related org that I've done some volunteer work for in the past. It's a nonpartisan group dedicated to making sure that everyone knows what voter ID they need, if any, and what the registration laws are in their states.

I resigned today, and here's a handy list of things you should and should not do if you are managing volunteers for, well, any organization at all.

DO provide a private way to sign up for trainings.

DO make sure that the permissions are set appropriately so that your volunteers can actually sign up.

DON'T use a spreadsheet that shows volunteer information to other volunteers.

DO send an email verifying the date and time of anything your volunteers sign up for.

DO send any training materials on a timely basis.

ABSOLUTELY DO NOT SIGN PEOPLE UP FOR VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES WITHOUT ASKING THEM FIRST.

ABSOLUTELY DO ASK PEOPLE ABOUT THEIR PREFERRED DAYS OF THE WEEK AND TIMES OF DAY FOR VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES.

ABSOLUTELY DO NOT SEND TRAINING MATERIALS STATING THAT YOU WILL DO Y AND THEN DO X INSTEAD.

DO be aware of logistical issues related to time zones.

DO be respectful of volunteer time. That's a polite way of saying:
DO NOT FUCKING WASTE YOUR VOLUNTEERS' TIME.

DO run a beta test with any email you are going to send to avoid all of the above Bad Things from happening.