Reviews

Emergency Services (USA)
www.merginet.com

Attracting and keeping volunteers is a perpetual challenge for organizations that rely on them. This is probably even truer for emergency care organizations. In addition to asking people to give away their "free" time, EMS asks people to risk big things. It's a risk to be "up close and personal" with bodily fluids. It's a risk to engage with strangers in their moments of greatest fear and anger. It's a risk to spend all that time in school to use important knowledge relatively infrequently.

Yet many communities around the world rely on volunteers, so the trick is to find and keep them. This book has abundant suggestions for doing just that. Judy Esmond has spent years researching and collecting the 501 tips - all delivered in a "short take" one-paragraph format - in this easy to read book. Esmond, a lecturer at Curtin University in Western Australia, specializes in training and coaching both for-profit and nonprofit groups, especially in the area of volunteer management. Her approach centers around an interconnected model she calls the "Six Rs of Recruiting."

Recruiting volunteers requires creativity and open-mindedness. There are different people for different jobs, even within the relatively narrow focus of EMS. Why not use an elderly or disabled volunteer to work in the office or the supply room? It's not only about running calls. Organizations with a solid volunteer focus know that the opportunity to recruit is a chance to stay in the public eye.

Although many of the suggestions are common sense, many "obvious" things are still not done by some organizations. It is helpful to have these ideas gathered in one place. There are sections in the book for nitty-gritty how-to ideas and areas that encourage attention to a wider vision that can help an organization successfully attract volunteers.

Syd Canan, Emergency Services (USA)
www.merginet.com
Minnesota