next »

[bibliothecula]

I'm working on coordinating a conference right now, and I'm having trouble getting volunteers from my organization to serve on some committees that oversee some aspects of the meeting. The attitude among the majority of the membership is, it seems, "We pay you dues, you go do all the work." Alas, our dues aren't high by any standards, and everyone is a volunteer, from the president to the web guy. Any advice for encouraging member involvement?

[expatinuk]

You might want to describe what some of the duties are. Additionally you can stress about the 'Service' element of an academic's obligations. I certainly found that when it came time for P&T the fact that I was an active member of several organizations helped my profile. No, it won't get you tenure... but the fact that you don't do anything other than pay your dues and attend doesn't look good.

[snape]

Have you approached any individuals? People may be more responsive if you ask them personally.

[canadatourismguy]

I was a coordinator an an International conference last fall.  There is three things I did to increase volunteerism that seemed to work:

1). I was very specific about what jobs needed to be done, the time line that they needed to be done in and then asked specific people who already have talents or like to do certain activities to do those;

2). I got a student workforce to do most of the 'grunt work' and used faculty for the more prestigous type of work/ volunteering; and 

3) If you have any resources at all, 'bribe them' - get sponsors to donate freebies for volunteers.

CTG

[sagit]

Have you approached any individuals? People may be more responsive if you ask them personally.

I agree with this completely.  At this point in my career I'm a little unsure that I should volunteer for positions within my professional organization.  But if someone senior were to specifically ask me, I would be much more inclined to say yes.

Getting students involved is a good idea too.  They would hopefully be learning about what it means to be a professional in your field by the opportunity.