We had a volunteer meeting last night so I thought I'd share what we typically do in our team meetings.

We meet together about every other month during the school year with all jr. high and high school volunteers. Our turnout rate isn't quite what I'd like it to be. We probably had about 1/3 of our active volunteers theere last night.

Here are the elements of a typical meeting:

• We sit at round tables with up to 8 people at a table
• Eating - we always eat together. This builds relationships, appreciates our volunteers, and is usually delicious. My first year here we asked volunteers to chip in to cover costs, but now we just pay for it with budget.
• Table Talk - we have a list of discussion questions on the table to get leaders talking. Some are just goofy and others ask about how stuff is going in ministry.
• Overachievers - this is the part where we give away a prize to someone who has gone above and beyond what's expected of them. We usually do one for jr. high and one for high school.
• Devotion - Either myself or one of our staff shares something just focused on the heart of our leaders. It's not for them to pass on to students, but just to encourage or challenge themselves.
• Training - We do probably about 20 minutes of training, topics change based on what I feel is needed. Last night was on how to TALK to students.
• Breakouts - We close the night by breaking out into the high school team and the jr. high team to discuss ministry-specific issues. This is where we might run a new idea by leaders, highlight any upcoming events, and see if there are any issues we need to be dealing with.

By the way, just about everything I know about volunteers comes from Katie Edwards. We've HEAVILY copied her staff meeting format from Saddleback. Katie, if you ever read this, you should start blogging. I would read it.

Labels: volunteers, youth ministry

This entry was posted by Mike Lovato, on Monday, January 08, 2007. You can leave your response.