Building a Successful Volunteer Culture

Finding Meaning in Service in the Jewish Community

Rabbi Charles Simon

• Publisher: Jewish Lights
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781580234085, 9781683360001
• eBook ISBN: 9781580236263
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Jewish Theology

A step-by-step guide to cultivating volunteers who thrive within the Jewish community.

We can never forget that volunteering is a two-way street. Volunteers must be motivated, but volunteer organizations also need to maximize volunteer satisfaction. Blaming one or the other for the failures prevalent today in the world of Jewish volunteering helps no one. The search is for a win-win strategy.
from the Introduction

Cultivating successful volunteers in the twenty-first century is increasingly more challenging. Budgets are tight, hands are few, and competition for a persons discretionary time is severe. How do you develop and maintain the volunteers who are essential to the vitality of your organization and community? What can you do to avoid volunteer burnout?

Rabbi Charles Simon draws on over thirty years of professional experience to provide you with the resources you need to build and retain a thriving volunteer culture for your organizationregardless of size or complexity. In a straightforward, accessible style, Simon provides you with:

• Methods for analyzing your organizations needs
• Innovative ways for creating an environment that strengthens volunteer involvement and satisfaction while increasing your organizations effectiveness
• Plans for developing or modifying your leadership framework, positions and styles
• The groundwork for creating a language of inclusion that will motivate and inspire your volunteers
• Practical tips for establishing healthy, meaningful interpersonal relationships with and among your volunteers

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Why Risk Raising Your Hand? Putting Volunteerism in Perspective
• 1 How Can I Fit In? Deconstructing Organizational Culture
• 2 From Babel Back to Eden: Creating a Language of Inclusion
• 3 Cultivating Volunteers: Understanding Basic Myths
• 4 The Board of Directors: Is the Herring Rotten in the Head?
• 5 How Do We Work Together? The Volunteer-Staff Dynamic
• 6 The Committee: Where the Rubber Meets the Road
• 7 The Nominating Committee: My Way or God’s Way
• 8 Cultivating Leadership: Balancing the Seesaw
• 9 When Things Are Just Not Working: The Forever President and Other Problematic People
• 10 When Leadership Is Lacking: Addressing a Vacuum at the Top
• 11 Bigger, But Does It Mean Better? From Independent Minyanim to Cathedral Congregations
• 12 Where Did the Guys Go? Why Male Volunteerism Has Declined
• 13 Cracking the Glass Ceiling: Hearing the Female Perspective
• Conclusion: The Never-ending Task
• Suggestions for Further Reading
• About the Author
• Copyright
• Also Available
• About Jewish Lights