Volunteers - Blessing and Curse!

I have been engaged in a few discussions recently regarding two potentially knotty issues.

The first is that of volunteers in general and the second relates to volunteers with regard to ministry areas. The second of these split nicely into lay and retired clergy; Sadly though, all three of these are a potential source for frustration, rancour and niggle though!

Let's look at volunteers of the general sort first:

Recently I received an envelope which, upon opening, proved to be empty! More than a little bemused I rang the organisation to ask how they'd managed to spend 60p on a letter which was empty! The response was that they'd had a volunteer 'helping' and they had , thinking they were being helpful, posted all the envelopes because they assumed that another volunteer had already stuffed them!

A while back I contacted a Christian organisation about receiving their daily reading books. Each book covers three months and they were proving to be quite popular with various members of the Parish. When I explained that we were waiting for the new books to arrive and that with days left in the month people were starting to contact me regarding their next Bible fix I was greeted with these words. "I'm sorry but this area is dealt with by a volunteer and he's away for three weeks. He will be back the second week of next month, can you contact him then!" Bottom line is that we now hand out the UCB daily reading books and they've lost readership and a source of financial support!

The problem with volunteers is that we can't live without them (and generally wouldn't want to) but there are times when we can't live with them. You can't sack them! You can't get annoyed with them! You can't always get them to be there when you want them!

Volunteers are a blessing and a curse in equal measure at times. We want the whole church to be involved, but as much as some are priceless, others are costly in terms of efficiency, accuracy and the inability to work on their own initiative.

Here we have a lady who does all the weddings paperwork and organises the fees and such. She's been away ill for a few months now and the place has gone to pot! Margaret, not that you'd read this, but you are a saint.

Elsewhere, a colleague has a little old lady who mans (womans?) the Parish Office telephone once a week. Over the past few months she has managed to books events on days when the church was booked (difficult to have two funerals at the same time), given out provate telephone numbers of clergy and members to anyone who asks and, trying to help, provide the congregation with a Sunday service sheet for the year before. The problem is, how do you sack a volunteer without wounding them and causing an uproar in the pews, especially when they're old and their volunteering is all they have?

Can't live with them - can't exist without them!