Episode 087: Erin English on Growing Your Volunteer Team and Setting Goals in the New Year

In this episode, I talk with Erin English. Erin is the Early Childhood Pastor at Westside Family Church. Erin shares the principles and practical steps that helped grow her volunteer team from 250 to 400 in just two years. We then have a great conversation about goal setting and evaluations, digging into the importance of using these tools to help you pursue what God has in store for you and your ministry this year.

Erin English

Connect with Erin on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Email: EEnglish@westsidefamilychurch.com

Westside Family Church

FREE Webinar: 5 Hidden Barriers to Volunteer Recruitment

Join us for a FREE webinar, Thursday, January 25 at 12pm EST and explore the five hidden barriers to volunteer recruitment.  Click here to sign up for the webinar. 

If you want to dive deeper and push through those barriers, registration opens for the next round of the Volunteer Playbook Group next week.

Links Mentioned in This Episode

Episode 044: Core Values for Family Ministry Leadership with John Huber

Episode 084: Alston Causey on Creating a Remarkable Volunteer Culture

Shape Assessment – A spiritual gifts test to help people discover how God has uniquely gifted them to serve his kingdom

First Look Orientation Invite Card – The invite card Westside Family hands out to invite people to their monthly volunteer orientation

5 Step Process for New Volunteers – An onboarding process for new volunteers

New Year Evaluation and Goals – The questions Westside Family asks staff members to walk through as they reflect on the past year and set goals for the new one

SMART Goal Worksheet – Set smart, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely goals

SMART Goal Worksheet (Volunteer Recruitment) – Check out Erin's SMART goal sheet for her volunteer recruitment goal

5 Traits of an Awesome Team Member – Five things Westside Family values in its key leaders

Westside Family Church Employee Evaluation – The template used by Westside Family staff to evaluate themselves at the end of the year

Westside Family Church Supervisor Evaluation – The template used by Westside Family supervisors to evaluate their staff team at the end of the year

Volunteer Recruitment: Onramps

1. First Look Orientation (monthly)
2. Parent Partnership Plan (an invite sent quarterly to all parents)
3. Shape Assessment (an invite sent to people with specific spiritual gifts, as shown by the assessment they fill out at Get Connected)
4. Churchwide call
5. Personal invitation with card

Volunteer Recruitment: The Orientation

1. Start with vision video
2. Unpack what a ministry hour looks like
3. Share descriptions of all the roles and connect the dots
4. Close with a story video that shows life change
5. Give every attendee a handout and a next steps sheet
6. Staff members and volunteer coaches follow up with all who express interest

 Action Items

1. Start hosting a regular orientation
2. Be intentional about inviting people to serve
3. Set a volunteer recruitment goal for this year, and then lay out a plan to pursue it

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