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for emergency situations such as can happen with the Red Cross of fire companies, you should make every effort to avoid those suprise meetings.

8. Keep the lines of communication open. If the volunteers feel that you are approachable, they are more likely to come to you with a problem rather than just dropping out of the situation altogether. If they feel that you cannot be approached, they will walk away from it without any explanation.

9. Send out a newsletter to inform everyone of events that are coming up and to throw in some encouragement to the volunteers. Let them know how much you appreciate them while at the same time asking them to do a little more. Let them know if there is progress in the projects that you are working on.

10. Keep the volunteers informed of what results come from their activities. If you have a fund raiser, let them know how much they were able to raise as a total. This is all positive feedback for the volunteer. They can see that their efforts have paid off and they will be willing to set the bar a little bit higher the next time around.

Take seriously your role as a role model to your volunteers. Given the proper guidance, volunteers will make anything happen. Volunteers are usually passionate about what they are doing. You can build this up or tear it down. The choice is yours.

Learn more about this author, Dawn Hawkins.
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