All chapters need them, most say they don’t have enough, and few talk about a growing number. We’re talking about volunteers. And we had an opportunity recently to talk with a chapter which has seen an increase in volunteers this past year: the Silicon Valley Chapter of the International Facility Management Association (IFMA). Here are a couple of suggestions from them:

• Have a volunteer recruiter who can tell a compelling story
• Challenge your membership services committee (or board) to come up with more incentives to volunteer, e.g. free attendance at events
• Work on sharpening the position descriptions to help “sell” them to members
• Set up a portal on their website which encourages volunteers - on IFMA-SV's you can search for opportunities and learn more about volunteering

What have you tried that's worked?