As the ministry director responsible for assimilating and equipping volunteers at our church, I rely on others to follow through on procedures we've put in place for the placing of volunteers. Unless I've heard otherwise, I've assumed that everything is working fine.

But good leadership can't rely on assumptions, so last year we conducted a survey to see how things were working. We asked everyone who had volunteered recently to rate the following statements on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being very satisfied:

1. A member of the ministry contacted me promptly (within three weeks) to determine my interest in the position.

2. I felt that the person who contacted me was interested in helping to place me in a position where I could serve.

3. I was given an adequate verbal description of the responsibilities for the position I had volunteered.

4. I was provided with a ministry description for the position I had volunteered for.

5. After I volunteered, I was given adequate training on how to perform my service.

6. I feel I'm a valued member of a team in the area where I am serving.

7. I feel my efforts are appreciated.

We averaged the results by question to give a score for each ministry area, and did an overall summary to show a view of ministry across the church. We also had a comment section in which volunteers could express any other issues they felt appropriate.

The results were a very informative mixture of affirmation and good feedback for improvement. The comment portion of the survey was especially valuable, and our volunteers were open about giving praise, as well as indicating areas where improvement could be made.

We gave each ministry leader a summary of the responses from their volunteers so they could see the strengths and weaknesses volunteers observed in their areas. (We made sure that a volunteer couldn't be identified, whether they made a positive statement or a constructive critique.)

Summary
Ongoing evaluation is an important part of determining if our perceived opinions of a process actually match up with reality. To make that happen, it's critical to have appropriate evaluation. The process of asking volunteers their opinions of the placement process is one step in developing a “quality assurance” plan for an assimilating/equipping ministry.

[Ed: Church Volunteer Central provides a Volunteer Feedback form and an Attitude and Behavior Survey in the Forms section of our Web site to help you get great feedback from your volunteers.]

Bruce W. Vander Kolk is the Assimilating/Equipping Ministry Director for South Side Christian Church, Springfield, IL.

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