Issue No. 34 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting is another book and a bucket for the management library at your organization. Bob Buford wrote, “I truly believe that God uses people in their areas of strength and is unlikely to send us into areas in which we are likely to be amateurs and incompetents.”
Joanne and I were shocked—dumbfounded—to recently read a megachurch’s blurb about their senior adult ministry. The church’s four-color brochure and their sophisticated website both had the same message:
“We encourage seniors to share their time and expertise by helping others. You can help provide a birthday celebration for foster kids, assemble bulletins for the weekend worship services, or provide a listening ear to others in times of illness, sorrow or need.”
Assemble bulletins? That’s significant volunteer work for retired executives, accountants, and sales people—who are in the second half of their life? Someone—quick! Ship a case of Bob Buford’s book to this megachurch!
Clearly Buford’s book deserves a high spot on my Top 100 Books List. Published in 1994, the message is even more important today—because so many younger pastors and parachurch leaders don’t get it. Halftime: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance redefined the “second half of life” for Builders and Boomers.
Since you read this eNews, I’m sure you get it. I now challenge you to become a Halftime Evangelist. Order a case of Halftime for just over a buck a book from Man in the Mirror. And read the serial version of Buford’s next book by subscribing to his eNews at www.BobBuford.com.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Bob Buford suggests that people in “Halftime” ask the following questions: What am I really good at? What do I want to do? What is most important to me? What do I want to be remembered for? If my life were absolutely perfect, what would it look like?
2. How effective is our organization in helping people in the second half of their lives move “from success to significance?”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Insights from the Management Buckets Workshop Experience
Peter Drucker said there are two kinds of volunteers: paid (your staff) and unpaid (your volunteers). Smart leaders and managers keep a calculator close when evaluating their volunteer programs. Take church bulletin assembly work or your annual volunteer spring cleaning day. The staff person who supervises volunteers has multiple functions: volunteer recruiting, training, supervising, thanking, rewarding, celebrating, record-keeping and volunteer gap-filling.
Add in the coffee and donuts, the occasional lunch to thank volunteers, phone and email time—and what is that volunteer team really costing you? Sometimes, it’s smarter and more cost-effective to hire a minimum wage person to get the job done. Other times, the volunteer tasks will build community, relationships and even outreach opportunities—and you’ll have expertise well beyond the experience of your paid staff.
Effective leaders know that The Volunteer Bucket often has holes in it. Evaluate this bucket at least twice a year based on your written goals and objectives and a thoughtful feedback process.
If you’re skilled in The Volunteer Budget and the 19 other management buckets, stay home. If you’re not, join other leaders on May 9-10 at our Management Buckets Workshop Experience. Email me to check on available space. For back issues of this eNews, go to my buckets blog at www.JohnPearsonAssociates.com.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.The Volunteer Bucket. Do we have the right volunteers on the bus, in the right seats, doing the right things?
2. Do we have criteria for determining if a task should be delegated to a volunteer or a paid staff person? Let’s talk about it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Download the Management Buckets brochure
PS. Click “Forward Email” below to recommend this free eNews to a colleague.
