SACS ’09

Organizing Large Scale Service Events: Notes

Presenter: Nicole Walker Sundby

Contact: nwalkersundby@unitedwaymv.org

Warm Up – sit with people you know and take 42 seconds to think of a creative
way to introduce yourself and your group

Intro to Hands On: statewide, regional, national; find your local volunteer center
for vol opportunities. Volunteer action center that connects volunteers and
agencies who need them. Web driven. Mid W covers the needs of four counties.
2007 – web only. Now – seven staff.

Intro to Nicole: So.Cal., lib arts college, Lutheran, service trips, res life, helped
plan large scale projects and participated in many more.

Topic: How to plan large scale projects, with a focus on MLK Jr. Day

If you have any questions or comments, please raise your hands.

The shared methods are “Hands On methods;” these aren’t the only way to do
things, but they have worked very well for us.

What makes a project large scale?

No. of volunteers? How many? 50?
Six through a week – a series of projects.

How many of you have planned a large scale project? (50+)

Why do people volunteer?

- to strengthen their resumes
- to have fun
- because they were asked

TIMELINE – Prior to the event:

6 weeks before start date – more is better; it could happen in less

1. Identify a community need
2. Identify interested partners
3. Split up responsibilities among committees
4. Set a schedule for communication – check in every two weeks, etc.

4-5 weeks out

1. Solidify project with community partner
2. Start marketing your event; two pronged approach: long term marketing and
flash marketing just before the event takes place
3. Find key volunteers; people who draw other people – “magic people” with
charisma; make these people volunteer leaders who will be a point person for the
project. Market to these people really early on, have them help with planning

4-0 weeks out

1. Market, market, market!
2. Streamline your sign-in process, understand how that will affect/reflect your
registration process on the day of your event (how do you guys have people sign
up for events)
3. Continue to check in with your partner agencies throughout the planning
process so that everyone is on the same page. Everyone needs to have the
same expectations, needs to know how many people are going to show up, need
to have their needs met, need to all be aware of volunteer, event-day protocol.
4. Think about who is going to lead the project at the site.
 Will it be you? Is it going to be a “magic person?” Will it be someone from
the agency?
 If it’s not you, make sure to meet with and orient that person. This person
does not have to be an expert, but they need to connect the volunteers
with the organization. Make sure they are adequately oriented.

Remember the rule of halves: if you talk to 500, about 250 will turn up. People
sign up because it sounds cool, but you should plan for half of them to show up.

Start time – 8am might be unpleasant for a lot of people on the weekend.
People may sign up and then not show up, or they might not sign up at all.
Consider variegating start-times to meet the needs/wants of different groups of
people. Morning and afternoon options are a good idea.

If you have multiple sites.

 Try to have a site right on campus – it may be simple, but you can make it
fun by adding a theme, etc.
 Have an overflow station for volunteers who miss the bus but who still
want to participate.

DURING THE EVENT

Have a streamlined transportation and check-in process:
 Set up carpooling beforehand;
 Have an alphabetized list of participants per site/per car.
 Have a communication process set up in case someone deviates from the
plan. Create ways to differentiate between sites – signs, different colored
t-shirts.

Breakdown of event:
1. Orientation – helps people understand why their service matters, what
they’re doing, how they can do it again.

2. Service – you much know how many volunteers are going to be there so
that there is enough work for everyone the whole time. This keeps
volunteers from getting bored and feeling useless. Have a plan-b project
handy, in case you run out of work. Students get things done quickly.
Also make sure that the scope of the project is realistic – this will keep
your volunteers from feeling disheartened. Happy medium! Talk with your
community partners.

3. Reflection – end 15 minutes early, so you have a little time to reflect. It

may not be implicit that you want to include time for reflection; make sure
you communicate to your community partner(s) that you want to include a
reflection piece in your day of service. The reflection period can be a
cool way to bring the group back together and check in, build morale if
some people didn’t have a super-duper experience.

This is the “HandsOn” approach. We think this approach makes an event really
meaningful, both for volunteers and partner organizations.

 Post-Event:
 Recognition is the priority in this stage.
 Your partner may not have a lot of time to do this, so it may be up to you.
 You may not have the time/resources to do an individualized thank you for
a large-scale event, but your recognition is important and will have an
impact on how your volunteers feel about their experience.
 Cards, postcards, candy, shirts.
 When recognizing, remind people of what they did – or tell them exactly
what they did, e.g. lbs. of food sorted at food bank

Brainstorming session:

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service.

Let’s brainstorm an event for that day. Get together with the people that you
came with, then you can apply your brainstorm to an actual project if you need to.

MLK Day is already really well known as a national day of service.

 1. What are concerns/issues in your community that you would like to
address?
a. Poverty
b. Campus/community relationship
c. Sustainability
d. Social justice
e. Education

2. Spend one minute to list some ideas of projects and community partners
that address these issues

3. Narrow down your brainstorm to a couple, more feasible projects

4. Pick one idea and develop it to present to the larger group: what (task?),
who (volunteers/key volunteers), when (timeline), how (action plan)

SHARE:

1. Oregon Food Bank.

a. First, we would contact the org to see how many volunteers they
need find out about their capacity. At the same time, we would
gauge student interest. Market on campus. Recruit student
leaders.
b. Would this be useful on campus? What, specifically would you do?
-- food sort, hunger theme, food delivery; lots of food donations
during the holiday season, but also lots of volunteers during holiday
season. This could be a good thing to do during the “off season.”
Food drive, sort, distribution. A food drive could act as a marketing
ploy.
2. Education, lunch for children on MLK Day when schools are closed.
a. Students get lunch, accompanied by activities that focus on role
playing situations when you can stop discrimination.
b. Need to get food. Need to gather students.
c. Role playing: be cool and stop discrimination
d. Bag to take home with more food and prizes
3. Clothing/School supply drive for Student Impact to support refugee
students
a. Boxes in res halls
b. Culminate in a festival/event – more drop off, informational evening,
networking and support, volunteer recruitment
c. Could also have some “service in a box” projects at the gathering

4. EARTH DAY!! Week long free-cycle table on campus and

implementing “take back the tap” programming.
a. Service projects through SOLV whenever that’s available.
 b. 100 mile food challenge – barbecue where all food is local
(brainstorming a budget).
5. Focus on community-wide spaghetti feed. Set up venue. Cosponsor
(downtown association). Get community members involved in
accompanying service projects. Slideshow of pictures from events.
Discussion about service. Speaker. Get everyone in same room to
meet/play/serve/talk.