3 Principles of a Great Volunteer Meeting

You can’t be in ministry for long without having to host a volunteer meeting. A lot of time these meetings can drag on without any clear focus and not get anything done. When you first start in ministry, people show up because they want to hear what you have to say, but if you’re meeting is boring you may have a hard time getting them to come back.

After a few years of leading awful meetings and attending a few as well, I developed three elements that almost every successful volunteer meeting needs to have, regardless of the meeting’s content or intent.

1. Learn something. 

Most of the time when you get your people together, it’s for you to give them information. You want them to learn something. Many leaders fall into the trap of reviewing information you could have given them in an email or rambling and never really saying anything at all. If your leaders don’t learn anything, then they’re probably going to think the entire meeting was a waste of time.

So, before your meeting, make an agenda. Know what your meeting about and how you are going to communicate the information. This doesn’t have to be word for word, sometimes a simple outline will do. For instance, my weekly pre-service meeting and my monthly leadership team meetings are run from a simple outline with the information I want to get across. The outline simply serves as a cue for me to know where to go next. On the other hand, when I’m leading a parent or training meeting, I’ll plan out exactly what I’m going to say, and how long I plan on saying it for. It takes more prep, but if you want to maximize your volunteers time and not waste it, you need to be prepared.

2. Eat Something. 

I know for many churches feeding their volunteers at every meeting is outside of the budget. However, there are many cost saving measures you can do to provide a quality meal without getting if full service catered or serving spaghetti (again). Depending on the time of the meeting you can do quick snacks or a full meal. When I have my volunteers together for training or brainstorming meeting, I try to do it around a meal time and feed them well. This allows time for everyone to talk and gets their mind off of how hungry they are. It usually adds 30 extra minutes to the meeting, but your volunteers will be thankful for it.

Side note: I personally don’t prepare this meal; my wonderful wife does. This allows me to focus on the content and mingling with the volunteers, while she handles the food. If you don’t have someone that does this for you, I encourage you find someone. It’ll take some of the stress of the meeting off of you.

3. Laugh at something. 

This is a general communication tool, but laughter can do a lot for you. It breaks the ice, breaks the tension, or can illustrate a point. It helps the volunteers be more engaged throughout the meeting. Have you ever checked out of meeting, just to jump back in and pay attention when everyone laughs? Exactly. When putting together your meeting agenda, spend an extra few minutes to come up with a funny story or a joke you heard and weave it into the meeting. It doesn’t have to be great, just funny enough to keep the audience engaged.

Bonus Point: Watch their children.

Many of your children’s volunteers are probably parents, and whenever they are considering attending an event a question they will ask is, “What am I going to do with my kids?” Go ahead and answer that question by providing childcare. It’s usually not that difficult to find two or more teenage girls looking to make some extra cash in babysitting. Your parent volunteers will thank you.

Over the years, I’ve learned that as long as these three principles are in place, volunteers will come back to my meetings again and again. You’ll always have absences, and there will always be that one person who can never make it, and that’s ok. Send them the notes or even better the recording so they can study on their own later and focus on the people who do show up. They are most likely your most committed volunteers, and the ones who are going to help you take your ministry to the next level anyway.

What do you think? What makes a great meeting for you?