By Patricia Meyers

Earlier this month we discussed some VBS planning tips. How did you do with getting your planning off the ground? Did you review curriculum? Did you pick your dates? Are you ready to jump in to the next segment?
We said we would talk about recruiting next, and so we shall! As you know, there are a few methods that most of us use year after year:
• Call on the folks that worked last year
• Call on your regular Sunday school or children’s church workers
• Call on your friends
These are good tricks that should not be abandoned, but we should look at ways to supplement them. Wouldn’t you like to have some new ideas, talents, view points, stories, and faces in your mix this year? Or, perhaps, you would just like to have “enough” faces in place this year! Here are a couple of ideas that you can put to work right away. Hopefully these simple thoughts will stir bigger ones in your heart.
• Talk to the pastoral staff about helping during VBS. It means so much to the kids as well as your regular workers to see the pastors teaching and playing with the kids.
• How about the worship team, the choir and the office staff? These are often folks that don’t serve in the children’s ministry on a regular basis.
• How about scheduling your VBS so the working moms and dads can help this year? Perhaps you could consider an evening or Saturday VBS. This will require quite a shift, but maybe you’ll get the fresh faces you are after.
• Look at your entire church’s roster and see where you can approach ministry groups or individuals, then jump in.
I also want to discuss communication in this issue, as communication is a major point for obtaining and maintaining volunteers. This year, put a fresh touch on your written communication. Some ideas:
• Use bright paper
• Add graphics that invoke smiles and lightheartedness
• Fold the paper weird
• Pick a fun “buzz” word for this year’s VBS and put it on all correspondence
Also, make sure your information is clear, concise, and consistent. People are busy; help them out by making your communication easy to read and understand.
Think through ways that you can make volunteering smooth and easy, and communicate those solutions with your volunteers. Divide the jobs into small segments, especially for the newcomers. Make it very clear what the segments are and who will be handling what. For example, if you have teenagers moving the kids from station to station, make sure the adult workers know who the teenagers are, when they will be gathering the kids and what their timeframes are. Not knowing what comes next or dealing with surprise changes is very stressful to many personality types and can be the sole cause for disgruntled helpers in many instances.
Don’t forget to pass on changes or alterations of any sort to your workers IN WRITING. You need to realize and acknowledge that poor communication is usually the number one complaint among volunteers. Strive to not let that be true in your department.
Communication is a two-way street. Listen to the workers, and pay attention to what the kids are saying. You might hear something wonderful!
With a few new faces on your roster and great communication you are paving the way to a smooth enthusiastic volunteer base. Who knows what great things will happen?

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