SAPA, the parent association at Seneca Academy, organizes school events and fundraisers for our pre-K through 6th grade students and families.
When the new volunteer coordinator joined the SAPA team, they liked to run the programs using paper sign ups and enter volunteer information by hand. They gave VolunteerSpot a try and have rave reviews about the time and effort they were able to save!
Today, our spotlight shines on Kellie Hodges, Volunteer Coordinator, who uses VolunteerSpot's online signup sheets to coordinate volunteers for the program.
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Please tell us about your organization and your volunteer needs.
My son started kindergarten last year (awww) and I joined the parent association, SAPA, at Seneca Academy. It’s a super great school, just the right size, wonderful teachers and staff, and a caring team of volunteers that create and organize the school events. A terrific community for my favorite little boy to start his school career. I was thrilled to find them!
Explain how you use VolunteerSpot to coordinate these volunteers.
As a small business owner I need to use my time wisely, I’m a big fan of email and online systems. We use Quickbooks and Constant Contact with great success and they’re big time savers. So when I found VolunteerSpot who’s tagline is “more turn out, less burn out” I knew I had found exactly the right company to help get our school of parent volunteers organized and helping. It’s so simple!
So far we’ve completed one event and are registering the rest of the year’s events. Our Summer Social was the first event that we’ve used VolunteerSpot, and our volunteers loved it! I was able to easily create a link to the volunteer calendar and put it on our Facebook page. We got 4 new volunteers that way, and I didn’t have to call anyone! I can track who is signing up for what and I can tell where we need extra hands. It’s super for a working mom like myself. I don’t have a ton of time as it is, so this makes being a volunteer coordinator much easier!
What’s one piece of advice you have for volunteers or their leaders out there?
1. Keep trying! It was tricky changing the established system, but once it was clear that this would make volunteering easier, it’s been well received.
2. Setting up the events does take some thought. Get advice from last year’s chairs about how many helpers they need and when.
3. Plan for next year by writing down your notes right after event. You’ll have a better idea of what worked and what didn’t.
Anything else you’d like our readers to know?
The volunteers all had positive feedback too. They all have liked the simplicity of the calendar. It makes it easy for them to click on a date and find a spot. This also means that I don’t have to do as much legwork looking for volunteers. The email reminders that go out are very helpful to keep parents on schedule. Some of the parents have it connected to their smart phone and it schedules their calendar for them. The thank you emails are great too, I just click a link and the thank you goes out to all the participating volunteers. Easy!
The other great thing about VolunteerSpot is knowing that once I enter all of this I have it for next year! I can make adjustments as necessary and the whole thing is ready to go for the future year’s events! Easy breezy!
To learn more about the school, visit www.facebook.com/senecaacademy.
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We salute Kellie and all the other volunteer leaders out there making a difference. If you're using VolunteerSpot, write and tell us about what you're doing and give us a chance to shine our Volunteer Spotlight on you!! Just email us at [email protected].
