Volunteer Bill of Rights

• The right to be treated as a co-worker, not just free help.
• The right to a suitable assignment with consideration for personal preference, temperament, life experiences and education.
• The right to know as much as possible about the agency or service: its policies, its people and its programs.
• The right to training for the job - training that is thoughtfully planned and effectively presented.
• The right to continuing education on the job including a follow-up to initial training and information about new developments and training for greater responsibility.
• The right to sound guidance and direction by someone who is experienced, patient, well informed and thoughtful and who has the time to invest in giving guidance.
• The right to a place to work - an orderly, designated place, conducive to work and worthy of the job to be done.
• The right to promotion and a variety of experiences through: advancement of assignments of more responsibility, transfer from one activity to another and/or special assignment.
• The right to be heard - to have a part in planning, to feel free to make suggestions, to have respect shown for an honest opinion.
• The right of recognition in the form of promotion and awards, through day-by-day expressions of appreciation and, most importantly, by being treated as a bona fide worker.

Author Unknown

Resolutions for Volunteer Programs¹⁹

We resolve to evaluate each and every volunteer position to make sure we can identify and articulate its relation to the mission of our organization.

We resolve to learn what motivates volunteers in our organization and to do our best to make sure each gets at least as much out of working with us as we do.

We resolve to re-write all our volunteer recruitment ads so they reflect what the volunteer is looking for and to remove the words "need" and "desperate" from them.

We resolve to make sure every volunteer position has a position description that is both flexible and accurate.

We resolve to attend customer service training and apply what we learn to how we work within our volunteer program.

We resolve that we will learn more about the skills and abilities of disabled people so we can enthusiastically recruit more of them as volunteers.

We resolve to take risk management issues seriously.

We resolve to include volunteers more in the evaluation of our programs.

We resolve to accept nothing less than the respect due to a professional from everyone we work with.