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I worked in a voluntary capacity for the Festival of Spirituality and Peace 2007, based at St John’s Church. My role during the Festival was “Volunteer Coordinator” and I was in charge of organising and caring for 40 youth volunteers from across Europe and Africa. This led to a paid position working for the Festival in 2008.

To be honest the first year, I was completely unprepared, muddled and a bit lost! I was working 24/7 and dealing with all sorts of issues regarding volunteer welfare including, tragically one volunteer whose father died during his time with us. There were language barriers and I was constantly fire fighting. I realised that it was not possible to run the festival and to co-ordinate volunteers well. Whilst, the Festival was a great success there were times when volunteers had nothing to do and were fed up.

The next year we decided to recruit more volunteers locally and initially contacted the Volunteer Centre to help us to find volunteers. With a new Front of House Manager and Stage Manager both straight out of university I knew that we needed some training to avoid the chaos of the previous year. I spoke to Jean Cuthbert about our needs and we had a couple of pre-training meetings to discuss our requirements. Our managers completed a pre-training questionnaire to assess their current knowledge and confidence. Jean developed a one day volunteer management training day which really matched our needs. One of the great things about the course was that we discussed possible scenarios (including worst case) and how we would deal with them. This really got our new managers thinking and reflecting on their own learning. This course really increased the knowledge and confidence of our team and made a dramatic difference to the way we now manage volunteers. The training also highlighted all of the systems, structures and ideas which I hadn’t even considered.

Running up to the Festival in 2008 Jean introduced the Investors in Volunteering checklist to me and I found it extremely useful as a guide. We introduced a volunteer policy and volunteer agreements which put us on a much firmer footing. What a difference from the previous year, everything went really well and the way in which we managed the volunteers was a key factor in that success.

After talking to Jean following the training and the Festival in 2008 we discussed going for the Investors in Volunteering award and the available subsidy scheme which, was a huge incentive. Jean supported us every step of the way by checking documentation and providing templates for us to use. The process was generally straightforward and not too onerous. Going for the award really helped me to realise that we are providing a really great experience and that setting boundaries and expectations are a big part of offering a really positive volunteering experience. Now that our volunteers are genuinely supported and expectations are matched any misunderstandings can be easily resolved.

Gaining the award has benefited me and the festival enormously. I now have a lot more confidence in our volunteer management procedures and I am able to concentrate more on running the festival.  I now know how to approach any given situation. Having all of the policies and procedures in place has really helped with the induction and training of volunteers. We now have a dedicated support team making sure that our volunteers are happy and engaged with the festival which, could not happen without their help.

It has been great to promote the IiV award to volunteers and funders. It evidences our best practice and we frequently refer to the final report which gives a great overview of the programme when making funding applications.

I felt really proud to collect our IiV award at the Scottish Parliament and think that it is great that the Volunteer Centre supports it. Our volunteer management will always be a work in progress and can will be tweaked and continually improved but I know that the fundamentals are right. I would 100% recommend other organisations go for the IiV award.