Volunteers in the Public and Nonprofi t Sectors 139
mission is appropriate to its charitable orientation and that it accomplishes
its mission effi ciently.
Board members must be prepared to assume responsibility for guiding
the agency. Bowen (1994) notes that often hard - nosed businesspeople
become permissive when serving on a board of directors. He provides an
example of the board at a private school with severe fi nancial diffi culties
that approved a request for new equipment the school could not afford
because the board could not say no to its dedicated teachers. In another
case, a board of directors felt guilty about the low salary given to the
director of a small arts organization, so it granted her permission to take
the summer off.
Board members, like other volunteers, should be evaluated on their
performance and the contributions they make to the agency. Those who
miss meetings or are unprepared when they do attend should be held
accountable. The fi duciary and oversight responsibilities of governing
boards require individuals who are committed to the agency for the
length of their terms. Organizations cannot afford to retain board mem-
bers who ignore their responsibilities. The board as a whole should also
assess its effectiveness. Some examples of instruments available to assist
boards in a self - assessment include the following materials: Jackson and
Holland’s (1998) Board Self - Assessment Questionnaire; the Drucker
Foundation Self - Assessment Tool (Leader to Leader Institute, 1998); and
the Governance Effectiveness Quick Check (Gill, Flynn, & Reissing, 2005).
BoardSource ( http://www.boardsource.org ) also has a number of resources that
can be used for board evaluation.
Conclusion
Volunteers have become an integral part of public and nonprofi t orga-
nizations and are critical to SHRM. Despite the belief of some that
volunteers take paid positions away from employees, volunteers typically
perform tasks that otherwise would not get done or would have to be
handled by already overextended employees.
The guidance and support provided to volunteers and incumbent staff
are essential to the successful integration of volunteers into the agency,
their performance, and the achievement of agency goals. To minimize
any confl icts, staff development programs should be provided that com-
municate the differences in authority and responsibilities between paid
staff and volunteers.
