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Unlimited Potential The Importance of Volunteers for Extension Success

Unlimited Potential The Importance of Volunteers for Extension Success. Improving Lives. Improving Texas. Why do we want volunteers?. Volunteers help Extension: Reach more people in Texas Ensure that our programs are relevant Deliver Extension education

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Unlimited Potential The Importance of Volunteers for Extension Success

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  1. Unlimited Potential The Importance of Volunteers for Extension Success Improving Lives. Improving Texas.

  2. Why do we want volunteers?

  3. Volunteers help Extension: Reach more people in Texas Ensure that our programs are relevant Deliver Extension education Interpret the value of Extension to others Volunteers: A Valuable Asset

  4. Volunteers: A Powerful Force • 2009 Texas AgriLife Extension Volunteer Statistics: • 104,672 volunteers statewide • Total number of hours given: 4,058,422 • This is an average of almost 40 hours per person in 2009

  5. Volunteers: A Powerful Force • 2009 Texas AgriLife Extension Volunteer Statistics: • The dollar value of the volunteer time given = $83,183,053.40 (figured using the value of volunteer time given by the Independent Sector, currently $21.47/hour) • Contributions of Extension volunteers equal ~ 2,140 FTEs (full-time equivalents)

  6. Volunteers: A Powerful Force • 2009 Texas AgriLife Extension Volunteer Statistics: • 18,639 volunteers helped teach and lead educational programs, reaching 3,023,932 Texans.

  7. Without volunteers, our Extension programs will never reach their true potential.

  8. It’s All In Our Attitude! • If our view of working with Extension volunteers is a negative one, we will never fully utilize volunteers. • If we never fully utilize volunteers, our programs will not have positive outcomes. • Weak outcomes means not having an impact. • Not having a true impact leads to becoming irrelevant. • Irrelevancy is a great reason to downsize or do away with our organization.

  9. Benefits of having Volunteers • Volunteers have credibility because they are unsalaried.

  10. Benefits of having Volunteers • Receiving assistance from a volunteer (rather than from an employee) makes a difference to the recipient.

  11. Benefits of having Volunteers • Volunteers are insider/outsiders

  12. Benefits of having Volunteers • Volunteers extend our sphere of influence

  13. Benefits of having Volunteers • Volunteers are valuable as objective policy or program makers/creators.

  14. Benefits of having Volunteers • Volunteers bring the luxury of focus

  15. Benefits of having Volunteers • Volunteers are more free to criticize

  16. Benefits of having Volunteers • Volunteers feel less pressure and stress

  17. Benefits of having Volunteers • Volunteers are always “private citizens.”

  18. Benefits of having Volunteers • Volunteers can experiment.

  19. Benefits of having Volunteers • Volunteers extend our budget.

  20. Volunteers offer Extension unlimited potential. They are gold. If, and how, we discover and capitalize on that gold is up to us!

  21. Presentation References Burkham, Angela & Boleman, Chris. 2005. Volunteer Administration in the 21st Century: Roles Volunteers Play in Extension. Texas AgriLife Extension Publication (D-1451). Ellis, Susan J. 1999. From The Top Down: The Executive Role in Volunteer Program Success. Energize, Inc. Philadelphia, PA

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