Volunteer recruitment best practise

Geoff, there is certainly a 'hard core' of retired old boys who obviously enjoy an evening out at our lectures, and keep us company when we fail to attract a wider audience. Some general interest lectures such as 'bee-keeping' and 'chair making' attract a wider audience with a lot of wives and families attending. Topic specific lectures such as 'CERN' attract those with a particular interest area. CPD lectures such as 'circuit simulation', 'MATLAB' or 'advantages of thinking in terms of current' fail to draw out the intended audience of practicing engineers.



To be honest, we don't do much of a IET Volunteer "hard sell" at events, beyond having a call to arms on our rolling presentation that precedes the event itself. I became a volunteer partly to discover why I remain in the IET, and partly because it felt right at the time - and I stayed becuase I enjoy the business of running a local network. I would comment that few working people have the spare time to give that the key posts on network committees demand, I've sen a few try and withdraw quite quickly as they realise that they can't afford the commitment. Having said that, more hands would make for lighter work.

Geoff, there is certainly a 'hard core' of retired old boys who obviously enjoy an evening out at our lectures, and keep us company when we fail to attract a wider audience. Some general interest lectures such as 'bee-keeping' and 'chair making' attract a wider audience with a lot of wives and families attending. Topic specific lectures such as 'CERN' attract those with a particular interest area. CPD lectures such as 'circuit simulation', 'MATLAB' or 'advantages of thinking in terms of current' fail to draw out the intended audience of practicing engineers.



To be honest, we don't do much of a IET Volunteer "hard sell" at events, beyond having a call to arms on our rolling presentation that precedes the event itself. I became a volunteer partly to discover why I remain in the IET, and partly because it felt right at the time - and I stayed becuase I enjoy the business of running a local network. I would comment that few working people have the spare time to give that the key posts on network committees demand, I've sen a few try and withdraw quite quickly as they realise that they can't afford the commitment. Having said that, more hands would make for lighter work.