I have been spearheading much (not all) of the recruiting of volunteers. Recruiting has long been a specialty of mine in HR, and my way is profoundly different than almost any corporation that I know of--I use high-touch techniques, such as calling candidates and circling back with updates and, finally, telephoning them when they are not selected. Mind you, this is with the 4 or 5 candidates that actually get an interview, not all 100 people that apply. However, I do get back electronically to everyone who applies. I have always tried to keep in mind that this one contact may be the only experience the candidate has with our organization, and it may determine what they say about us forever.
All this to say that last night it struck me that we had 42 possible volunteers on the phone. That is, if I were to phone or email every one of them to thank them for attending and ask what their thoughts were and whether they would be interested in helping us grow the Alliance, I bet every one of them would say yes to something. Beyond the time required to find their contact information and, then, track them down, etc., the whole process for 42 people would be a major task.
My opinion is that our all-volunteer status is a big selling point and could really galvanize the whole community. If, somehow, the board and a host of well-trained administrative volunteers, could effectively source and deploy other volunteers in a way that would be satisfying to the individual and useful to the Alliance, I think we would have "struck gold"! If we were to make this a distinctive feature of the Alliance--a community OF DP and BY DP, something like that. The potential to make money might be confined to offers of the Pollinating track, formal educational programs and certifications, creating and presenting content, and advertising. The actual "running" of the Alliance could be all volunteer. Something to think about.
That said, we'd need a team of people to handle the kind of high-touch recruiting process that I think our low-touch community would LOVE. I have actively engaged with 19 candidates so far, staying with each until I knew that they were fully deployed, or our communications were complete. If we had a team of people and had a comprehensive list of "job descriptions" that detailed expectations for every conceivable position that is needed to run the activities of the Alliance AS WE SEE IT BECOMING IN THE FUTURE, the team could do all the recruiting and orienting of volunteers for the organization. This would be even more valuable if we were to document the organization structure and create a "staffing plan" by quarter (positions, reporting relationships, etc.) that is needed for 2016 and beyond. Then, the team could focus on those positions, including supporting individuals until they settled into their routine.
I welcome your thoughts on this strategy, even though we may be unable to do this for a while.
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Your statement about "getting the job descriptions in place" is the crux of the dilemma. When it comes to all the administrative tasks, you are the "keeper of the keys." That is, it will require you downloading what is in your noggin. If I were you, the thought of doing that by myself would suck the life right out of me. That's why I suggested in another post that you and I do it together here in California. I think, with my guidance, and sitting at a computer where you are walking me through what you DO, we could list all the tasks and then aggregate them into 10 or more "jobs" that make sense and could give individual volunteers authority over a process. I'm thinking that I would like Jeff Kiehl on the volunteer team I mentioned, and he might be good to go through the jobs after you and I did all the heavy lifting.
It is possible that you and I could do a lot of it via Zoom, but I am a visual thinker and would like to sit at your elbow to watch the steps to each small process.
Maybe what we should do first is create those job listings for people to head up these initiatives or task forces and see if we can find somebody who would be willing to manage all the volunteers, for example. Then their first task could be to get those job descriptions in place, and start following up on postings.