ABSTRACT
The spontaneous volunteerism of citizens and communities is a fact in every disaster. However, the management of these good citizens must never be spontaneous. One of the most common complaints that I hear from volunteer managers around the country is that they spend all their time training volunteers and then these volunteers leave, never to be heard from again. The rst question I ask is, “What did you do to keep them?” I am sometimes met with a confused look, followed by the response, “They’re volunteers! What do you mean, ‘What did I do to keep them?’ I don’t have time to entertain our volunteers; they are here because they want to be.” As harsh as these statements sound, they are true; most emergency managers do not have the time to focus on volunteers, and the majority of volunteers are present because they want to be there.
