We are currently working on the cab exterior and tender of 6069 this year and we are interested in attracting more volunteers to speed thigns up. What is the best way to do this as we are looking into approaching the local paper etc to get the word out that shes being worked on again.
I am a bit hesitant as it might attract wrong side of volunteersing vandalism etc. any ideas?

You hire a gorgeous 25 year old female with lots of curves. I know it sounds sexist, but it I guarantee it will get you more male volunteers. ;)
Seriously, that is the million dollar question. We've been trying to figure out how to attract younger volunteers for years, but generally speaking younger people now days just don't seem to be interested at all.

Food Food Food and Mountain Dew or the such. Why MD? To get the young guys moving and the old guys moving faster lol

Speaking from experience, try non-traditional methods to reach a younger audience. Have a good internet site, use Facebook or Twitter for example. Once you get a response, develop those members. Teach them, encourage them, make investments in them. Send them to RailCamp. Our group has been very successful attracting high school age members and we're very proud of their participation. The secretary for our volunteer group is just 18. There are plenty of young people interested in railroading. You just need to find new ways to connect with them. Also, when you mention that you like historic railroads and they respond, "Oh yes, I like Conrail too" ...try not to cringe. :D

It helps to do something that volunteers can get interested in.

What Ed said. In addition it helps to not have crotchety long time volunteers treat the younger generation as "fresh fish" and to actually be welcoming to new blood in the organization. In my experience feeling wanted has been the biggest thing that has attracted me to any group I have ever belonged to or volunteered with.

Kevin O

It's really true though. People (who you want working on your project) don't typically "just volunteer", they find something they're interested in, and then try to find ways to get involved with it.

The trick is making it interesting to the people you want. As much as you need people for a specific need, you've gotta get people "hooked" before they'll start investing their time.

Generally this means that, as much as you want to start newbies on some low level task, you've often gotta do it the other way around. Start them with something sexy, then show them what it really takes.

And if the volunteer wants to paint and only paint, let him/her paint! After a bit, maybe you can work them into rust removal or ground work. And if you schedule a groundwork session, don't switch it to a rust removel session at the last minute after everyone arrives or visa versa. That is a fast way to chase away a volunteer. If it isn't interesting to the volunteer, they won't be a volunteer for long. Yea, it would be great if the volunteer did everything that is asked of them, but there are few of those out there.

Later!
Mr. Ed

Thanks for the comments guys, some great tips and ideas there!

The trick ain't attracting them. It's keeping them.

Volunteer recruitment starts when a visitor lays eyes on your shop. Is this a warm and inviting place, a fun place to work on trains? Or is it a cluttered or filthy mess, every horizontal surface occupied, unfinished projects everywhere, unrelated personal projects all over, and generally possessing the eccentricities of someone else's private lair? (the latter will prevent anyone from even thinking of volunteering, as they are obviously in Someone Else's Space. New volunteers detest the awkward feeling of "Can I touch this? Can I use this tool?" everywhere they go, this has the opposite effect of a manager actively guiding them. Part of the reason you want stuff feeling open and OK to use, is you don't want the newer volunteers bothering the shop manager every 10 seconds for "where can I get a screwdriver?"

Now what's that volunteer going to do. When he looks around, does he see all highly specialized projects, intricate machine work, overhauling a 6 distributing valve, etc.? Or does he see things that make him go "Hey, I can imagine myself doing that!" When he wants to start a project, is there an open space to do so?

And when he shows up for the first time - what happens? Is there someone to guide him to where to start? Is there a project that's cued up and ready to go that he can do? For instance it's been longtime practice at WRM to have a wooden freight car in the shop, and have work underway on that, partly so there are easy jobs within reach of a new volunteer, and they can be guided into it. For instance my first day at WRM, I was put on the sandblaster preparing boxcar parts and troweling AwlFair (a bondo-like filler/fairing) on rotted wood (and my first time mixing it, I made way too much, burning about $10 worth of material.) So what's the entry path on any given day at your museum? Are projects ready on "hot standby" specifically for this case?

You have to have more experienced volunteers working elbow to elbow with the new guy, too. He needs more guidance than you'd think. You can't just send him off alone to work on the "newbie project", for a variety of reasons. You never know when the new volunteer will show up, so either this "newbie project" needs to be an ongoing daily project for active volunteers, or they need to switch to it on the fly, so they're working alongside him. The more the job looks like scut work, the higher the rank of volunteer that should be working alongside him doing at least half the work. You want the volunteer to finish with a sense of accomplishment, and also with an investment in a project and inclination to come back.

And you can't pick when he's going to be available, so your workdays had better be when he's available. If you go "Well we work about 33% of Saturdays and it varies", then his next available day won't align with yours -- and you will lose this guy!!!! If you want a successful volunteer corps, you have to be open every _______day. Seriously. If you don't believe that's necessary, then show me a successful museum that uses oddball workdays. Most groups I know work every Saturday. Many elder museums do every Saturday and every Wednesday. And to be open every such day, you have to have enough volunteers who are empowered to delegate tasks, so you can cover every work day.

Which reminds me. Have needed supplies present. I know it's a pain for senior volunteers to spend loads of time buying stuff. But this is more efficient than sending a newbie off to the hardware store, burning half his volunteer day driving around. At the start of a work session, parts should be on-hand to move forward with at least a day's worth of work. And the shop manager's time matters too. McMaster-Carr is a bit more expensive on almost everything, but the stuff shows up on time! WRM's shop manager places an order after every volunteer work day. Next work day, voila. If volunteers can't get work done because needed supplies are NOT present, they'll go get the parts locally. They'll get less quality for more money, then have to bother you for reimbursement. They didn't volunteer for that and eventually they'll stop coming.

So -- volunteer attraction is the same as voluteer retention -- and that's all about the management of the department.

The usual mistake there is awarding "manager" position as an honorarium to the guy who shows up the most. That's wrong. It's a specific job that must be done a specific way, and that's not the same as doing the work at hand. Find some other way to honor the hard worker, but put department managers in the hands of people who want THAT job.