Finally, by being inclusive, we have fostered a community of volunteerism. Our project will not succeed without the many long hours put in by volunteers, and the forum where they participate is the public mailing list. Recruiting New Volunteers is Crucial. The fact of the matter is that volunteers come and go. People's lives change, and sometimes they find themselves with less time to volunteer on projects.
People burn out too.
Part of recruiting and retaining volunteers is to make sure we publicly recognize the many contributions that have been made to our project. We have worked to make sure that special Web pages, articles in magazines, and our online newsletters all recognize the people who help out in some way. Once volunteers are found, it is extremely important to give them real tasks to do. Being caught up in the management of the project, it is easy for us to just do something ourselves because doing things ourselves often takes less time than explaining them to others. Everyone is guilty of this.