Depending on the individuals in your volunteer program, your focus for recognition may need to shift toward either formal or informal methods, or more likely some combination of the two. Your volunteers may enjoy the formal banquet to which their families may come and to which the local dignitaries may be invited, but you may find some benefit to adding some less formal recognition activities to your program. Informal recognition may be as basic as a personal note to say thanks for job well done, or to invite that volunteer to lunch. It might be an ad in the local paper or an article to let others know of the work being done by the 4-H volunteers in your county. Including their name on a report they helped compile, thanking them in a newsletter, sending a card for any holiday or their birthday, or even including them with a special mail box in the office to retrieve memos or files when they stop by C these are just a few of the many inexpensive yet effective ways available to let our volunteers know how valuable they are.
Roasts are wonderful if handled carefully, but can offer horror stories if inappropriate.
Keep good records of recognitions, so that you can vary rewards to those who are around a long time. Simple respect on a day to day basis and warm, specific thank yous are still the best tools for building a good recognition process. It is also important to remember that timing is critical in recognizing individuals in your program. Recognize contributions throughout a project, not just at the completion. Small thank yous along the way often add up to mean more than one huge thank you at the end of a long volunteer activity or project.