Successful Staff and Volunteer Committees

When staff and volunteers serve on the same committees, it can be difficult to understand the roles they can and should play. Recently we were asked how we could empower staff committee members to guide the committee activities while ensuring that volunteer leaders govern the committee. We had a few ideas:

• Don’t call staff “liaisons” without defining who they are liaising with and for what purposes
• Consider titling staff “staff co-chair” or “staff vice chair”
• Make sure there are job descriptions for both positions
• Create a program where member and staff committee leaders develop a “committee leadership strategy” and action plan for their work together
• The program described above should include committee facilitation skills integrated into the session
• Develop policies and practices that commits the association to defining roles and responsibilities based on where the requisite competencies reside
• Engage member and staff committee leadership teams in an assessment of their respective thinking and workstyle preferences
• Find a way for new committee chairs and staff committee members to have an opportunity to see successful member/staff teams at work
• Select member and staff committee leaders on the basis of their demonstrated ability to effectively execute their work in consultative partnership

The point is, each member of the committee has to have clearly defined roles and responsibilities. And they also need to have the right skills for the roles they have been assigned. Paying attention to these two things is the best first step in creating meaningful staff and volunteer leadership teams.