proactive planning for smooth
volunteer role transitions

Courtesy of Anna Guest, Founder and CEO, Rising Tide Volunteer Solutions

Leaders can model proactive conversations by being open about their own plans and needs, and if they anticipate leaving a role.  This also normalizes open, transparent, and ongoing communication with other volunteers about their long-term goals and interests in your age-friendly initiative. Recognize individual talents, values, and contributions.  Foster trust by asking what aspects of involvement are most meaningful to them and whether they'd like to explore new areas. These conversations create a sense of connection and encourage volunteers to actively consider and prepare for leadership roles.

• Is there anything they’d like to be more involved with or learn more about?

• What interests them or gets in the way of interest in a leadership role?

• Would they consider co-chairing or sharing a leadership role with someone else?

Be Flexible 

In a grassroots initiative like an age-friendly community, flexibility in how responsibilities are assigned is crucial. Consider sharing responsibilities among multiple individuals or adjusting roles based on unique skills. As leaders transition, be open to reimagining the roles, making it easier for others to step forward and contribute.  Embracing a mindset of adaptability enhances the community's ability to navigate changes smoothly.

• Could the responsibilities of a role be shared among multiple people?

• Are there components of a past role that were emphasized or expanded because of a unique or specific skill a certain person brought to the role?

• Could someone with a different skill set still be successful in the role?

Document, Cross Train, and Share Responsibilities 

Leaders can fall into the habit of taking on all responsibilities, missing opportunities to share leadership with others and to ensure that knowledge of how things are done isn’t held with just one person. To build a stronger infrastructure, encourage skill-building among team members by providing opportunities for training, shadowing, and gradually increasing responsibilities. Don't miss the chance to share responsibilities and foster skill development within your team.  It’s also important to develop some documentation of processes, practices and key materials that can help ease the transition from one volunteer leader to another and to share these as part of the transition process.  Can a new volunteer stepping into a role access your community action plan, logo, social media accounts, and other essential documents?

Are there opportunities for your team to:

• Provide skill-building training

• Shadow current role holders

• Rotate roles or certain responsibilities

• Gradually increase responsibilities

• Document and share key practices, processes, and materials

Allow Time for Transitions

In a traditional workplace, we wouldn’t expect a new employee to hit the ground running without any preparation or training.  And success for volunteers stepping in to new roles, especially leadership roles, is no different.  It’s critical to allow for an orientation period as someone leaves a role and a new person(s) steps in.  This period of coaching or mentorship facilitates opportunities to share out the history of the lifelong community initiative, dialogue around the vision, goals, and values the past leader has used to make decisions and guide the team, to impart lessons learned, make introductions to key partners, and to ensure the new leader or leaders have access to essential documents, accounts, and information. An intentional transition between leaders also supports greater continuity and limits disruption in the momentum of your community’s important work.

• If you were stepping into a new leadership role, what kind of support would you want?

• What lessons have you learned that you want to pass on? 

• What key information and documents would incoming leaders need to be successful?

• Are there introductions or connections you could help make for incoming leaders?

Proactive planning, open communication, flexibility, shared responsibilities, and an intentional transition are key elements in preparing for volunteer role transitions. By embracing these practices, we can create resilient and vibrant age-friendly communities that continues to thrive even during periods of change.

Further Resource from Anna

• Master Class, Finding and Mobilizing Volunteers

We are deeply grateful to Anna Guest and Rising Tides Volunteer Solutions for working with Lifelong Maine to develop these training materials. Special thanks to Sharon Kelley, Berwick for a Lifetime, Candy Eaton, Age-Friendly Sullivan, and Jean Saunders, Age-Friendly Saco, for meeting with Anna to share their wisdom, experiences and challenges working with volunteers
We also want to thank AARP Maine for their thought leadership designing these modules.