“An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” (Proverbs 18:15)
Peter Drucker wisely observed, “What gets measured improves.” What parish would not want to empower, support, encourage and retain valued volunteers? How would we know the best way to improve upon the volunteer experience unless we ask the volunteers? Of course, there will be wide-ranging opinions depending very much on the context of each volunteer’s experience. Yet if we look for trends just a modest application of attention to the matter could potentially produce wonderful results. One cautionary suggestion is offered: conducting this survey and then not reporting on the findings and the caring response of the parish leadership would likely elevate the level of cynicism that always exists when humans gather together.