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In two previous posting Nick Senzee and I have asked questions about the volunteer dilemma facing associations. In response, Bruce Hammond in his posting on the Volunteer Experience observed that if we "made the effort to understand our volunteers' needs and desires, we can and will alleviate ourselves from having to deal with 'a volunteer problem.'"

Nick Senzee and a team of ASAE members who started a volunteerism wiki entry on Associapedia expressed a similar observation saying "as a staff person, putting yourself in your volunteers' shoes is essential to ensuring proper volunteer management practices . This should be done reflexively and at every step of this process."

I don't think many associations are doing this and it could be because we don't know how to effectively or because we just don't have the time. But yet I see first hand as the chapter administrator for several organizations, tasks being asked of chapter leaders that don't address needs and desires.

For example, asking volunteers to fill out lengthy reports or call delinquent members. (I know, before you cast the first stone, someone needs to call delinquent members but there are very few volunteers who relish this task and are much more likely to call new members.)

So the question is how do we effectively do this - systematically track volunteers' needs and desires? Is there a Net Promoter Score equivalent for volunteers?