Quarterly Meetings Are Important

Having a quarterly meeting with your volunteers is essential to team growth and dynamics. Why? Several reasons:

1. You are able revisit your ministry vision and purpose
2. You can review what the team accomplished over the last three months
3. You provide time for volunteers to fellowship, especially those with opposite schedules
4. It allows for the introduction of new volunteers to the entire team
5. You can outline the next three months and put them into context with the big picture vision

These meetings can be informal at someone’s house (be sure to rotate homes if you do this) or a big meeting room, over snacks or over dinner, and using Powerpoint slides or sticky notes. Be sure to make it different than your average weekly meeting. Make it stand out, as it will be better remembered later in the quarter when needed the most. Have fun with it, and encourage the group to open up and share ideas that they’ve had but didn’t have the right forum to bring up.

You may also want to allow time for everyone to spend time just chatting about off-topic stuff. If you have quiet people, which is often the case for tech ministries, start with an ice breaker. Get people talking and laughing. And pray. Start with prayer, end with prayer, and get people praying for one another. These meetings can sometimes build a bond that will last for months, recharge everyone, and break the monotony.

One final rule: for a week before and after the meeting, lighten everyone’s load. Set expectations with staff and others that response times may be a little slower. Give them time to get their requests in beforehand, or set timelines for delivery a little longer than normal. This will prevent the meeting from being “one more thing” for volunteers to shuffle during a week, and will give them a well needed rest.

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