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.,
<br />
<br />zell, member services direc-
<br />torforthe Minnesota League
<br />of Cities. .
<br />The League found 55 ex-
<br />amples of cities fuming to
<br />volunteers to help fill in staff
<br />or budget gaps. For the first
<br />time, it will award a city for
<br />"Effective Use of Volun-
<br />teers."
<br />For fo]ks such as Kadrie, it
<br />makes sense to tap residents'
<br />time and talent. "This is work
<br />I know how to do. Plus, I'm
<br />contributing to the city," said
<br />Kadrie, a retired office work-
<br />er who spends four hours a
<br />week in her secretary job. "I
<br />hope other municipalities do
<br />~»
<br />Minnesota has long been a
<br />national leader~rinvolunteer-
<br />ism. About 1.5 million Minne-
<br />sotans volunteered 171 mil-
<br />Iionhours in 2009, according
<br />to the Corporation for Na-
<br />tionalCommunity Service.
<br />With. the economic down-
<br />turn,voIunteers are keeping
<br />sernices running for nonprof-
<br />its and government agencies,
<br />according to a new survey
<br />by the Minnesota. Associa-
<br />tion for Volunteer Adminis-
<br />tration. Fiftp-five percent of
<br />the 350 agencies and non-
<br />profits surveyed said they re-
<br />lied on voluhteersmore than
<br />two years ago, and 30 percent
<br />reported volunteers had pre-
<br />servedtheir services.
<br />Mary Quirk, an associa-
<br />tionmanager, said calls from
<br />governmentgroups aze grow-
<br />ing. °in one week, I got five t
<br />requests from government
<br />agencies aslang about infor-
<br />mation on volunteers," she
<br />said "Normally I get five a
<br />yean„ s
<br />itiIot repladng,butfilliaegin
<br />Cities say they're not re-
<br />placing workers, but filling
<br />gaps left by staff and budget
<br />cuts. The volunteers support
<br />paid workers, many of whom
<br />are shouldering more respon-
<br />sibilities.
<br />Mankato, for• example,
<br />has designated a city voI-
<br />unteer coordinator to work
<br />with department heads and
<br />nail down ways volunteers
<br />can support them, said Lau-
<br />ra Elvebak, volunteer coor-
<br />dinator.
<br />Adding volunteer mus-
<br />cle to labor-intensive city
<br />' gazdens was a priority last
<br />yeaz; Elvebak said. The Pub-
<br />lic Works Department pre-
<br />pazedthe flower beds and or-
<br />dered the flowers, she said,
<br />but volunteers did the plant-
<br />ing. Volunteers also helped
<br />mow grass in the pazlcs,'dig
<br />weeds and care for cityflow-
<br />erplanters.
<br />Red Wing, which lost 20
<br />employees in two years, has
<br />posted neazly 20 volunteer
<br />jobs on its website to do tasks
<br />that in the past were handled
<br />by city staff. Jobs include
<br />cleaning bus shelters, raking
<br />community gardens. When it
<br />cut $10,000 to a nonprofit pro-
<br />vidirigactivities at asenior cit-
<br />izencomplex, it recntired vol-
<br />unteers to leach genealogy,
<br />computer skills and more.
<br />An upsfde of down atraelzet
<br />One of the most labor-in-
<br />tensive volunteer jobs in-
<br />volvedscanning Ciry Council
<br />minutes from 1940 to 1980 for a
<br />digital archive.Sue Schroeder,
<br />a computer programmer to ok-
<br />ingfor work, volunteered part
<br />timeforfourinonthstr~nsfer-
<br />ring decades ofineetings. She
<br />also taught computer classes
<br />to seniors.
<br />She represents one reason
<br />cities fmd so many volunteers:
<br />4i ~~C3PL~ ~ T®~Et~l
<br />Noreen Bt rhmann, volt>_rtteer coordinator
<br />for the Three Rivers Park District
<br />the city cemetery and help'
<br />with "staking and inspectin
<br />city construction projects."
<br />Other cities are using vol-
<br />unteers on a case-by-case
<br />basis. Ham Lake, for exam-
<br />ple, eliminated funding for
<br />its senior center coordina-
<br />tor. Instead, it tapped a fed-
<br />erally subsidized~worlcer and
<br />picked up extra volunteers,
<br />said Doris Nivala, city ad-
<br />ministrator.
<br />Wayzata took a focused
<br />approach. After cutting
<br />$700,000 from ~ its budget
<br />over two years, it "hired" an
<br />unpaid volunteer coordina-
<br />or and chose three priority
<br />areas -city gardens, city ad-
<br />ministration and Boazdwallc
<br />Senior Apartments. "Those
<br />were the azeas that were cut,"
<br />aid Lynn McCarthy, a re-
<br />redpublic relations execu-
<br />ve who's the volunteer co-
<br />rdinatoL
<br />At City Hall and the Public
<br />Torks Department, they ex-
<br />erimented with secretarial
<br />rpport Folks such as Kad-
<br />e staffed the phones a cou-
<br />ie of hours a day so the paid
<br />>cretary could run business
<br />;rands and the phone rnuld
<br />answered during lunch
<br />reek..
<br />The city recruited more
<br />mg A lot of skilled people are out
<br />g ofworlc "Pve been out of work
<br />and watching my retirement go
<br />down," said Schroeder; named
<br />the 2010 Volunteer of the Year.
<br />'"11ris allowed me to use my
<br />skills ... and keep my sanity."
<br />Not all jobs are creat-
<br />ed equal. Wayzata tried us-
<br />ing volunteer receptionists at
<br />City Hall, but callers wanted.
<br />information volunteers didn't'
<br />know Red Wing tried using
<br />volunteers to maintaisa com-
<br />plex community garden, but
<br />they weren't up to the task
<br />The key to tapping volun-
<br />teers successfully is to fmd
<br />meaningful, fun opportuni-
<br />ties, said Noreen Buhmann,
<br />volunteer coordinator for
<br />the Three Rivers Park Dis-
<br />trict, which has I,700 volun-
<br />teers. "People want to'leam
<br />and contribute," she saicL The
<br />work "should be enjoyable or
<br />rewarding. And you need to
<br />provide training for the more
<br />complex work"
<br />Cities stress that volun-
<br />teersalone won't solve budget
<br />woes. They're looking at oth-
<br />erideas as we1L "We just have
<br />to get the cost of government
<br />down," said Willcox "There's
<br />a lot of imagination directed
<br />that way."
<br />than 100 residents to plant Jean Hopfensperger • 612-673-4517
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