I am currently living in a catch 22 regarding meetings. If you meet too much, people will stop coming to your meetings and if you meet too little people will stop coming because they feel no accountability to the group. I believe it can be valuable to meet over the phone via conference call or in using email to help manage groups. It can also be valuable to connect over the phone 1-on-1 with group members throughout the week. But I don’t feel like that solves the meeting dilemma.
How do you handle the need to meet with your volunteers? What tricks do you use to keep your volunteers or board members in regular attendance?
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A Small Change- Fundraising Blog 
I work at a larger non-profit, social service based agency. We have volunteers at a variety of levels (from the board, to an women’s group that manages two events, to ad-hoc volunteers working in programs).
To answer your question – for the long term, it’s important to balance program needs with volunteer buy-in and support. The work needs to determine the frequency of face to face meetings (an event might merit more meeting time, a long term project a routine check in supported by conf calls or whatever). However, the negotiation of of that meeting frequency needs to include volunteer buy-in – especially if volunteers are going to help accomplish tasks.
thanks for your blog!