Post #1148044

2026-04-08 21:41 UTC

Managing volunteers is hard. On one side, you need people to do work without paying them. So you shouldn&#39;t be choosy and just be grateful to receive help. On the other side, it is too easy for anyone to simply raise their hand offering to volunteer, but many won&#39;t actually end up volunteering/doing the work. How to figure out who among the people who sign up will actually commit to it? We need to vet/interview people? So... adding more work and burden to the community organizers?

Replies (3)

@mariatta@fosstodon.org 2026-04-08 21:45

Finding volunteers is easy. Finding volunteer leaders for the community (eg conference organizers, open source maintainers) is hard. Finding successor to existing volunteer leader is also hard. My random thoughts of the day.

Open ##1589213
@CodenameTim@mastodon.social 2026-04-08 22:13

@mariatta > So... adding more work and burden to the community organizers? 💯 I think that's right. Creating a sustainable culture means investing time in making it more sustainable. If we're maxed out in time for that community, then we should rework our priorities to make sustainability a higher priority. Or put another way, do less of other things. Which is easier said than done because those other things tend to provide more dopamine. 😁

Open ##1589221
@raffaellasuardini@mastodon.social 2026-04-09 08:56

@mariatta Those are very interesting questions. I've always wondered why people express an interest in something, but then don't show up. Did they forget? Something happened in their life? Did they overestimate the commitment or underestimate their available time? Did they feel impostor syndrome? Those are more questions, but I like to think that if we know the cause, we can try to find a solution.

Open ##1589223