In case you missed it, there is a mass exodus of Saturday Night Life Staffers. This isn’t the first time this has happened and it surely won’t be the last time SNL loses a ton of staffers who seek greener pastures elsewhere. As I read this, it made me think about volunteer student leaders and how invaluable they really are. But, oftentimes, I hear about (and personally experience) how hard it is to get and keep volunteer leaders. So, as I reflect on my own strategy, I believe that there are 2 vital roles Youth Directors play in keeping the pipeline fresh:
- Keep your eyes open and recruit from within. Some of my strongest leaders I’ve ever recruited were former students of mine who happened to stay locally for college or just work instead of going to college. In fact, I have 3 of them this year that I’m really excited about. The reason why these young leaders are so important is because a.) they know our program and how we operate and buy in and b.) they already know students from being involved in the church and community. It makes for an easy transition into helping the ministry. But, be careful. Make sure these graduating seniors are solid spiritually. If they lack that maturity in Christ, it could make for a very frustrating time for you.
- Make sure you are training them. Usually when I think of training I think of whole group training and that we have to cover major topics of leadership. However, training leaders doesn’t have to be group training. In fact, training your leaders can take place over a cup of coffee, sending them a blog post that you read or something from a training site like YouLead. The point is to use whatever way you find that works best to train your leaders. That way they won’t get frustrated from NOT knowing what to do and ultimately leave.