The Volunteer Management component is comprised of a dedicated group of Extension professionals who serve as the statewide team working with Volunteer Management aspects of MSU Extension. The team has developed and continues to refine the volunteer experience. They provide leadership for a comprehensive system of recruitment, screening, training, evaluation, and reporting for all volunteers. Their primary objective is to support MSU Extension’s internal capacity to develop and prepare staff and volunteers that work within all four of our institutes as appropriate. Activities, resources, implications:

• Activities are directed by an organization wide group of educators, specialists, and coordinators that are involved in volunteer efforts on a regular basis within MSU Extension.
• Reviews and revises MSU Extension written volunteer policies, guidelines, and procedures to assure that practices meet the needs of volunteers and volunteer managers in all of our programming areas on a continuing basis  
• Maintains competency models for different sets of volunteer responsibilities/expectations
• Provides opportunities for building staff and volunteer capacity in recruitment, leading/managing groups, basic financial management, delegation, facilitation, evaluating learning, coaching and leadership.  
• Seek to effectively utilize the skills and expertise that the volunteers bring to the organization.
• Develop and deliver specific professional development and training for staff, middle management volunteers, and outside organizations that both utilize and prepare volunteers for service.  
• A sequenced “curriculum” of both volunteer and staff skill development within the given framework of extension organizational needs as well as the needs of other volunteer rich organizations.

For technical questions about Volunteer Central, please contact MSUE.msuevol@msu.edu.