Carrots and Sticks

Getting a busy scientist to volunteer is an art. If they're not already specifically interested in volunteering and outreach, or if there's no incentive at their workplace to sign on, they all just huddle out of sight and hope you won't call on them.

It's not that they don't want to help. They'd love to! It's fun! They can probably even name some situations where someone volunteered and made a difference in their own lives once upon a time, so how great to give back the good karma. But who has the time? Grant proposals, papers, meetings, committees, and that's just what's going on at work -- they also have commitments in their personal lives.

I am learning by clawing my way up a very steep -- I'm talking Himalayan steep -- learning curve on this. If you leave enough room in your lasso for someone to wriggle out of, say good-bye! It's tough because you understand it's a lot to ask, even when it's just a little smidgen of time. You know that everyone is always asking for another little smidgen of time, and lots of smidgens add up to, well ... a smadgen of work not getting done.

Here are 2 things I've learned so far for recruiting scientists to help with outreach:



Personal contacts are tip number one. I've found that mass emails, no matter how carefully crafted, usually fall on deaf ears. It's a good way to flush out someone who is looking for a volunteer opportunity and doesn't know about your program. But when they're not ... it's soon buried in the inbox, never to be seen again. Meanwhile that personal email, where you take the time to point out why you think they'd be good for the job, so far for me has had a 90% positive response rate (results may vary!). But even more so, trying to catch someone at their desk is the ultimate trump. Basically between emails/phone calls/personal visits you have to show that you've taken some time to track them down personally. Then they'll be more willing to give their personal time to you. Unfortunately this approach is also very time consuming.

Tip number two is giving people a (realistic!) picture of what their commitment will be. Some things sound like they're going to be a lot of work but they're not really, and once that's clear, no problem. And some things sound like they're not a lot of work and when it turns out they are -- that person is never going to help you again!

Some people use "carrots" to inspire people to volunteer: "If you do this, you'll get a free T-shirt!".

Some people use "sticks": "Your boss says that this organization is committed to outreach, and she said I should talk to you about volunteering."

Personally, I like to use the "carrot stick": "If you take a little bit of your time to do this, you make the world a better place. Don't you want to live in a world like that?"