Who We Are and What We Do

Volunteers & Recruiting (VolCom) supports the OTW by ensuring volunteers are in the right roles, at the right time, with the right tools.

Some of our responsibilities include:

• Inducting new volunteers, retiring departing volunteers, and placing volunteers on hiatus
• Running recruitment rounds in coordination with other committees
• Maintaining personnel records, including what roles volunteers have and how long they’ve served in the OTW
• Reviewing documentation related to how volunteer roles are defined and trained
• Assisting with the formation of new committees, subcommittees, and workgroups
• Reviewing and approving new tools for OTW use
• Answering questions and requests from volunteers regarding the OTW’s structure, recovering tool access, changing or redacting personal information, and more

Internal Structure

VolCom is led by one or more chairs, who manage a team of 10-20 volunteers. Most volunteers hold a generalist role and are trained to handle all common requests VolCom receives, such as inductions and retirements, running recruitment, maintaining personnel records, working on VolCom projects, reviewing documentation, and more.

However, some more specialist roles also include:

• Senior Volunteers, who assist chairs with sensitive personnel management, provide feedback on VolCom volunteer applications, and assist in training new VolCom volunteers
• Projects Volunteers, who are in a limited role with no access to confidential volunteer data; instead they help the committee by reviewing policy and training documentation, assisting in unclassified projects, and creating graphics

VolCom also has one subcommittee which handles all reports from OTW volunteers about volunteer misconduct and conflicts within the OTW: Internal Complaint and Conflict Resolution (ICCR).

Spotlight on Requests We Receive

VolCom works to support all the OTW committees and prospective volunteers year-round! At the time of this page’s upload in December 2024, VolCom has resolved around 3200 requests! This is on pace with 2023’s final count of about 3400 resolved requests.

The committee files volunteer applications (Applications) and confidentiality agreements (Confidentiality Agreements) that come in, as well as replies to questions from prospective volunteers who are interested in applying to open roles or would like to know the status of their application (Volunteering Query).

VolCom also fields requests from committee chairs whenever they’d like to run a recruitment round (Recruitment), onboard or offboard volunteers from their roles (Induction/Removal), place or remove volunteers from hiatus (Hiatus), request alternate contact information for volunteers (Volunteer Data), provision volunteers with specific tools needed to carry out their work (Request for OTW Tool), or anything else that can help support their committee (Committee Requests).

VolCom also assists volunteers individually should they require troubleshooting help with the OTW tools (Tool Assistance) or wish to make a change to their OTW name or email (Name/Email Change).

VolCom may also, from time to time, handle sensitive requests (Confidential Requests) or general questions from other committees or volunteers (General Query).

Spotlight on Volunteers’ Service

VolCom also spearheads projects related to OTW volunteers, one of which is the celebration of OTW volunteers on International Volunteer Day!

In 2024, VolCom thanked the OTW’s 900+ volunteers with a special badge to commemorate their years of service with the OTW.

Contact Us

If you want to learn more about the Volunteers & Recruiting committee, or if you have any other questions, please contact us—we will be happy to hear from you.