[jhogendorn]

These are all great, although they're more concepts than implementable things. I see a lot of mirrors in my own experiences for sure.

Our volunteers seem to fall into:

  * Obsessive Crazy People (myself): Very committed, for no discernable reason. Organisation survives because a few people are like this at any time.
  * I Want Control: Someone wants to exercise their will or way of doing things over an area or similar. Put a bridle on them and lets go
  * I Enjoy Tinkering: I like to help out and scratch my itches, but I wont commit to anything specifically and its mostly about fun and following my personal interests.
  * I Will Volunteer for X: A discount, kibble, free soft drink. Extrinsicaly motivated by some external factor or gamification.
  * Saints: I just want to help and give back.

So I see some overlap in your descriptions there. Attrition and Job handover is super tricky. Or really, formalising the training of things is a whole big job in itself, so often people get thrown into things and told to swim. Not great, but as a firefighter you probably know sometimes its hard to know which fire to fight...

Do you have any suggestions re sophisticated collaborative structures?