What Motivates Spirit of South Carolina Volunteers?

 

Topic:  What Motivates Spirit of South Carolina Volunteers

THE Situation: Over the past 12 months,  and the dismissal of two Captains for incompetence, the abandonment by Board-level as indicated by failure to respond to communications of any kind, failure to reimburse for repair expenses, etc,, The directive to deliver Spirit of South Carolina to Shipyard at at Stephens’ Towing provided a hope that action was finally to begin for restoration.  However even after delivery, there appeared no evidence of financial support to get thru Shipyard.

Weekly Volunteer attendance dropped to zero. When it became apparent that the Owners would no longer fund the vessel, even in shipyard;  Volunteers stopped or drifted away. Understandably so; The objective of their motivation for volunteering, this schooner and all the things she represents, appeared to be dying off due to conscious neglect.

In November, that situation appears to have changed. New funding is standing by to be poured into the Shipyard Project. A new Board of Directors has been organized.  Financial structures and fund-raising strategies are in advanced planning stages, and people are stepping up to take on roles.

We Must Rebuild our Volunteer Crew.

One of those roles, regarded as crucial in most all Tall Ships organizations is that of “Volunteer.” Annually, at full throttle, volunteers can provide the equivalent of 2500 to 4,000 hours of free skilled labor.

With the schooner’s resurgence, the projected need for Volunteer help in a number of roles has also resurrected. But the pool of Volunteers has become an unknown. We have an extensive email contact list, but no idea of it’s validity.  Hence this Survey.

Friday morning, 23 January,  in an attempt to gauge the remaining level of Volunteer commitment to the schooner, Volunteer Coordinator, Bryan Oliver, transmitted a request to the 137 email addresses on his Volunteer  Contact List. In the format of a “Round Robin Brainstorm session”.   Addressees were requested to respond to one question:  “What motivates volunteers for Spirit of South Carolina?”.   Nineteen  people responded with an answer. After 24 hours, responses were fed back to the now, 19 participants, with a request to review all the responses provided, and based on that, respond again, a clarification, or another idea. The intent was to, on reading responses others and some cursory reflection. This time, only six offered a second response.  At this point, data collection ceased. 

The responses are depicted in the table below. In credit to the Volunteers who responded, they are listed separately, purposely disassociated from their particular response.

 

 

	VOLUNTEER MOTIVATION SURVEY Responses to the Question:   “What motivates Volunteers for Spirit of South Carolina to show up?”
1	The chance to be part of the grand dream of bringing the SPIRIT OF SOUTH CAROLINA back to life so that she can again sail the seas and positively affect the lives of students and adults alike.
2	To Deckhand a Tall Ship; being a part of a  larger community of shipmates
3	The opportunity to sail on the schooner every once in a while.
4	Camaraderie with fellow volunteers,  improve skills both shipwright and sailing tall ships.
5	To feel her alive again
6	The challenge of practicing good seamanship is a goal worth striving for. To sail and maintain a traditionally rigged wooden sailing vessel requires seamanship in its purest form. It sets us off from modern yachtsmen. From sailing conservatively, discipline of safe line handling, stowing properly, all the time, pitching in without being asked, always training someone else, etc.
7	So many cities can only dream of having the opportunity for an active working tall ship. For Charleston to have one already, that just needs some focus, time and attention, It’s the right thing to do.
8	I showed up to learn about tall ships and learn some new skills as a sailor. The camaraderie was an unexpected bonus.
9	Friendship, teamwork, the chance to be a part of something amazing (and to tell/brag to my friends about it)
10	The great people and stories. I also love the historical value and wooden boats in general.
11	We show  up because we love our ship
12	Love of the schooner, my deep roots there, and the opportunities to enrich the lives of the young.
13	The love of the ship and what it means to me and SC
14	love of the ocean, educating our young people, returning the history of sailing back to those who don’t have access and should, and freedom
15	The camaraderie,  and getting fed lunch was a help.
16	The thought of someday it will sail again with confidence.
17	Love of sailing and wanting to preserve the past history of sailing.. and share it with younger generations that have not been exposed or educated
18	Spirit isn’t a museum piece. She sails. She teaches. She represents South Carolina. Volunteers know that without them, she doesn’t move. That sense of stewardship is powerful. I hope she makes it back to the sea.
19	The allure of taking part in a traditional craft so very integral to human development with literally thousands of years behind it.
20	The promise of learning new skills and bettering yourself.
21	Desire to preserve sailing TRADITION for the Charleston waterfront.
22	Pride
23	Love of the program.
24	The ship itself and the experience, challenges and shared accomplishes with group of like minded crew.

 

An Unscientific Analysis.

Though the percentage of responses, (from the population of 143 names on the Volunteer Contact Roster), was 17%, those respondents represented approximately 95% of active, involved volunteers over the past 3 years.

From Key words in each response, I intended to match responses into categories that  might represent “motivators”

While unscientific, and certainly not all an inclusive in-depth search for all the possible and potential motivators out there, (like a little lunch fer instance) this brainstorming session was sufficient to point to some way’s ahead in the way we structure recruiting, training, incentivizing, rewarding, all focused to retaining Volunteers.

The natural follow-on to an exercise like this will be a gathering of volunteer participants to turn these perspectives into specific action. Small or large groups taking on small to larger projects; some here on the dock, some at shipyard, as we get to know the policies, and project management priorities.   As an aside, to this, I”ll be attending, along with Dave Reed and Carin Bloom of our Board, the Tall Ships America Conference at Chula Vista in early February.  I plan on bringing back some constructive ideas from the other organizations out there.

As shipyard  project takes shape, and the weather improves jus a little bit, look to hear from us requesting your help, in recruiting, and  around repairing as prettifying Dory, with a proposed new name.   The Yokohama fenders, once and for all will get stabllized.

See you on deck.

 

Special Thanks  to the Volunteers below who took the time to respond and share the insights that made this good start possible:

Wayne Burdick	Todd Cole	Shawn Payment	Davd Brennan
Kevin Mirise	Doug Hartley	Ken Fonville	David Reid
Walter Barton	Wendy	Chris Sosnowski	Tony Marchesani
Ben Walker	Dan Maurin	Doug Faunt	Don Sparks
Danielle Feerst	Michel Evatt	Hank Hofford	Brandon Clark
Reg Brown	Sam Sablotsky	Alex Agnew