Facing a surge in emergency response demands, how do you efficiently manage volunteer tasks?

Try and secure a volunteer group ahead of a disaster. Work with community leaders to identify potential volunteers when a disaster occurs. Creating a local database of volunteers and their particular skills ahead of time will aid in the event of a disaster. Then when walk in volunteers come, add them to the database.

People who volunteer come out of the gate with the enthusiasm to help. Not taking away from full time paid professionals, but well trained volunteers are an asset with a well groomed command staff trained in emergency management.

1. Plan Ahead: Create a detailed plan and keep a list of volunteers with their skills and contact info. Train them regularly. 2. Communicate Clearly: Use multiple methods (email, text, social media) to give clear instructions and updates. Set up a command center for coordination. 3. Assign Tasks Wisely: Quickly assess needs and assign tasks based on volunteers' skills. Use technology to help with scheduling and tracking. 4. Coordinate and Support: Appoint coordinators to oversee tasks, provide necessary resources, and monitor activities continuously. 5. Recognize and Retain: Acknowledge volunteers' efforts, give feedback, and hold debriefings after the event to gather feedback and improve future responses.

In my experience, I have always found it important to train more volunteers in the area in BLSD skills. I believe it is essential to insist on effective messages to get more volunteers to take part in the courses. It remains important to have the cooperation of community leaders to quickly recruit volunteers when disaster strikes.

This is a perfect example of starlike an artist. Look at how the Red Cross is so efficient in getting boots on the ground and tasking people. Trying to plan for these things are hard but if you have those lists and things well before is a very helpful tool, it’s easier to send people home then try to get boots on the ground.

Imagine a restaurant as a disaster. You have the menu (disaster) and you order from that menu. The person across you orders something different. You have two disasters someone needs to handle. The waiter that took your order, intelligence, it's given to the kitchen. Each dish has a recipe, a structured set of instructions to follow, and is used by a person that makes the meal in part or in whole. Successfully following the recipe you turn the order into fine dining (every point covered). You have the cleaners, assistants, that ensure the kitchen is ready for the next order with clean utensils and correct stock at hand. After the meal is complete, the last clean up takes place. And at the end of the day everything is ready for the next.

Cuando existe organización y planificación me parece que el equipo está realmente integrado, que los voluntarios se vuelven parte de la toma de decisiones de los participantes oficiales como algo que va implícito. Personalmente creo que todo viene desde los inicios. Algo bien estructurado difícilmente deja espacios para fallas. Cuando se está bien integrado la instrucciones se siguen, cuando hay pensamiento crítico hay buena toma de decisiones y esas cosas son cosas que se enseñan cuando se hace a todos participar de una sola línea de mando, en un ambiente disciplinado y bien estructurado.

The controllers are the lynch pin of any disaster or emergency incident. Having a full and effective range of volunteers or professionals is most effective if tasks are allocated sensibly and time effectively. Never overestimate the capability of your resources

Knowing about the volunteers and inhouse resources skills -assign the task accordingly ( based one personal skills and calabilities ) to ensure better outcomes. - follow traige guidelines

Basic safety training for the volunteers is very vital. First aid training is also very critical as the team responds to any emergency. Ensure to have a reporting channel and a leader for the team.

Ensure a supervisor is appointed. Volunteers report to that supervisor for briefing, explanation, training, and execution of the task/role under supervisory support. The supervisor must be a leader, comfortable leading, comfortable standing back and directing. This will ensure safety is enhanced, practiced, adhered to, and where there is uncertainty, the volunteers have someone to mentor/guide them. Volunteers need to know that the person in charge is not a boss, but incharge of getting the job done safely, coordinated, and in a disciplined manner.

En mi experiencia, regularmente ni las personas que participan oficialmente en la atención a la emergencia están al tanto de las cuestiones de seguridad. Es indiscutiblemente necesario realizar procedimientos operativos en base a normatividad para difundir entre el personal y sobre todo los voluntarios para minimizar el riesgo y de esa forma optimizar los recursos humanos y materiales para las atenciones.

Every person should have on their PPE. There should be a Supervisor appointed to each group. The volunteers should have been given their guidelines and responsibilities before being deployed. Once on site they should report to the Supervisor for instructions; then be ready to great the clients with a caring attitude. We must understand they have just endured a traumatic and stressful ordeal. Some people may be angry but we shouldn't take it personally. Even though we have to stay within our guidelines, some clients won't want to hear that. We as professionals should be proactive and keep a calm tone and do our best to explain how we are restricted in some areas. We should then be positive and explain how we can assist them.

Mock drills may help one have a structured plan for safety for self and all. - and may also help in restructuring missed out things or to help volunteers respond accordingly

La primera premisa en cualquier intervención es el canal de comunicación. También la creación de mallas para la gestión del incidente específico requiere destreza y práctica. Una malla de mando que conecte las jefaturas de sector y el mando, y una malla por cada sector del incidente resulta muy útil. En muchas ocasiones las propias unidades profesionales olvidan o desconocen las bases de la comunicación en emergencias Cada vez más la comunicación a la población resulta crítica. Se debe tener un procedimiento y una base de mensajes a la población en función del incidente para reducir los tiempos de respuesta. También es crítico comunicar situaciones de pre-emergencia

In my experience the key to communications is ensuring the messages are received and understood. A message that is not confirmed doesn't provide any information. Standardizing the communication procedures to allow volunteers to acknowledge their understanding of the messages is vital. Each tool used to communicate should be based on the environment the volunteers are operating in and should have specific standards. For example, a simple thumbs up on messages in a secure app to indicate receipt and understanding of messages.

En la actualidad, la tecnología nos proporciona infinidad de canales para gestionar las emergencias, sin embargo, al menos en mi entorno, y por experiencia propia puedo decir que la parte económica no permite gestionar esta tecnología de manera adecuada, ya que no existen fondos suficientes para equipar los departamentos adecuadamente. Los voluntarios llevan muchas veces sus propios recursos.

Fog of war (crisis) will crush and destroy effective comms near immediately if you are not careful. Each mission area should have designated comms POC for inbound and outbound comms. Too many cooks in the kitchen will wreck the soup! Avoid acronyms if possible particularly if you have a lot of volunteers and are working in a joint or multi-jurisdictional setting or milieu. Have multiple redundant means of communications as well. Essential. Phones, radios, even runners with pieces of paper. Think redundancy.

The main success of emergency response management lies in how you priorities your resources for the emergency. It means that you allocate your resources in such a way that the things requiring emergency response should be kept 1st, those requiring urgent response should on 2nd place and so on

En mi experiencia siempre hice distribución de recursos materiales de acuerdo a las aptitudes de cada voluntario. Todos somos buenos para algo, pero no para lo mismo. Me parece muy importante que todos puedan tener acceso a los recursos materiales, sin embargo, debo ser muy juicioso al momento de determinar que, si no cuento con suficientes recursos, lo cual es muy recurrente en Tabasco, reparta u organice muy bien la repartición de los mismos según capacidad y aptitud del voluntario.

La logística es fundamental en las emergencias y en demasiadas ocasiones es la gran olvidada. Si una unidad no es independiente en todas sus operaciones (desde alojamiento hasta suministros) demandará logística por parte de las agencias de la zona afectada por la emergencia. Para las unidades de voluntariado esto no es diferente. Por eso es importante que el voluntariado se incorpore de forma ordenada y consumiendo la menor cantidad de logística posible para no saturar los recursos disponibles

A so-called hot wash after an event or an exercise is very important. Gather all concerned - everyone on your response team as well as those whose mission was or would be affected - and run through what went well and went what poorly and in the latter case what are some ideas for improvement. Incorporate these lessons learned into your written disaster or emergency response plans.

Feedback is intelligence that is recorded as data that allows for analysis and identifies risks, threats, opportunities, education, evaluates needs. This feedback is appreciated upward, downward and outward. The volunteers learn new, or gain more experience. Upwards the identifiers of needed criteria can be addressed. And outward reaches teamwork, network, and framework.

I have experienced that each of the emergencies calls for special responses and therefore the feedback loop has to have atleast two loops. One is the dynamic and real time feedback loop and the other an introspective feed. I would rate both as important but the dynamic feedback loop is vital to the emergency response framework specific to the ongoing task. It has to be free, flexible, quick and discrete. With the resources available you can then manoeuvre the changes required to make you emergency response more effective.

I have experienced that each of the emergencies calls for special responses and therefore the feedback loop has to have atleast two loops. One is the dynamic and real time feedback loop and the other an introspective feed. I would rate both as important but the dynamic feedback loop is vital to the emergency response framework specific to the ongoing task. It has to be free, flexible, quick and discrete. With the resources available you can then manoeuvre the changes required to make you emergency response more effective.

Feedback loop to the reporting officer - create a communication loop with the reporting officer, so that the left out tasks can be designated, or the unhandled tasks can be provided to other experts available - for mock drills feedback from volunteers may help improve the drill during an emergency situations

To begin with, you must first know the focus and strength of each volunteer group; with that familiarity, next know the likely availability during a crisis that each group has; as some may have their own conflicting mandates. Good and frequent communication is vital, having contact numbers exchanged with these groups leaders and your supervisors that these volunteers are aligned with; as well as contact information of the back-up personnel on both sides. Hold scheduled joint training exercises is also advisable, for again familiarity and honing skills in working together. Remember to continually update names and numbers of both volunteers and your assigned staff. Finally encourage volunteers to “ride along” with staff; familiarity.

Location off resources and availability/amount is critical. Controllers and volunteers need to know what is available so “ On the ground” decisions can be made liaising with controllers

Regular Mock drills and quarterly conducted Risk assessment trainings are highly necessary for volunteers to respond more effectively, make better judgements and have a practiced methodical approach to any critical situation with familiarized tools in emergency and well-rehearsed roles and responsibilities to carry out calmly, following protocol under extremely stressful, highly sensitive or life altering actual situations.

Gestionar de manera eficiente, las tareas de los voluntarios en respuesta a emergencias implica varios pasos clave: 1. Reclutamiento y selección. 2. Capacitación y preparación. 3. Asignación de tareas. 4. Comunicación efectiva. 5. Supervisión y apoyo. 6. Evaluación y retroalimentación. 7. Reconocimiento y motivación. Es mi opinión.

As Robert Burns wrote in "To a Mouse" (1786)...the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Murphy's law - anything that can go wrong will go wrong - absolutely applies to emergency or disaster response. Stay calm. Make sure you're eating to keep blood sugar up. Rest when you can (combat/tactical naps of 20-30 minutes). But perhaps most importantly...DRILL! practice, practice, practice! Do tabletop exercises of the various scenarios expected, try to do large scale drills with multiple participants and graders if practicable. But it is absolutely essential to vigorously test your response system and processes BEFORE an actual emergency event.