Wheelchair Sports WA were looking for someone to help them by setting up an online member survey tool, and then to analyse the results at the end of the survey.

Although they had previously conducted surveys, they had never had a great response in the past. The task required a volunteer who had experience using online surveys, writing questionnaires and doing survey analysis – skills that Wheelchair Sports WA did not have in-house.

Jamie Moore approached Wheelchair Sports WA to help with this project. Jamie has good experience and skills in statistical analyisis, and had set up many similar surveys for other organizations.

Thirty per cent of members responded to the survey – a fantastic response rate! They provided solid feedback on the services and programs and Wheelchair Sports WA gained some very useful insights and comments which enabled them to continually improve services.

“Without Jamie’s help, we would probably not have had the time or resources to put to this important project” says Teri O’Toole, CEO of Wheelchair Sports WA. Jamie spent over 25 hours on this project, and saved the organisation thousands of dollars.

When managing skilled volunteers, Teri provides the following advice to community groups:

You need to be very cognizant of the volunteer’s other commitments and allow sufficient time for work to be completed. They are after all, doing this in their free time and around other work and responsibilities.

it is important to make sure a volunteer gets the opportunity to see the work of the charity they are helping – if volunteering in admin for example, they might not see this in the course of their voluntary work. We made a point for example of inviting volunteers to events and activities where they could see the work of the Association in action.

Finally, Teri told us how “…it has been fantastic for us to get help in various areas that would not have happened as quickly otherwise. The volunteers we have had have all been very competent and professional too from goodcompany.”