RUNNING A PTA – Micro-volunteering
DIFFERENCE W
hat’s a micro-volunteer, I hear you ask. Is it a very small helper? Well, no – it’s someone who volunteers their services for a short time, in a small
way, and without necessarily having a long-term commitment. Other than perhaps a short information session, no training is required and the completed tasks may form part of a larger project, and may even be done online. You may well already be a micro-volunteer
without knowing it. In 2000, the United Nations launched its Online Volunteering service (app.
unv.org), with the aim of providing a platform to support the activities of development organisations such as climate-change researchers, educational institutions and international charities. This initiative enabled organisations to assemble numbers of individuals from across the globe who would then carry out a ‘micro-task’, pooling their knowledge or resources to contribute to a much bigger undertaking.
BIG Small effort
The biggest obstacle in getting people to commit to the PTA is a lack of time, so how do we get around the
problem of diaries that are busier than ever? Nicola Bloom discovers the answer could be ‘micro-volunteering’
A good example of this approach in the UK is the Big Garden Birdwatch (
rspb.org.uk/get-involved/ activities/birdwatch) carried out by the RSPB, where the public is asked to watch and count the birds in their gardens for an hour over one weekend. Other tasks might be as simple as signing a petition, or putting a tin or two in your local foodbank.
Widen the pool So how might a PTA recruit and make use
of micro-volunteers? PTAs often rely on the same few people to do everything, and of course, many of the tasks do need ongoing commitment and regular input. Although micro-volunteering in a school might be a little different from micro- volunteering on a global scale, in a nutshell, it can be described as recruiting more people to do more things less often.
‘How might a PTA make use of micro- volunteers? PTAs often rely on the same few people to do everything’
pta.co.uk SPRING 2022 21
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