Use volunteers?

During this research process, I have met with the technology or communication directors of many churches. One of the key questions I have asked them is regarding the actual development of their web site.  Who actually built the web site? Generally I have found, with one notable exception, is that the use of volunteers does not work well. Most all of the church leaders I have spoken with mentioned their “first web site”, created by volunteers and eventually abandoned in favor of a web site developed by professionals. In most cases, a third party was used to develop and even manage the site, though content is always updated by church staff.

The one notable exception to this was Rock Harbor, a church based in Costa Mesa, CA, which uses volunteers almost exclusively, with much success. In an interview I did with Jacob Roebuck, the Communications Associate Directory, he told me that Rock Harbor has a “volunteer culture”, and that the job of the sixty-five or so staff members, for the most part, is to manage over one thousand volunteers. Jacob has a small team of IT professionals who have volunteered to help build an update their existing web site.  When I asked him how he kept them motivated and bought in, he said that one of the keys was building a sense of ownership with the volunteers.  He had nothing but good things to say about using volunteers and feels that, at least for their church, it is the right way to approach the development of the web site.

Jacob did note, however, that once the web site was developed, the content would be managed by paid staff. This is an important point, because it brings Rock Harbor in line with the other churches I have talked with and may prove to be one of the common success factors I am looking for in my research.