Volunteer records are kept to ensure efficient and effective management of volunteers, and to record that fair and appropriate procedures are used - particularly around selection, training and evaluation. This information should be stored confidentially and maintained by a volunteer manager.
What information to collect
Organisations usually keep the following information in relation to each of their volunteers:
- notes of the selection process used
- any screening conducted
- emergency contact details and medical details
- dates when they begin and end with the organisation
- description of the work undertaken or a position description
- names of other volunteers and staff members to whom the volunteer reports
- details of any concerns raised by the volunteer and the action taken
- changes to the original position description.
How to store information
Information about your volunteers is likely to be either written down or typed into computer records. In either case, it’s important that these documents or records are stored securely. All information about volunteers is confidential and subject to the
Privacy Act (1988). Each volunteer is entitled to examine their own file but they should not be able to access anyone else’s. It is useful to try and store key documents as computer files as this makes data comparison and reporting easier, especially where reporting may be required over a number of projects or years.
More information
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