Refresher training is an often forgotten part of keeping volunteers happy and productive.

That was driven home to me when I was on a call the other day with a client. They were asking how to do something in the volunteer management software, Better Impact. I’ve been fully trained in Better Impact, but my training was almost two years ago and there were so many areas I couldn’t help them with because, not using it all the time, I simply didn’t remember how parts of it worked.

Remembering details of a software program, of course, is a minor issue. Imagine this, you volunteer at a shelter for those without homes. Amongst other things, you are trained on how to administer Naloxone, the anti-overdose medication. Three months down the road, you are faced, for the first time, with a situation where the medication is required. How much do you think you’d remember?

Too often, we feel guilty about asking volunteers to take more training – especially training they’ve done before. They give enough of their time as it is, we think. I understand, most of the training we have volunteers take isn’t life-or-death. A lot of it, though, is serious enough that it needs to be top of mind for volunteers.

Also, volunteers want to do a good........

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