Information about those who registered for the May 28, 2024 CPA Ambassador conference on Vendor Management Systems.

A temporary note on verb conjugation: If you are reading this post before May 28, 2024, it is written in the past tense – so I don’t need to change it on May 29th!

Know your audience is an imperative given to every speaker. This post is first and foremost for the wonderful individuals who donated their time and talents to Systematically Herding Cats and Volunteers on May 28, 2024 webinar. The May 28th session asked the question, what is the best volunteer management system (VMS) for a non-profit?

Where Are You From?

Most of the attendees are from the two large metro regions (Edmonton, Calgary; nearly 90%) with the balance from Rural Alberta or smaller cities or towns.

City	How Many?		City	How Many?
Airdrie	1		Nisku	1
British Columbia	1		Ontario	1
Calgary	31		Red Deer	1
Camrose	1		Rural AB	3
Cold Lake	1		Saskatchewan	1
Edmonton	57		Sherwood Park	4
Grande Prairie	1		Spruce Grove	2
Hinton	1		St. Albert	6
Lethbridge	4		Stony Plain	1
Morinville	1		Total Attendees	119

Many Sizes Available

Half of the attendees are senior employees or board members. 21% did not indicate a role with the balance being volunteers or employees. Most of these individuals are associated with a large organization although a sizable portion of attendees (nearly a third) are not associated with a non-profit.

Role	1.Micro	2.Small	3.Large	4.NA	Total
1.Board-SrEmployee	5	12	33	6	56
2.Volunteer-Emp.	2	11	16	8	37
3.NA-Other		2	3	21	26
Total	7	23	47	31	119

Size and Type

Cultural and Recreation, Sports, and Social Service organizations represent about half of the attendees with the remainder divided across other Statistics Canada classifications.

StatsCan	1.Micro	2.Small	3.Large	4.NA	Total
Amateur Sports		2	7	1	10
Business Assoc, Unions			1		1
Culture and Recreation	5	5	15	2	24
Develop. & Housing			1		1
Education and Research	1	3	3	5	12
Environment		4	1	1	3
Health	1		3	4	7
Not Applicable				16	12
Other		3	5	4	9
Religion			1		1
Social Services		8	15	2	21
Grand Total	7	25	52	35	119

VMS Satisfaction

Participants indicated the number of volunteers they have and the degree two which they are satisified with their current VMS (on a 5-point scale). There was a low response rate reduces from the participants on these questions.

How satisfied	<5	6-10	11-20	21-50	51-100	101-200	>200	Total
0 = ARRGHH, Help!		6	1	5		2	1	15
1 = Usable, but…	2		5	2	3	1	3	16
2 = Mehh	1	1	2	2	2	2	5	15
3 = Mostly, but…		4		3	3	2	5	17
4 = Completely		3	1	1	1			6
Grand Total	3	14	9	13	9	7	14	69

The lowest level of satisfaction with the current VMS is when the system is not known, Manual, or Auto-Manual (e.g. a Google Form). Where the organization has commercial software, satisfaction levels are higher. Surprisingly, about 40% of all attendees are Mostly or Completely satisfied with thir VMS.

Satisfaction Level	Not Sure	Manual	Auto-Manual	SAAS	Total
0 = ARRGHH, Help!	20	8	1		29
1 = Usable	6	13	2		21
2 = Mehh	17	5	2	3	27
3 = Mostly	10	8		9	27
4 = Completely	8	3		4	15
Grand Total	61	37	5	16	119

Privacy and VMS

The good news is that about a third of the participants rate their privacy activities in relation to managing volunteer information as being Mature or in a Leadership role. Another third needed improviement and the final third were unaware or needing to take action on this matter.

Privacy	1.Micro	2.Small	3.Large	Total
0-Unaware	1	4	2	7
1-Inaction	1	6	7	14
2-Improvement	3	5	17	25
3-Mature		3	6	9
4-Leader		2	12	14
Grand Total	5	20	44	69

Further Reading and Links:

• Event Brite Registration: Volunteer Management System (VMS) – May 28.
• Systematically Herding Cats and Volunteers on May 28, 2024: Original Event proposal
• Questioning VMS’s – List of Questions for May 28 Conference
• The Burden of Volunteering
• Paying your Volunteers Well