Signup

Immediate Email After Volunteer Sign-up

Subject: Re: Volunteering with Karma Kitchen

Dear Jessica Eng,

Thank you for signing up to volunteer with Karma Kitchen in !

We have reserved a spot for you on , and you will be sent a note with details about it at the beginning of that week.

In the meantime, here is a short document about the "core concepts" behind Karma Kitchen, that you might like to read: http://www.charityfocus.org/proj_upload/1874/core_concepts.pdf

Please let us know if you have any questions. And thank you for your commitment to generosity.

In service,

Nipun
KarmaKitchen Coordinator
http://www.karmakitchen.org

Monday

Initial Email to Signed-Up Volunteers

Subject: You're On for Karma Kitchen, This Sunday April 25th!

Dear Runa, Stephanie, Barbara, Somayaji, Jessica, Dipa, Pancho, Jeremy, Kanan, Sakura, and Neil,

Get ready for some generosity action because Karma Kitchen's crew for Sunday, April 18th has just been confirmed with all of you on it!

Last week we had an amazing turnout. 9 volunteers (a short staff) served over 115 guests! We had some great efforts by first-time volunteers, doing the work usually reserved for two workers in an effort to get everyone a meal and some smiles. Our theme was Balance, and we had our guests focus on both internal and external changes. With the windows open on such a beautiful Sunday, we had many people share their ways of achieving balance in their lives. We received one especially heartfelt thank-you from a guest, saying "Thank you so much for creating a loving, vibrant, and beautiful community! Each and every one of you are feeding my hungry stomach and nourishing my soul with love."

This week, it's your turn to bring smiles to our community!

A few notes to keep in mind, as we get ready:

• Set up on Sunday begins at 9:00 AM at the restaurant. If you can be there to help out, do drop us a note. This week, no one besides me has signed up for set-up, so we need some volunteers!
  
  
• Orientation starts at 10AM (sharp!) on Sunday. This is mandatory for all signed-up volunteers so that we can create synergy amongst us, go over processes and dynamically split up into various roles before the 11AM opening. If you aren't able to volunteer, please let us know ASAP because finding last minute replacements can be quite difficult.
  
  
• For health code reasons, all volunteers are required to wear closed toed shoes (no sandals please!). Rubber soled shoes recommended because the floor of the restaurant tends to get slippery. Women and guy volunteers (with ponytails :-)) are required to keep their hair tied back.
  
  
• While we won't know the specific roles till the day of the event, it is good for everyone to read through our core-concepts and general workflow. Please let me/us know if you have any questions.
  
  

Also -- be sure to bring all your generosity-style creativity with you -- new ideas and conspiracies of kindness are always welcome! :)

In service and smiles,

Tom www.karmakitchen.org

Wednesday

Reminder Email to Anchors

Subject: Anchoring at Karma Kitchen This Sunday

Dear Neil, Dipa, Lachmin:

I'm writing to remind you of your role as an anchor, this Sunday at Karma Kit chen. It would be great if you are able to come at 9AM for setup. Please let m e know if that works for you.

Neil will serve as the Maitre-D this week, managing the front-end ambiance; Dipa will serve as the Interface, to coordinate the front and the back; and Lachmin will serve as the anchor in the back. (These guides can be quite helpful, if this is your first time doing this role.)

As part of the setup, one of you will have to buy some dessert (which we can reimburse you for shortly). Typically, we go to Andronicho's down the streets and pick up two quarts of vegan ice-cream and 2-3 fresh fruit pies. This is, of course, in addition to the Kheer dessert that the restaurant provides.

At 10AM, one of you will also lead the orientation circle, as the Maitre-D will try to craft out a good roster. Typically, this process is helpful:

• 10AM -- start with a few minutes of silence
• Circle of Sharing, as introduction with a moment of generosity (15 minutes)
• Pass out the menus, have people read the frequently asked questions, and then go through the menu for the day. (5 minutes)
• One of the anchors can through a overview of the rough process, and also announce the roster as you go (10 minutes)
• At the end of the process overview, have someone read out the check just so everyone is clear on it; also go over the theme for the day, and talk a bit about potential tag ideas. (5 minutes)
• Split into three smaller orientations -- servers, platers/dessert, dishes and have each anchor take on a specific orientation. (20 minutes)
• Open the restaurant at 11AM by turning on the 'Open' sign.

Ultimately, if we have all these logistics in place, we can focus on our real purpose -- blowing people away with generosity.

With appreciation,

Tom

Friday

Reminder Email to Confirmed Volunteers

Subject: Re: You're On for Karma Kitchen, This Sunday April 25th!

Dear Stephanie, Barbara, Somayaji, Jessica, Dipa, Paul, George, Jeremy, Kanan, Sakura, and Neil

This is a note of confirmation for this Sunday's crew at Karma Kitchen!  Every week at Karma Kitchen is full of wonderfully small stories -- and we look forward to repeating some of that magic with you this week.

Couple key points ...

• Sakura and I will arrive at Karma Kitchen at 9AM for setup; if you can help, let me know.  We could use some other volunteers to help set up.  Otherwise, we'll see the rest of you at 10AM (sharp!) at Taste of Himalayas, on Shattuck and Virginia.
  
  
• For those who are unfamiliar with various KK roles, take a quick look at the volunteer guides and workflow.
  
  
• If you haven't already, do read this core-concepts document.  It's very helpful for all of us to be clear on our values.
  
  
• If you have ideas on themes for the day, and/or you've got something graphical ideas in mind (see what we've done in previous weeks), I'm all ears.

Oh, and if you don't already have a Karma Kitchen t-shirt and would like one, just let me know your size and I'll try to bring one (unfortunately, we only have L/XL sizes available at the moment).

Growing in generosity,

Tom

Cancellations

Some volunteers tend to flake a lot. In CF, where we're all volunteers, we work pretty hard to reduce that flake ratio -- because volunteers are critical to our functioning, and people don't always understand that because most nonprofits usually have supporting staff. So we have to work extra hard in preserving a culture of commitment and responsibility.

Some people have genuine reasons for canceling. We definitely don't want them to feel bad about it, but we do want to let them know that it's not a trivial task to just replace volunteers -- because otherwise, they talk to their friends and it creates a negative ripple that affects the culture.

In cases sincere cases, we could write something like:

Dear XYZ,

Sorry to hear that you're ill! We hope you feel better soon.

We'll be on the lookout to find a volunteer replacement, but if you have any friends who would be willing to sub for you, do ask them to contact me.

Once again, hope you feel better soon and if you'd like to try another date for volunteering, do sign-up as usual at: http://karmakitchen.org/vol.php

With best wishes,

Tom

Some case are borderline, where people are sort of using it as an excuse and writing in to cancel at the last minute! Of course, you have use your judgement here, but for those cases, we would write something like this:

Dear XYZ,

Sorry to hear you are ill! Thanks for writing in to let us know ... I am ccing VOL_NAME (who is anchoring this week at KK) so that we can work on finding a replacement for you.

I hope you feel better soon (in the future, do try and send us a heads up as soon as you suspect that you won't be able to make it -- it allows us a bit more time to find someone to take your spot). Take care and rest well!

In service,

Tom

Of course, then there are cases where volunteers are just treating this as a walk in the park ... and they'll just write to cancel because they're not feeling upto it or would love to try it another time. For those, we would use:

Hi XYZ,

We're sorry to hear that you can't make it to Karma Kitchen this Sunday.

There are sometimes unexpected events that make last minute cancellations necessary and we do what we can to accommodate this. But for the future if you are unsure of being able to serve at Karma Kitchen on the dates you have been confirmed for, please send us a note well ahead of time. There is a considerable amount of coordination that happens behind the scenes to put together the rosters for each week so we appreciate having a heads up early on -- this definitely makes it easier on the rest of the crew and ensures that the spot that was reserved for you can be given to someone else.

Thank you for understanding and we'll look forward to having you with us on a future week that works for you.

In service,

Tom

All of these are reasonable and honest responses the situation. And the fact of the matter is that last minute cancellations mean that lots of people will need to be taxed. If we start taxing all volunteers at the last minute like that, we soon start to lose them -- so we only want to exercise last minute substitutions when absolutely necessary. The reason why we have such consistently good crew of volunteers is because we have honored people's time commitment in the past; as volunteer coordinators, we have to continue to maintain that culture.