Getting started

If you decide you want to give IM a try in working with volunteers, then you will first need to choose an IM service. The most popular services, all free, are Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ and Microsoft Messenger.

Things to consider when choosing an IM service are:

Do you already have an email account with Yahoo, Hotmail (Microsoft) or AOL? This can make setting up an account on a company's IM service easier, and will make the service easy to integrate into your email use.

Will you be conversing with people who are on various types of computers and using various types of operating systems? If so, you will need an IM service that functions well on all these various platforms.

What are most of your volunteers already using? Ask your volunteers what IM services they may already be using, and why.

Officially, IM services are not cross-platform; you can't use the AOL Instant Messenger to communicate with someone using Microsoft Messenger, for instance. However, there are products that allow cross-platform IM. Trillian is one of the most widely-used cross-platform IM products.

You may want to pick one IM service to be the official one to use with your organization's volunteers, to make sure that everyone is using the same tools and is seeing the same features. If you choose a service that some volunteers aren't using, it should not be a problem for them to add it to their computers in addition to whatever other IM program they are using.

Next, you need to identify a small group of people for your IM friends list or address book. Ask a few of your more tech-savvy volunteers or colleagues if they would be willing to add you to their friends' list, and vice versa. Ask a few close friends and family as well. You will need to tell them what IM service you are using and what your IM screen name is. This initial training will help you get a feel for instant messaging, in general.

You can probably expect, when you first start using IM, to receive a lot of messages from the people on your friends list: you are the new kid on the block, and your being on IM will be novel and even exciting for these people. Never fear, however -- interest will drop quickly, once the novelty quickly wears off, and IM will become quite easy to maintain.

Use IM with this small circle of people over the next several weeks, and gauge your use of IM in this time. Learn to set your preferences to show that you are unavailable for IM, as necessary. Compare how you talk with some volunteers and others via IM to how you talk with them via email or the phone. You may do more personal chatting than professional talk, but that is a great way to learn to use the various features and, ultimately, see the potential value in synchronous communications.

If you aren't being overwhelmed by IM after a few weeks, consider announcing to all of your organization's volunteers that you are available via IM, and provide the name of the service and your IM identification/screen name. There are important things to remember when engaging in a conversation via IM:

Not everyone types at the same rate. If someone types slower than you, give them time to respond in full before you send another IM message.

It is okay to tell someone you can't IM now, or even to ignore an inquiry via IM; if you don't have time to chat, most people will not be offended.

IM is not a place to discuss sensitive issues that require confidentiality, such as personnel or financial issues.

Complex issues are not easily discussed via IM, nor are misunderstandings. Those are best discussed face-to-face, if possible, or via phone.

When first getting started with IM, take measures to prevent strangers and strange people (other than your friends and co-workers, ofcourse) from being able to send you an IM, and to prevent your receiving any IM junk mail. Go into your preferences or settings function and set the function so that, if someone new wants to IM with you, he or she first must send you an invitation, giving you the option of accepting or declining their invitation. When you receive an invitation, you can accept the person if you recognize him or her as a friend, co-worker, volunteer, etc.; or reject the person.

Also consider whether or not you want your IM sessions archived, for later viewing on your computer. Some volunteer managers may choose to set their software preferences so that they can save all IM conversations with volunteers; others may want to disable the archiving tool, so that no IM sessions are saved. Consider confidentiality, liability, and your company's email archiving policy when choosing whether or not to archive.

Please see Coyote Communication excellent articles, about blocking IM invaders and about how to configure IM software to prevent viruses and intruders and for guidelines on how to avoid potential hazards associated with IM.

Conclusion
IM is not for everyone. You may discover that you hate it. You may discover that some of volunteers hate it. Some people begin using it and then later abandon it. But you will never know if this tool will be of value to you until you try it!

If you have used IM in some way, formally or informally, in working with volunteers, please share your experiences -- how you use IM with volunteers, what the benefits are, what obstacles there are, what your advice would be for others -- by sending an email to Jayne Cravens.

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