When it comes to recruiting, we just showed the recruitment video to the congregation during announcement.  The kids' church Pastor imparted the excitement to the people and encourage them to volunteer.  He even gave the details. We set up a colorful booth outside for volunteers to sign and it was a success! Its how you publicize it.  The AHA video is enticing enough for people to volunteer.  Adults came up to me and said the VBS this year looks fun and they want to join themselves!  The video is just 1 minute but it creates a BUZZ!  Make a big deal out of it on how you decorate the booth with music and bubbles or even dry ice.  Its worth all the effort!

I have the same problem with volunteers but did everything what I said and we got 55 new volunteers.  These volunteers are all new.  Praise God!

Hope this helps

Nice

I have to ask my friends who go to other churches to come and work at VBS. 

Last year was our first year using Group and the mixed ages.  I just showed everyone the pictures in the director's guide where it shows how the kids are split into crews and then the crews are grouped together.  That seemed to take care of that confusion.  Some people wanted to keep the ages together but I told them we were going to try it for one year and would evaluate it at the end of VBS.  At our Friday staff lunch, everyone voted to do the mixed ages again! 

We had to have larger crews of 10 or 12.  But it all worked out - the crew leaders and the kids all had a great time.

1.  I really like casanet.org for insight into volunteer recruitment and retention.

2. We modified the suggested use for the fund your vbs flasks poster. We scanned in the flasks so they were four per page.  On each flask we added the PL clipart.  On another sheet we lined up text to fit on the flasks when we made double sided copies.  We cut the flasks out and now have something that's small, non threatening, and unique to give potential volunteers.

I walk up to people who have a trait that I think we need (you have such a warm smile, i enjoyed hearing your laughter, i see you are so kind to children) and tell them we need people like them or perhaps they know someone that would like to help us. This is useful because people without children generally stay away from our registration table, but when i see them glancing from a distance i take that as interest and approach them.

 i really believe in the power of the personal invitation and the previous posts are right that your passion is what makes them believe it's worthwhile.  even if they don't volunteer, i hope they feel valued because someone noticed a positive quality that day and that their perception of vbs is enhanced so that they will speak positively about it.

also, people have a misconception about vbs. i tell them they don't know what they're missing, we use a kit, and gone are the days of toilet paper roll crafts.

text on my flasks (formatted to fit on flasks)

It's not rocket science, you just have to love children!

Adults and youth age 14+ needed (date) (time)

With your help, we can serve more of the children who wan tot join us in discovering Jesus' miraculous power.

VBS is EASIER, MORE FUN, and MORE FLEXIBLE than you think.  You'll be amazed at what it will do for the children... and for you!

Find out why you'll love Power Lab.

(contact information)

Whew!  That was alot!  I hope it works for you.

I mount things like the Power Lab overview and how-it works to cardboard and use plate stands to support them on our registration table.  if you have a table, you can add the mixed age info.  i've found that our volunteers (and even me because i'm a little too excited about vbs) have a hard time conveying the concept clearly and concisely.  group does it well, let their work work for you