RAPID/Collaborative Research: Defining a Performance Measurement Framework for Spontaneous Volunteer Management Systems in Post-Disaster Relief

像佛罗伦斯飓风这样的灾难吸引了普通民众，他们迅速动员起来，寻找机会为救灾工作做出贡献。那些在灾难发生前没有隶属于救援机构的个人被贴上了“自发志愿者”的标签。自发的志愿人员是一笔巨大的财富，对救灾工作作出了宝贵的贡献；然而，它们也可能是重大风险和不确定性的潜在来源。这些志愿者与受益人、训练有素的附属志愿者、应急管理官员和非营利组织互动。虽然管理自发的志愿者具有挑战性，但值得寻找方法将他们有效地纳入正式的应急管理基础设施。要做到这一点，我们必须了解在应对工作中取得成功意味着什么。这个快速反应研究（Rapid）项目制定了适当的绩效指标，可用于评估目前实践中的志愿者管理系统的有效性。结果将改进实际的管理原则，以便成功地将自发的志愿人员纳入有组织的救济工作。本项目为学生在应急管理、营运管理及工业工程方面提供了一个体验式学习的机会。这一科研贡献支持了NSF促进科学进步和提高国家福利的使命。在这种情况下，好处将是改善灾后志愿者管理的见解，这可以挽救生命并减少经济损失。这个RAPID项目从北卡罗来纳州两个城市的志愿者那里收集了与佛罗伦萨飓风有关的响应和恢复阶段的数据。收集到的数据将支持：(1)开发与志愿者管理系统相关的关键绩效指标，(2)深入了解组织在持续救援工作中基于这些指标的表现如何，以及(3)分析志愿者管理者的决策过程及其对绩效的影响。该小组将收集主要和次要数据。原始数据包括半结构化访谈和观察。将与自发志愿人员、当地机构和大型救济组织的志愿人员管理人员或协调员以及受益人进行半结构化面谈。辅助数据是指救灾组织在灾难发生后收集的数据，如志愿者日志（到达和离开的时间），客户到达之间的时间（请求帮助）；志愿者到达的地理、时间和模式差异；文件和报纸文章。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Disasters such as Hurricane Florence attract lay citizens who quickly mobilize in search of opportunities to contribute to the relief efforts. Individuals who are not affiliated with relief agencies prior to the disaster have been label 'spontaneous volunteers'. Spontaneous volunteers represent a tremendous asset and make valuable contributions towards relief efforts; however, they may also represent a potential source of substantial risk and uncertainty. These volunteers interact with beneficiaries, trained and affiliated volunteers, emergency management officials, and nonprofit organizations. While managing spontaneous volunteers is challenging, it is worth finding ways to effectively integrate them into the formal emergency management infrastructure. To do this we must understand what it means to be successful in the response effort. This Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project develops appropriate performance indicators that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of volunteer management systems currently in practice. The results will improve practical management principles aimed at successfully incorporating spontaneous volunteers into organized relief efforts. This project provides an opportunity for experiential learning for students in emergency management, operations management, and industrial engineering. This scientific research contribution thus supports NSF's mission to promote the progress of science and to advance our national welfare. In this case, the benefits will be insights to improve volunteer management post-disasters which can save lives and reduce economic losses. This RAPID project collects data from volunteers in two cities in North Carolina during the response and recovery phases associated with Hurricane Florence. The collected data will support: (1) the development of key performance indicators associated with volunteer management systems, (2) insights into how well organizations perform based on these metrics during the ongoing relief efforts, and (3) an analysis of the decision making process of volunteer managers and their impact on performance. The team will collect both primary and secondary data. Primary data include semi-structured interviews and observations. Semi-structured interviews will be carried out with spontaneous volunteers, volunteer managers or coordinators of both local agencies and large relief organizations, and beneficiaries. Secondary data refers to data collected by relief organizations in the aftermath of a disaster such as volunteer logs (arrival and departure times), times between customer arrivals (requests for help); and geographic, temporal, and modal variation in volunteer arrivals; documents and newspaper articles.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.