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

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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.