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

像佛罗伦萨飓风这样的灾害吸引了非专业的公民，他们迅速动员起来，寻找机会为救灾工作做出贡献。灾难发生前不隶属于救援机构的个人被贴上“自发志愿者”的标签。自发的志愿人员是一笔巨大的财富，为救济工作作出了宝贵贡献;然而，他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、受过培训的志愿者和附属志愿者、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，但值得寻找有效地将他们纳入正式应急管理基础设施的方法。 要做到这一点，我们必须理解成功应对工作意味着什么。这一快速反应研究项目制定了适当的业绩指标，可用于评价目前实行的志愿人员管理制度的效力。研究结果将改进旨在成功地将自发志愿人员纳入有组织救济工作的实际管理原则。该项目为应急管理，运营管理和工业工程的学生提供了体验式学习的机会。这一科学研究的贡献，从而支持NSF的使命，以促进科学的进步和提高我们的国家福利。在这种情况下，其好处将是对改善灾后志愿人员管理的见解，这可以挽救生命，减少经济损失。该RAPID项目在与飓风佛罗伦萨相关的响应和恢复阶段从北卡罗来纳州两个城市的志愿者那里收集数据。收集的数据将支持：（1）与志愿者管理系统相关的关键绩效指标的开发，（2）在正在进行的救援工作中，基于这些指标，深入了解组织的表现如何，以及（3）分析志愿者管理人员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。主要数据包括半结构化访谈和观察。将与自发的志愿者、地方机构和大型救济组织的志愿者管理人员或协调员以及受益人进行半结构化访谈。二级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（到达和离开时间），客户到达之间的时间（请求帮助）;和志愿者到达的地理，时间和模式变化;该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值进行评估，更广泛的影响审查标准。

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.