Increasing Volunteer Support for State Agencies Fishing R3 Programs

State agencies need volunteers and mentors to successfully field many fishing related education R3 Recruit Retail Reactivate and conservation projects. With increasing options available to the public to volunteer recruiting and retaining volunteers has become more difficult threatening states ability to staff programs such as fishing derbies and many other hands on R3 programs. To help overcome this problem states need insights and tested recommendations for finding recruiting and retaining new volunteers. To help fulfill this need the Outdoor Stewards of Conservation Foundation OSCF will work with states to connect with current and potential volunteers to learn how to engage and retain more support for states fishing R3 and education programs. With the OSCFs experience with such efforts and considering our focus on promoting stewardship and increasing participation we are ideally suited to conduct this project. The Midwestern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies MAFWA is a partner in this effort and will advise on content states needs and limitations plus dissemination of results. Working with one pilot state per AFWA region we will first conduct focus groups with current and former fisheries volunteers to gather insights into the various motivations and interests that drove them to volunteer plus the communication channels and sources that introduced them to volunteer opportunities with state agencies. We will then survey current and former volunteers in each state to quantify the top motivations and interests for volunteering. We will also survey the general public to identify those with above average interest in volunteering for state fishing R3 and education efforts to identify their motivations and interests plus the communication channels and sources that will best reach them. The results will group or segment volunteers into personas based on shared motivations and ideal recruiting messages and tactics. The results will then be tested via a pilot campaign in two states to identify best approaches for recruiting volunteers. Results and the tested recommendations will then be shared with all states for adoption via a detailed report complete with recommendations and suggested recruiting messaging plus shared via the full range of R3 committees meetings and NGO communications. All 50 states R3 programs are the intended beneficiaries with increased volunteers being the primary purpose and increased angling participation the goal. The MAFWA R3 committee is a partner in this effort. This project mirrors a similar volunteer recruitment proposal submitted by the IHEA for hunting and target shooting. The budget reflects the cost savings associated with conducting both efforts simultaneously. No other efforts focused on increasing states abilities to recruit and retain volunteers have been identified and without such state fishing R3 programs dependent on volunteers will continue to be stressed.