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What effect does the organization's focus and goals have on prioritizing the type and amount of training? Clearly the volunteers that basically make the organization effective must have adequate training. There are monthly training sessions for people who care about wildlife and have signed up to help but are not familiar with the particulars when it comes to approaching an injured bird (you immediately toss a sheet or blanket over the bird's head so it is calmed and can be picked up for transport). Feeding an injured opossum or raccoon at PWC requires special training as well. Hence, the training and the mission / goals of PWC go hand-in-hand to make this organization effective and respected in the community.

How would you prioritize specific training needs based on the organization's needs and current focus? First, a potential volunteer must have the desire to be trained. Just being interested in helping wildlife is not enough. So the priority for those doing the training is to sort through the volunteer applications and find those individuals with some experience or skill relating to wildlife -- or at least experience in a volunteer environment, such as a humane society facility, or a homeless shelter or some community organization where specific skills are required. Second, if there are not enough volunteer transporters to bring the injured and orphaned wildlife to the center, then that becomes a priority for training. If a citizen calls the hotline because an owl is caught in barbed wire, the volunteer transporter must also know how to rescue that bird safely and place it in a carrier with minimum harm to the animal.

Why must you consider the organization's overarching goals when prioritizing training? Clearly every person being trained must be cognizant of the importance of giving wildlife a second chance once animals are injured -- that is the overarching goal and must be emphasized during training. The person being trained must be made aware that between May and August 2013, PWC rehabilitated and released 417 birds and animals (including 19 Mallard ducks and 12 cliff swallows); hence, this is very serious work and only those fully committed to do the sometimes unpleasant tasks are brought in for training. The greatest needs in the PWC center must be met first; having enough volunteers in the spring when many baby birds fall out of nests, is obviously a priority in April, May, and June. So that training takes precedence over training a data entry person or a volunteer to scrub and sanitize cages and pens.