Personnel policies are documents that inform how a board wants its personnel to be treated. The development of these policies may reflect many voices or just the leadership in terms of values and guiding principles. While Personnel Policies are most often applied to paid employees, volunteers must not be left out.
I would pose that policies and practices including guiding principles and rules on the treatment, training, benefits and management of volunteers are equally important including their review and action by a nonprofit's board.
To this point though there are nonprofits where policies and practices can produce cruel and unfair results upon volunteers. I will use for example the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hartford, CT. I have learned recently that the Diocese has determined that its Deacons, formally trained individuals that bear many of the responsibilities of ordained ministers, are to be "aged-out" at 80 years of age.
Now some of you might say: well of course 80 is old for carrying out almost any function (I suppose this is he assumed case for the current and next guy responsible for the well being of the US and its citizens). But Deacons are just special volunteers who give up much of their time and life to be at the service of the church so, yes, it's possible they can run out of steam (or fall over in the church) I'll grant.
But the decision to nix any current Deacon over the age of 80 was not formally announced to the church community. It was however formally announced to Deacons meeting the age restriction: by letter. Nope, no meeting nor advanced call...nothing. One Deacon I know is 86 years and up to the moment of receiving his mailed notice, was still actively participating. Note the policy was actually formalized in May of 2024 without consultation with Deacons.
Again, the policy may make sense, likely for litigious reasons. But the notice: insensitive and definitely far less the behavior one should expect from an institution of faith. It is fair to summarize: no wonder the Roman Catholic Church is having a difficult time recruiting anyone for the ministry or service if this is how it treats its volunteers.
Hopefully, other nonprofits can learn better how to treat its volunteers.