ABSTRACT Hunter education (HE) is offered in all 50 states, with oversight provided by state wildlife agencies (SWAs). The vast majority of HE courses are taught by volunteers. Recruiting and retaining volunteers to meet the demand for HE courses are growing concerns among SWAs. Insufficient information exists about volunteer instructors’ motivations, experiences, and satisfactions – all of which may affect recruitment and retention. Using the volunteer process model as the theoretical framework for a mixed-methods study, 38 semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with current and former instructors in New York, followed by a mail survey administered to active instructors (n = 2,126). Findings indicated that volunteers are motivated to teach HE to sustain the tradition of hunting and create safe hunters. Those motivations, coupled with positive experiences teaching in teams, corresponded with instructor recruitment and long-term retention. Unclear roles, limited programmatic influence, and strained relationships were negatively associated with volunteer retention.

中文翻译：

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学习猎人教育志愿者的经验

摘要 猎人教育 (HE) 在所有 50 个州都提供，并由州野生动物机构​​ (SWA) 提供监督。绝大多数HE课程都是由志愿者教授的。SWA 越来越关注招募和留住志愿者以满足对高等教育课程的需求。关于志愿者讲师的动机、经验和满意度的信息不足——所有这些都可能影响招聘和保留。使用志愿者过程模型作为混合方法研究的理论框架，对纽约的现任和前任讲师进行了 38 次半结构化电话采访，然后对活跃讲师进行了邮件调查（n = 2,126）。调查结果表明，志愿者有动力教 HE 维持狩猎传统并创造安全的猎人。那些动机，加上团队教学的积极经验，与教师招聘和长期保留相对应。不明确的角色、有限的计划影响和紧张的关系与志愿者保留呈负相关。