Should we keep volunteer and staff roles clearly different?

Summary:

The Fair Labor Standards Act makes doing so very important.

Putnam Barber said on ARNOVA-L (see http://www.arnova.org) on 21 Aug
1996:

The Fair Labor Standards Act and related state statutes place serious
restrictions on complex relations like the ones you describe and include
serious penalties which may arise out of innocent-seeming arrangements.

Careful consultation with an experienced attorney might produce
guidelines, procedures, job descriptions and template employment
agreements which could regularize the sorts of arrangements you describe.
Unfortunately, it is likely that the casual relationships among staff and
volunteers, and the crossings back and forth from one status to the other,
which seem to be working so well for you now will be necessarily more
cumbersome and technical once these elements of a personnel plan are in
place. But the protections included in the Fair Labor Standards Act and
related legislation are an important part of the protections afforded to
working people and should not be slighted.

As far as I know, there are no blanket distinctions between for-profits
and not-for-profits in the application of these laws, though obviously
volunteers are more likely to be found in not-for-profit settings.

The association of Nonprofits for your state may have information that you
would
find useful. Their addresses are listed in the
"List of Organizations" section of the
NONPROFIT FAQ at http://www.nonprofits.org/npofaq/12/01.html (for A through M) and http://www.nonprofits.org/npofaq/12/02.html (for N through Z).