No volunteer wants to spend time on work that nobody values. Therefore, encourage community members to express the value that they receive from the community, and to reflect on the value that they provide.

Also understand that not everyone's notion of value needs to agree; so long as participants do not actually detract by participating, they should feel free to add value in whatever way they see fit. Core participants frequently do not value a set of contributions initially, and only come to understand and appreciate that value later. Even contributions that are wildly experimental and far from the mainstream, and may not seem at all valuable, should be respected and encouraged.

Example: There was a time, not so long ago, when many central members of the Fedora community saw a Live CD as a waste of effort. The Live CD is now one the most important deliverables of the entire Fedora community. But it was clear to the initial contributors that a good Live CD was critically valuable, and the community's embrace of that work led to a critical mass of contributors to focus on, and solve, the problem.