Volunteer Now! Spring 2011

Thank you for your interest in volunteering! Whether you’re looking to get involved for the first time, try something new, or increase your involvement, you’ve come to the right place.   Our Volunteer Now! Spring 2011 publication features a variety of new and ongoing opportunities, with links and contact information that will lead you to more information. Throughout the year, you can also use our Online Volunteer Connection, a one-stop resource for volunteers and those looking for assistance. Finally, with warmer weather upon us, many of you may be spring cleaning at home.   As you sort through your household items, furniture, and clothing, consider donating anything that is new or gently used to someone in need. There is a listing of needed donations for local agencies on our website or contact your favorite community group to see which items they may be able to accept. We encourage you to share the Volunteer Now! Spring 2011 publication with your friends and family.  Thank you for your service to the community! For local and national highlights, check out these current volunteer NEWS & SPOTLIGHTS: Tell Arlington’s Story - Volunteers are needed to help interview or film Arlingtonians sharing their story as part of the “Tell Arlington’s Story” initiative. Community Arts Experience - Bowen McCauley Dance (BMD) presents a free community festival with 15 arts partners providing activities and information. National Volunteer Week 2011 - An opportunity for individuals, families, nonprofit organizations and government entities alike to celebrate the ordinary people who accomplish extraordinary things through service. Summer Camp Teen Volunteers - A wonderful opportunity to further develop leadership and communication skills and to gain experience in planning activities for young children. Get CONNECTED to your COMMUNITY!   NEW and UPDATED volunteer opportunities Donations Hotlink Arlington BoardMatch  With over 400 opportunities, you are sure to find a good fit for your interests, skills, and availability! Contact Us 2100 Washington Blvd 3rd Floor Arlington, VA 22204 (703) 228-1760 TTY (703) 228-1398

Management 2011: Advanced Volunteer Management Follow Up

Thank you to all of the volunteer managers and leaders who joined us for training on July 22nd.  Rick Lynch delivered an engaging all day workshop in which volunteer managers had the opportunity to work through challenges together and share great ideas.  If you missed out on the handouts, you can access them here.

You can view photos from the event, taken by Alex Zealand on Flickr, here.

We would love your feedback on this event.  Please complete the evaluation by Tuesday August 3rd if you have not done so already.

Below is some more information about each of the event sponsors and Rick Lynch:

Rick Lynch is the co-author of the book Volunteer Management, the best selling book in its field in the United States.  His newest book is Keeping Volunteers: A Guide to Retention.  Mr. Lynch is a Seattle-based management consultant who specializes in issues facing not-for-profit organizations. As a trainer, author, and coach, he helps managers create productive work places for both paid and unpaid staff. He has done volunteer management work shops in the United States, Canada, Australia, Britain, Ireland, Russia and Singapore. Each year, Mr. Lynch speaks at approximately 100 workshops, conventions and conferences throughout the world on topics related to volunteer management and leadership effectiveness.

Learn more at: http://www.ricklynchassociates.com/

The Northern Virginia Association of Volunteer Administrators (NVAVA) is a professional nonprofit membership organization for people committed to the effective involvement of volunteers in community programs and services. The purpose of NVAVA is to promote volunteer administration professionals, provide educational opportunities for volunteer professionals, increase networking, and increase awareness and cooperation among organizations utilizing volunteers.

Learn more at: http://www.nvava.org

Volunteer Fairfax: For more than 35 years, Volunteer Fairfax has been the heart of volunteering in Fairfax County. With a personal touch, the Center matches the skills and interests of volunteers and donors to the needs of local nonprofit organizations, helping to build a better community through service. Through a variety of programs and services, Volunteer Fairfax strengthens the capacity of its nonprofit members and offers meaningful volunteer opportunities for local citizens.

Learn more at: http://www.volunteerfairfax.org

Volunteer Arlington promotes civic engagement and active volunteer participation to meet local needs and enrich the lives of Arlingtonians. We welcome the opportunity to help you or your organization become more involved in the Arlington community.

Learn more at: http://www.arlingtonva.us/volunteer

Volunteer Alexandria‘s mission is to build a better community by inspiring and mobilizing people to volunteer.

Learn more at: http://www.volunteeralexandria.org

A Professional Development Journey

This blog post was originally published on the HandsOn Blog.

How fast does three years go by?

Three years ago I was joining AmeriCorps in hopes of getting training in the career of volunteer management.

In 2007, I was serving as an AmeriCorps member in northern Arizona and it was my responsibility to launch a volunteer program to help homebound seniors and disabled adults.

Just out of college with a history degree I found myself in charge of recruiting people, matching them with opportunities to serve, orienting and training them, as well as supervising and recognizing them.

I had jumped right into the volunteer management profession, without a single course in management.

Typical, I know.

It was my great fortune that Rick Lynch and Steve McCurley, co-authors of the best selling book on volunteer management and legendary for their training in the field, came to Arizona that year and presented a two-day training on volunteer management.

Over those two days we went through theory and practice on the soup to nuts of volunteer management.

Their insights about how people relate to one another, why people volunteer, and what the role of the volunteer manager is, were critical to my personal and professional development.

The binder I got that day has become my volunteer management bible which I carried with me through the next three years.

Jumping ahead in time to today; I am still in the field and now have the unique opportunity of bringing Rick Lynch to my new network of volunteer managers in the DC area.

I now work at Volunteer Arlington, a HandsOn Network Affiliate and we provide support to volunteer managers.

Having been in their shoes, I know how valuable it is to get the chance to participate in a well-designed and well-researched training with peers who are experiencing the same sort of challenges that are unique to this profession.

I am very excited about this training event and hope that it will serve as a key part of my peers’ professional development in the way that it did for me.

Volunteer Arlington, along with Volunteer Fairfax, Volunteer Alexandria, and the Northern Virginia Association of Volunteer Administrators are pleased to present Management 2011: Advanced Volunteer Management Training with Rick Lynch on Thursday July, 22, 2010 in Arlington, VA. Visit the website for more details.

Additional Notes from March Roundtable

During last month’s Arlington Alexandria Volunteer Manager’s Roundtable we encouraged participants to write on the paper table cloths.

Below are some insights that were not captured on the reporting back:

What defines a volunteer leader?

• “self-starter”
• take initiative
• ownership, becomes lead
• understands how what they’re doing fits overall vision

What does relationship with volunteer leaders look like?

• ongoing personal interaction
• open & clear communication
• ongoing participation
• provide broad overview, ownership in planning phase
• ensure leaders have tools and resources
• volunteer training
• permission to be in charge

Nurture volunteers – check in

Clearly defined tasks

Deadlines; action plan

setting boundaries – clear understanding of expectations between volunteers & staff

training of staff

modes of communication preferences

aware of time, volunteers have jobs / professions

Online Volunteer Recruitment: Leveraging Volunteer Arlington & Volunteer Alexandria’s Online Networks

Thank you to everyone who came out to today’s Online Volunteer Recruitment Training today. Didn’t make it? Check out the presentation here and let us know in the comments if you would like us to host another training or do some follow up on this topic.

more about "Online Volunteer Recruitment: Leverag…", posted with vodpod

Introduction to Skills Based and Pro Bono Volunteer Recruitment and Management

Skill-based volunteerism is service by individuals or groups that capitalizes on personal talents or core business skills, experience or education. More and more, agencies are struggling to meet their bottom line in fact, a 2006 Deloitte/Points of Light IMPACT study indicated that:

• Nine out of 10 nonprofits realize that volunteer skills are extremely valuable
• Seventy-seven percent of non-profit organizations believe they would benefit from corporate volunteers ; but,
• Sixty-two percent work with corporate volunteers and only 12 percent of agencies align roles with skill

This gap means that many agencies are missing out on a precious resource—the talent of individual volunteer leaders and corporate teams who can use their skills and products to increase the capacity and effectiveness of nonprofits. Skill-based volunteerism or SBV comes in all shapes and sizes it can include:

• Individual volunteers, corporate paid or non-paid volunteers, groups, loaned executive, or interns
• Projects completed in one day, short, medium or long-term projects
• Activities performed during working hours or on individual time
• Planned in advance or spontaneous (such as disaster response) projects
• Application of all types of skills and talents from business professional experience to hobbies
• Content from non-profit infrastructure efficiency effort to direct “in the field” projects
• Local impact to national and international

Volunteer Alexandria can help your agency seize the opportunity to leverage talent and engage businesses around their brand and core business. With information, research, and easy-to-implement tools, this training will help you build a strong Skills Based Volunteer program to meet your mission.

Presented by: Terry Campbell, Assistant Coordinator of Special Events and Public Safety, former Corporate Volunteer Program Manager with Volunteer Jacksonville, and Melinda Patrician, Executive Director of Volunteer Alexandria

When: Wednesday, April 14, 10:00am-Noon

Where: Volunteer Alexandria – 123 N. Alfred St, Alexandria VA 22314

Fee: $35

Register: Contact Jennifer Styles at 703-836-2176 or jstyles@volunteeralexandria.org

Online Volunteer Recruitment Training

Are you looking to improve your recruitment of volunteers through online portals such as Volunteer Arlington’s Online Volunteer Connection and Volunteer Alexandria’s website?

Volunteer Arlington and Volunteer Alexandria are co-hosting a computer training this Wednesday for volunteer managers who would like to get their questions answered about making the most of online recruitment.

• What happens when you post an opportunity on a volunteer center website?
• What is the difference between Volunteer Arlington and Volunteer Alexandria’s online recruitment sites?
• How can you maximize the free advertising while minimizing the time and effort it takes you to post?

We promise to answer all of these questions and more at Wednesday’s session.

When:  Wednesday, March 31 – 1-2:30 pm

Where: Computer CORE,  3846 King Street, Alexandria, VA 22302

Please RSVP to Jennifer Styles at (Ph) 703.836.2176 or by email.

Evaluation of Volunteer Leaders / Volunteer Programs

These notes were taken at the March Roundtable and were written by individuals at each table.  If you attended the roundtable and can fill in the gaps on what was talked about, please add your comments to this thread.  If you were not present, but have comments or questions regarding Evaluation of volunteer leaders, please add your comments to this thread as well.

NOTES:

Use small group information seeking approach to evaluate volunteers as well as program.

Evaluate volunteer performance as well as your (volunteer coordinator) methods (are your efforts working?)

Have a focus group to talk about how things are going.  It’s a way to air complaints that everyone will hear.

Evaluation and feedback

Annual surveys of volunteer program by staff and volunteers.

Ask questions with meaning to the volunteer’s task.

Document what volunteers are doing (work-wise)

Evaluation – individual, group

Identify tasks or responsibilities to be evaluated

Let volunteers help with data analysis.

Decide how long of a period for the evaluation (3 months, 6 months, 1 year).

How do you motivate the individual after the evaluation?

Surveymonkey – solicit input = buy in > long term volunteer, leader, advocate

Recognition of Volunteer Leaders

These notes were taken at the March Roundtable and were written by individuals at each table.  If you attended the roundtable and can fill in the gaps on what was talked about, please add your comments to this thread.  If you were not present, but have comments or questions regarding Recognition of volunteer leaders, please add your comments to this thread as well.

NOTES:

Recognize volunteer leaders

Newsletter articles

Presidential volunteer service awards

Ask volunteers in initial interview how they want to be recognized

“Volunteer of the Month”

Thank you letters

Communicate your appreciation

Birthday cards

Thank you notes

Utilize higher recognition level – Obama’s volunteer recognition

Volunteer Appreciation Week

Involve volunteers with planning celebration

Birthday cards

Volunteer Awards

Do it! Do it often!

“Treat volunteer as staff” – offer volunteer career track (promotions)

Supervision of Volunteer Leaders

These notes were taken at the March Roundtable and were written by individuals at each table.  If you attended the roundtable and can fill in the gaps on what was talked about, please add your comments to this thread.  If you were not present, but have comments or questions regarding Supervision of volunteer leaders, please add your comments to this thread as well.

NOTES:

Gain trust of followers

Setting boundaries

Find out how volunteer likes to receive information

Focus on relationships

Be a good listener

Ongoing personal interaction

Tailor communications to the way the volunteer likes to get it – eg. Phone calls vs. email

Have volunteers be volunteer leaders and supervise other volunteers

Learn about the people you lead

Have a “neighbor” concept to minimize passivity and enhance pro-activity…

Open & clear communication

Survey volunteers and ask how the program is going

Empower your volunteers

More effective communication with volunteers