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by Patricia Kimball

Writing this blog is an honor. Being asked to share my thoughts and experiences about volunteerism, social change, leadership….I consider this a huge honor. So, when I sit down and begin to craft my posting, I do so with all the seriousness I can muster.

But today is a bit different. As it turns out, I am on vacation at a small camp in the back woods of Vermont. With no electricity at hand, I have only enough time to write this as my aging laptop battery will spare. I am sticky and warm; the early July heat has made me feel more like sleeping then hiking or adventuring in the woods. And my mind is still on Lisbeth Salandar, as I am closing in on the last chapters of The Girl Who Played with Fire.

Writing a blog about anything related to work seems a bit out of alignment with my current environment or state of mind. Or does it?

One of the things that I love about the work that I do is that it is so closely integrated into my life that at times I do not see it as a separate function or something that I do to make a living. This is precisely why I am perfectly content staring at my laptop screen while I listen to frogs croaking in the pond yards from my doorstep. Working in the nonprofit world affords me the opportunity to focus my time on things that speak to my values, that access the deepest part of me, that allow me to use my skills and interests to further important causes – be they large and universal or small and specific. I don’t have to separate my work life from my personal life, because what I do for work is deeply personal.

This is what I find so amazing about the opportunity to work with volunteers. Volunteers do not come to work for a paycheck. Instead, they come for the opportunity to contribute something of themselves to social causes which are personally important to them. Of course, the details of an individual’s choice to volunteer are as diverse as the skills each individual brings to a job. The commitment to give, however, is universal.

Why is it important to recognize the unique value volunteers bring with them to a workplace, beyond a specific set of skills and an extra pair of hands? Because it enables me to engage the volunteer on a more meaningful level. Asking why a person is choosing to volunteer with my organization or cause allows me to craft an experience for them that is not only satisfying and fulfilling for them as individuals, but ensures a quality of work that benefits my clients in the long run. Volunteers whose motivations are understood, acknowledged and considered when he or she is being placed are more likely to stay with the organization longer, to recruit like-minded people to the cause, and to be an advocate for the organization, clients and cause long after their volunteer experience has ended.

If you are as lucky as I am and consider the intersection of your personal life and your work to be a gift, assume that gift to be what volunteers bring to your organization. Recognizing and acknowledging this will ultimately ensure rewarding experiences for the volunteer, the clients and your organization.

Now, about a swim in that pond….

Patricia Kimball is the owner/founder of Ideactive Solutions and is a featured blogger.

by Michael Aiguier

Most of what we do with our father’s growing up really could not be classified as volunteering. Mowing the lawn, scraping the house for painting, shoveling and piling wood come to mind as activities I was “recruited” for and definitely not things I could easily have turned down. Those are activities that did give me the first early notions of a community effort. There are others that we did as a family, but those are the ones I remember specifically doing with my father.

I also remember him donating his time to help out when the church and school I attended needed work done. When people were moving he was there helping to load, and, if it wasn’t moving a fair piece, unload. He was also in the Coast Guard Reserve, so he was volunteering for our country as well. Now that he is retired, he still keeps busy with maintenance work at the church he now attends, Meals on Wheels and various other activities.

There are many ways you can show your children how to be good members of their community, from talking to them about the effects of not helping others, helping others in your area by yourself and, of course, volunteering together. There are many opportunities listed on this website, and even helping out your neighbor across the street with their yard work can be a teaching moment.

For you children out there, Father’s Day gift shopping may not be a traditionally hard thing to do. Many people buy things that are not given more than a couple of minutes thought, if that. Time is the most precious commodity that costs the least. Just hanging out with your father and helping him with his chores might be something you can do. Something that might be a little more meaningful (and a whole lot less stressful for many of us) is to volunteer with or on behalf of your father for a cause or organization he feels strongly about.

Michael Aiguier is an AmeriCorps VISTA with the VolunteerMaine Project serving at the United Way of Eastern Maine and a featured blogger.

by Sarah Ryan, Ph.D.

Summertime represents a shift in gears for most nonprofits. Youth organizations fill more hours each day with programming, legal organizations prepare for fresh sessions of autumnal judicial fact-finding, and a lucky handful of public sector employees take vacations, or at least silence their Blackberries for a few hours each Friday. Throughout the sun-drenched U.S. nonprofit sector, emerging professionals attempt to be helpful while building their resumes. It’s that time of year again – high season for college interns.

In the early 2000s, I struggled to manage gaggles of well-meaning do-gooders commuting from their dorm rooms at Columbia and New York University. Today, as a faculty member, I prepare young people with big hearts and dreams (and a sometimes-Machiavellian obsession with their resumes) for summer internships. Working with soon-to-be college interns, I have learned a great deal about how they approach these opportunities. Although my students bring a wide array of talents to the table, they seem to share at least three assumptions about internships:

Assumption 1: Interns add greatly to organizations without costing anything Recently, one of my students decided to seek an internship in New York City. Another student encouraged her, effusing: “There are lots of internships. Everyone wants interns. We work hard and don’t cost anything!” In that moment, I realized that students have no idea how much work it takes to train or manage them. They see the value that they add – rightfully – without recognizing the overhead they exact. I discovered the same phenomenon when employing graduate research assistants. My RAs had to clock a certain number of hours per week or month regardless of my work flow. During lulls, I arrived at work early to create projects for them to do; during high times I did some of their work for them because I had no extra money to pay for overtime. In the end, I discovered that research assistantships often benefit students more than faculty mentors, just like internships. (And students don’t realize this.)

Assumption 2: “In this economy…” organizations need free labor My students maintain grim estimations of their post-college job opportunities. “In this economy…” they sigh, “There is almost no hope for someone with a Liberal Arts degree, or Business degree, or any other sort of 4-year degree.” “Organizations aren’t hiring,” they opine, “They’re getting the work done for free.” This is especially true in the public sector, they figure. Many of my students see the public sector as a sinking ship that needs bailers. They see themselves as wielding buckets and pitching in to save organizations when they need it most. And with that almost-righteous view of their contribution, they expect organizations to offer high praise, flexible working hours, and interesting work. After all, beggars can’t be choosers, and “in this economy” nonprofits are begging for free labor rather than hiring recent college graduates.

Assumption 3: Organizations are like living textbooks with expert managers/teachers at the helm Although many of my students have work experience, they still view their internship sites as romanticized case studies, ripped from the “best practices” pages of textbooks. In their imaginations, professional managers orchestrate incredibly complex organizations in nuanced and theoretically-driven ways that suggest clear roles and learning outcomes for incoming team members. In short, students approach internships the way they approach classes. They expect an expert to lead them through a series of increasingly complex tasks that will result in both the betterment of the organization and the intern-learner: a textbook win-win situation. Some students are shocked to discover that organizations are chaotic, roles and tasks are in transition, and there is no syllabus-type document outlining the major activities, expectations, or take-aways for their internships.

So, students assume that they are greatly needed, no-cost contributors to the bottom line of a highly-functioning but under-resourced enterprise run by geniuses. Knowing this, mentors/supervisors can better manage their interns by employing three strategies.

Strategy 1: Develop a comprehensive internship orientation program for the organization or a consortium of organizations Rather than having each supervisor conduct individual orientation and training sessions with each intern each summer, develop a broad-based training program for the entire organization, or – better yet – a consortium of organizations. The orientation should cover a range of topics from professional comportment to specific job skills. It should include goal-setting sessions that emphasize the role of interns in managing their own learning processes. The orientation should include team-building activities that encourage interns to form a community among themselves and begin to see each other as sources of information (i.e., as opposed to the mentor as the source of all answers to all questions). Finally, the orientation should serve to transition students from a classroom setting to a team-building setting to a professional setting.

Strategy 2: Create summer-length “filler” projects for interns to complete during their downtime At times, interns will not have enough work to do. Wanting to remain busy and useful at all times, they will typically approach their supervisors for “more work.” These requests often come at inopportune moments, when supervisors are consumed with pressing projects and deliverables and are unable to articulate specific tasks and provide on-the-spot training. The potential for both sides to be frustrated in these moments is quite high. “Filler” projects can provide interns with a sense of continuity and supervisors with a much needed respite from teaching. Research projects can be especially useful “fillers” because they leverage students’ existing skills and provide organizations with useful information. One of my colleagues had her intern research all U.S.-based conventions and conferences related to the organization’s work. The student delivered a year-long calendar of events that is still updated by the staff. Another colleague had interns research all of the competing organizations in his field. His nonprofit uses that document to prepare portions of grant proposals (e.g., that describe the NGO’s niche). Both colleagues encouraged their interns to return to these and other large-scale endeavors whenever they found themselves idle (i.e., rather than asking for “more work”).

Strategy 3: Praise your interns
Despite some misguided assumptions and unreasonable needs, my students are admirably committed to adding value to the world through their contributions to organizations and causes that they care about. In my classroom, they are open, thoughtful, and compassionate. They harbor big dreams about a more just society. They want to belong, they long to matter, and they believe that their internships are their contributions to social justice. In talking with them about their summer plans, I hear again and again that they are going off to do good things. I witness a longing for challenges, successes, and approval from professionals that seem to have it all together. When they read me their cover letters, they stretch out the names of executive directors and program officers and internship supervisors – people they long to emulate. And then they head off to their internships, full of starry-eyed admiration for their mentors, the people changing the world. They believe their mentors need them, they hope they will be appreciated.

And in the end, despite all that they might ask for, my students really want only one thing – praise.

Sarah Ryan, Ph.D., is from the Department of Communication at The University of Texas at El Paso and is a featured blogger.

by Keri Penick

Have you ever heard of the nationwide program Plant-A-Row (PAR)? Most people are able to exclaim- “Oh, I’ve heard about that!” Commonly, people do understand it is a public service campaign to encourage home gardeners to grow more vegetables and fruits and donate any excess to local food pantries. Most understand it is a great idea, but can be puzzled as to what it really entails.

The beginning of May saw the launch of the 2010 Kennebec Plant-A-Row Challenge, after weeks of planning and building excitement among volunteers, including UMaine Cooperative Extension Staff, Master Gardener Volunteers, and community members who are behind local efforts for this program. This “Challenge” is to provide at least 12,000 pounds of fresh produce to food pantries in the Kennebec County area.

A great incentive for interested volunteers to sign up now is to receive support, connect with the gardening community, and to eliminate pantries from becoming overburdened. But with busy lives, we all understand the regret that can come from hearing about great ideas such as PAR, but becoming unable to join the effort. Of course, the biggest reason that may keep people from volunteering is limited time. The second reason, however, is one that may be overlooked but can easily be addressed to increase participation- fixing the disconnect between volunteers wanting to help and not knowing exactly what they can do!

The Kennebec PAR Planning Committee is addressing this challenge in several ways, including:
• Public Outreach: Distribution of information to nurseries, greenhouses, health food stores, farmers’ markets, and libraries
• Identifying Resources: Using excitement, talent, and connections from volunteers themselves for such distribution and to create hand-drawn logos and tee-shirt designs
• Providing Support: Welcoming participants to the program and giving specific instructions for donating to pantries
• Creating a Coaching Model: Implementing volunteers to serve as local coordinators for PAR participants in their area, increasing connection and underlining the power of relationships
• Offering Opportunities: Inclusive to those without a garden, for example:
 Giving a helping hand to local community gardens already growing for food pantry donation,
 Serving a food pantry or soup kitchen based on their individual needs: contributing time, transportation of food, or even donating containers.

By filling out an enrollment form, a volunteer can be encouraged to find an opportunity that works for them and the community, in whatever capacity they may offer. Enrolling in the PAR program connects the gardener with other volunteers also committed to improving the local food economy, as well as providing an outlet of communication for horticulture advice.

UMaine Cooperative Extension and Master Gardener Volunteers are excited about gardening, and with dedicated food pantry and soup kitchen volunteers—are also passionate about helping the community. The 2010 Kennebec Plant-A-Row Challenge combines such efforts. Join us today—and many thanks to those who already have!

Please visit our website for more information, including an online enrollment form.

Keri Penick is an AmeriCorps*VISTA with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Kennebec County and is a guest blogger.

by Jamie Andrew

Last Thursday, I woke up earlier than usual. I was running through a list in my head: coffee donations to pick up from Arabica, blueberry scones from Standard Baking Company, how many paper cups are we going to need, and so on. It wasn’t just any old Thursday – it was United Way’s Day of Caring. I knew at least 20 bright-eyed and bushy-tailed volunteers were going to show up – and soon! – at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine, ready to lend a hand for six hours. Needless to say, I didn’t stay in bed long.

Those 20 volunteers spent the day (and a gloriously sunny one, at that) painting, digging, cleaning, and hammering. They took apart the Taj Mahal (a mini version, that is), planted flowers in the backyard and painted the Birthday Room. They assembled picnic tables, painted the deck of the pirate ship, and brought an infectious amount of positive energy to the Museum & Theatre for the day.

We have Day of Caring volunteers every year, but I always forget how great they are until we’re in the middle of it and everyone’s sweating, guzzling water bottles, and irrepressibly grinning from ear to ear. It’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day stresses of working at a nonprofit organization, trying to keep the zillions of thoughts in your head and not coming out of your ears. But Day of Caring is kind of a unique thing – twenty total strangers come and donate a whole day of their time to the place we work so hard to create. All of a sudden, amidst the drippy paint rollers and the dirty fingernails, you remember that we live in a community – and an incredible one at that.

We live in a city that comes together – willingly, cheerfully, enthusiastically – to simply make something better. When a particularly dedicated volunteer, precariously perched on top of a ladder, hammered the crowbar just enough to make a huge chunk of the Taj Mahal fall to the ground, everyone cheered and clapped like he’d hit a home run. It was a strangely satisfying moment – after all, here we all were, gathered around a common task. And we kind of kicked that task’s butt. Really, what’s better than that?

Jamie Andrew is the Visitor Guide / Volunteer Coordinator at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine and is a featured blogger.

by Mary-Anne Beal

It’s a privilege for me to share my thoughts on the Governor’s Volunteer Service Awards.

My history with the award goes way back to the 80’s, before it was even called the GSA or held in the State House. I remember being invited to the Blaine House for tea with the Governor, in recognition of my work as a volunteer. I shopped at Butlers in downtown Waterville for my first grown up suit. It was bright blue and I never wore it again because it was to be saved! I never learned who nominated me and I can tell you I never had a drop of tea, but tears sting my eyes at the memory of how special it made me feel. You see, I never volunteered in hopes of being invited to the Blaine House for tea. I volunteered because I believed in the work that had to be done. I’m surprised that memory still means so much to me.

The Governor’s Volunteer Service Awards is an event that is organized and sponsored by the Maine Commission for Community Service. Nominations are solicited from all over the state for several awards including Volunteer of the Year, Youth Volunteer of the Year, Corporate Volunteerism Award. Peer reviewers work hard to review the nominations and select the winners. Winners and honorable mentions are invited to the State House Hall of Flags for recognition. It’s a powerful event and it’s a humbling experience to create an event that fully appreciates the work of these extraordinary people.

Let’s fast forward to 2008. For the first time since I joined the Maine Commission for Community Service, I was asked to be a part of the planning committee for the Governor’s Volunteer Service Awards. I was a little nervous and busied myself with details. So much work went into the event and we depended heavily on the staff to pull it together. (We still do!) Much of this event is a blur except for the stories. The stories change me. Some examples of the people I’ve met include a 90 year old woman from ‘the county’. She and her best friend used to knit baby caps for the hospital. Every year for as long as she could remember they would knit the caps. She cried when she explained that her friend died recently. She still knits the caps every day. (Later that spring, my first grandchild was born. When I met her in the hospital nursery, she was wearing a tiny little homemade knit cap.) Another fascinating woman was last years’ volunteer of the year. A mom who desperately wanted to learn about autism after her daughter was born, was left to travel the country and learn as much as she could as there was so little information in Maine. She made it her mission to bring back this education and share it with other frightened families. She created the State’s largest and most well-respected conference on autism. She runs it by herself. There is no admission fee. She does this because she remembers how she felt when she was looking for that information.

The stories are endless but every year there is one common theme. We bring together the people in this state who care deeply about making Maine a better place. They don’t do it to meet our Governor or to have tea. It’s something they do because they don’t know how to live any other way.

Every year I am moved to tears not only because of their powerful messages, but also because I am honored to be in their company. We hope you’ll join us as we celebrate the beauty and selflessness of this years’ Governor’s Volunteer Service Award winners.

Mary-Anne Beal is the Executive Director of the Maine Sheriff’s Association and is a Commissioner. She is a guest blogger.

Editor’s Note: The Governor’s Volunteer Service Awards were created in 1988 as a way to recognize volunteerism in Maine. Maine’s Roll of Honor acknowledges the outstanding contributions of our most distinguished volunteers.
The 2010 Governor’s Volunteer Service Awards will be announced Thursday, April 22nd. Be sure to check VolunteerMaine.org for the list of winners!

by Jamie Andrew

For those of you who don’t know, PAVA is a beautiful thing. PAVA stands for Portland Area Volunteer Administrators, and we meet once a month at different organizations throughout Portland. Not only are there muffins and coffee (!), there is always a truly wonderful group of people willing to bounce ideas, thoughts, and questions off of each other. The value of this can’t be underestimated – especially because, as Volunteer Coordinators, we’re often flying solo in our organizations. Most non-profits barely have money for one Volunteer Coordinator, let alone two. So who do we gripe about unreliable volunteers with? Brainstorm about retention with? My co-workers appreciate volunteers, but they’re not always wildly excited to discuss background checks (for which I don’t blame them).

So at a recent PAVA meeting, we did some group work, analyzing different statistics about volunteers from the past five years or so. Our group got into an insightful conversation about the roots of lots of issues we deal with – recruitment, training, management, retention – that I think is important for every Volunteer Coordinator (and employee who works with volunteers, for that matter) to think about. We know our organizations have and appreciate volunteers, but have you ever asked your staff: Why Volunteers? No, like, really – why volunteers? Chances are, the reasons your organization has volunteers runs deeper than having an occasional stapler, envelope stuffer, or tree-planter. The time and planning that goes into having volunteers is a huge investment, one that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Does the staff of your organization understand this? If you can, consider an all-staff meeting involving a group discussion about volunteers, asking why you even have them in the first place.

We are operating in trying economic times, and most non-profits are seeking ways to expand capacity while cutting budgets simultaneously. (Somewhat counterintuitive, no?) Think about what volunteers have to offer if we take the time to thoughtfully integrate them into all aspects of our organizations. Not just the copying, the cleaning, and the odd projects here and there – but getting to know them individually for their personality, skill sets, their passions. Match them with jobs that suit them, meaningful tasks that allow employees to take on bigger projects. Imagine the load that could be lifted off of our over-worked staff! Everyone needs to be on board, though, or it won’t work. So consider starting by asking everyone a simple question: Why Volunteers?

Jamie Andrew is the Visitor Guide / Volunteer Coordinator at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine and is a featured blogger.

by Sarah Rhyan

Last semester, one of my students brought me an all-too-familiar problem. As a leader of her son’s P.T.A. she was frustrated with the low parental turnout at meetings and P.T.A.-sponsored events. She asked what she should do.

I offered the following advice:

When I ran a debate program in the South Bronx, getting parents to visit was the toughest part of my job. One year, I offered $100 worth of office supplies to the debate team that brought the most parents to the program’s annual open house. The winning school enticed two parents to attend. They were the only two that showed up. Over time I learned why parents don’t participate and how nonprofit leaders and volunteers can cope.

Why don’t parents participate?

Over the years, I discovered that well-intentioned parents still miss P.T.A. meetings, open houses, and the like for two reasons. First, parents opt out because they can’t find the time, not because they don’t care. Even non-working parents are balancing doctor visits, house-cleaning, shopping, etc. The particular date or time selected for a meeting might coincide with soccer practice, a visiting aunt, and the like. Today’s parents are busier than ever and they simply cannot attend every event. Second, parents are asked to attend all sorts of meetings, and most of them are a waste of time. Moms, dads, grandparents, and other legal guardians meet with doctors, social workers, pastors, nutritionists, teachers, etc. They show up to these meetings to demonstrate that they care about their kids. Many of these meetings are disorganized, irrelevant, unpleasant, and offer parents little in the way of help. Well-meaning administrators across the public sector organize face-to-face meetings when they’re not really necessary. Parents cannot tell the difference between a legitimate meeting and a waste of time from the flyers brought home by their children.

What can nonprofit leaders and volunteers do in the face of parental absence?

Nonprofit staffers – especially volunteers and unpaid community leaders like my student – can approach the situation using some or all of the following five strategies:

Strategy 1 - Only convene meetings when there is a true need for face-to-face decision-making, etc. For everything else, use e-mail, paper (e.g., take-home handouts), etc.

Strategy 2 - Plan a clear agenda and communicate it with parents well in advance so that they know the topic of the meeting, the goals for the meeting, and why their participation matters.

Strategy 3 - Organize, organize, organize… so that you can run the most efficient meeting possible. A thirty-minute meeting is ideal for busy parents.

Strategy 4 - Schedule the meeting at a time that works for working (and non-working) families (e.g., 4:30pm). If possible, provide an extra benefit such as free dinner. Remember, in the world of busy parenting, a 30-minute meeting accompanied by dinner for the family might actually save time (e.g., no dishes to wash).

Strategy 5 - Be happy with quality, rather than quantity. A dedicated team of 5 parents willing to meet monthly will achieve more for most organizations than a loose grouping of 20 parents willing to meet once a year.

Sarah Rhyan, Ph.D., is from the Department of Communication at The University of Texas at El Paso and is a featured blogger.

by Vicki Schmidt

Some of my best friends are Chief Officers in urban, fulltime “round-the-clock” staffed Fire Departments. Another coalition of friends are career firefighters in fully staffed shift-scheduled union Departments. And then there are my firefighter friends and fire instructor colleagues who, like me, rarely see the inside of a fire department crisp with professional uniforms. Our time is spent serving the always on call fire departments that make up over 85% of the fire departments in Maine. Those that are home to the ever on guard; volunteer firefighter.

Quality training for all firefighters, no matter how the Department is defined, is critical. And instructing in a rural volunteer department is especially challenging. Training props and equipment needed to ensure skills based on National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) training standards and certified curriculum objectives are often hard to locate or construct. While some departments have their own in-house instructor; essential skills that ensure continued professional development, full scale Firefighter I & II program management, and the ability to strategically plan for long term department training needs, often escape the ability or means of many volunteer instructors as well as their Departments.

Volunteer departments in every corner of Maine are often served by part time instructors from Maine Fire Training & Education, (MFTE) an educational branch of Southern Maine Community College, (SMCC). MFTE and SMCC also maintain, and upon request and with support from MFTE’s Logistics Division, distribute any of sixteen specialized fire training support trailers to rural regions of Maine. In fact, during the last three months of 2009 and January of this year, MFTE field instructors provided over 15,000 NFPA certified training hours to 593 firefighters in 63 volunteer departments. Many of these classes allowed rural firefighters to obtain their national Firefighter I & II Certification, as well as credit hours towards a Fire Science degree from SMCC and Maine’s Community College System.*

While termed a band of gypsies by some, Maine’s dedicated group of mobile instructors and the equipment they can deliver is vital to many of Maine’s rural and volunteer fire departments. As our States fire training agencies plan for our future fire services training needs, we are wise to look to the lessons learned in States that currently depend on large scale training facilities. Neighboring New Hampshire and a new state-of-the-art facility in Omaha, Nebraska are currently in the process of buying mobile fire training trailers. Maine’s gypsy trailers, and their band of gypsy instructors, might just be the future. And once again, as Maine goes, goes the Nation.

* MFTE FY10 Advisory Delivery Report EMCC Bangor ME

Vicki Schmidt is a State Fire Instructor II, Maine Fire Protection Services Commission, Maine State Federation of Firefighters, Volunteer Firefighters. She is a guest blogger.

by Jen Lobley, M.ED, CVA

Having been with UMaine Cooperative Extension for almost 10 years working in the area of 4-H Youth Development, I now find myself with a new challenge. I have recently been named Statewide Extension Educator for Volunteer Development.

Cooperative Extension provides research-based information from the Land-Grant University through a variety of educational programs to local people. Cooperative Extension volunteers play a unique role among volunteer agency programs in that they can extend the reach of Cooperative Extension into every Maine community and help provide a link between the Land Grant University and the people seeking out information. Did you know that 7,987 Extension volunteers devoted more than 151,428 hours to their communities last year? These volunteers are working in a variety of areas including: youth development, horticulture, coastal and freshwater water quality monitoring, environmental work, nutrition education, senior companion programs, sustainable coastal community programs, and parenting education.

I am excited about the challenges this new position will bring as I begin to work to create a volunteer delivery system which will increase our organizational capacity to engage more volunteers. This in turn will help provide long-term program sustainability and expand Extension’s economic, social, and environmental impact on the state of Maine. In the process of getting this work underway, I have set three goals for myself:

1. Make training and resources available for Extension staff members that enable them to gain skills and confidence in building volunteer capacity. Helping staff understand the foundational components of a volunteer system and then helping them create volunteer programs that are reflective of current trends in volunteerism will make up a large part of my work. Trends such as episodic volunteerism, virtual volunteerism and catering to the Boomer generation are all areas to be aware of and consider as we design volunteer opportunities.

2. Utilize research to build effective training opportunities and educational programs in which volunteers will be educated and empowered to assume or accept service or leadership roles. I believe volunteers are the heart of Cooperative Extension. They have played a critical role in the 95 year history of Extension here in Maine and will continue to actively do so in the future. However, the volunteer of today is different than the volunteer of yesterday and this will impact how we work with them.

3. In the near future, Extension will be viewed by other organizations around Maine as a place to find research-based volunteer development trainings, opportunities, and resources that they can access and adjust to fit their individual needs. I envision Extension collaborating with the Maine Commission for Community Service and other groups to help build new partnerships and tap new community resources to expand volunteerism. Just think of the endless opportunities!

So that’s a lot to accomplish, huh? You might be wondering where on earth would she start? The real work will begin internally within Extension. Although I have a general sense of the various programs we offer, I will need to spend time learning about current volunteer engagement within our various program areas and spend time on needs assessment. I am also forming an advisory group. By having an advisory committee to provide input into determining priorities,long-range goals, policy and procedure, I believe a better volunteer system will emerge than if I were to try implementing something alone.

I know demands on our staff in terms of time are tight. As I develop training opportunities I will need to keep this in mind. I will work to develop and provide easily digestible “chunks” of information including monthly Volunteer Management Minute trainings (narrated video clips lasting five minutes or less with a few PowerPoint slides), a series of volunteer management tips that will be emailed out on a regular basis, and create an internal web page for staff members that will host a variety of or resources. (I must note that I am very fortunate to have a VISTA volunteer helping me get these projects started!)

I am proud to work for an organization that supports having a position that is focused completely on volunteer development. Our administration truly understands the value of volunteers. I will make every effort to communicate the importance of volunteers both within and outside the organization- not just to our volunteers, but to paid staff, executive committees, funders, local officials and administration. This truly is an exciting time to be working in the volunteer development profession and I look forward to the work ahead!

Jen Lobley is the Extension Educator for Volunteer Development at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and is a guest blogger.