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By Elizabeth Cole

The Maine Commission for Community Service is gearing up for the 2010 Leadership Institute for highly experienced managers of volunteers (8 + years) and we want your input on this year’s theme. The Leadership Institute is a three day conference that delves deeply into an issue or area of particular interest to managers of volunteers. Please help us meet your needs! Take the following interest survey and let us know which topics would best help you advance personally and professionally as a manager of volunteers.

The survey should take less than five minutes to complete and is a great opportunity for you to help shape professional development opportunities for managers of volunteers within the state.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=_2ft0hvEJRJZgQaWnDrayhWA_3d_3d

Please share the link with your peers and let your voice be heard. We greatly appreciate your input and time!

Elizabeth Cole is a AmeriCorps VISTA with The Maine Commission for Community Service and a guest blogger.

By Trudy Hamilton

At the recent Blaine House conference, there was quite a bit of information about professional development in the volunteer management career path. Much of the information was about the exciting, new opportunities being created by leaders in the field, like Anne Schink and Larry Ullian at USM, or the work being done by the Project Invest folks.

There is much more to professional development, however, than traditional courses and credentials. Joining a network of your peers can be equally beneficial. PAVA in the Portland area usually has a variety of presentations throughout the year. One of my favorites this year was the presentation on social media, and I’m looking forward to Martin Cowling’s training in November. VAMM in the Midcoast area traditionally does an excellent one-day conference at a marvelous venue…The Maine Maritime Museum. The topics offered are as varied as the presenters, and the keynote is always interesting. DOVIA in York County has had dynamic membership and presenters over the years.

Up and coming are new networks in a wide area of the state. In the Lewiston-Auburn Area, the VISTA hosted by my agency, Michelle Mason, is working diligently to convene other volunteer resource managers in the area and help with the growth of AVA. She did a fantastic educational piece around social media, and is planning a piece on professional development for the next meeting. The Franklin Volunteer Resource Network in the Farmington area is coming back to life after a long hiatus in an effort to share resources, ideas, and needs. There is another network developing in the Bangor area, as well. If we become active in our local groups, and those groups thrive, most of the state will have opportunities for involvement.

At the national level, you might think about joining the Association of Leaders in Volunteer Engagement (AL!VE). Part of their mandate is to provide trainings, regional conferences, and a voice at the national level. They are currently planning to provide a free webinar training for members, developed by Katie Campbell of CVA and Susan Ellis of Energize.Inc.

All of these networks provide professional development for volunteer managers. You get the opportunity to find out who else is doing what in your community, and everyone has the opportunity to learn about you and your agency, as well. One of the nicer pieces is realizing that although you may be the only one in your organization who does what you do, you aren’t the only one in your community. Everyone has something to offer.

In this field, you find professional development opportunities in unusual places. Make the most of them.

“Knowledge is power and knowledge shared is power multiplied.”
– Bob Noyce

Trudy Hamilton, CVA is the Manager of Volunteer Resources at SeniorsPlus and a featured blogger.

By Rochelle Runge

In partnership with VolunteerMaine.org, the Maine Commission for Community Service sponsors both this Blog and the VolunteerFare Newsletter, in and effort to provide you with news and information on the sector and relevant educational topics to help further your professional development.

Our newsletter contributors and bloggers aim to target messages that will be helpful to your work and interesting to read. In order to help us focus our energy please take a few minutes to answer this short 7 question survey on VolunteerFare and the Blog. Thank you in advance for your help!

Rochelle Runge is the Public Relations Representative for the Maine Commission for Community Service and a guest blogger.

By Elizabeth Cole

Two weeks ago I replaced my grandfather’s outdated internet browser with one that was more current and theoretically easier to use. After teaching him the basics, I started to show him some of the more advanced tools that I use. I was in the middle of explaining RSS blog feeds when he started to rub his eyes, a sign of mounting frustration. “Ah, Lillibet, I just get worn out with all of this new stuff.” I tried to explain that a RSS feed is like getting newspapers delivered to your computer rather than the door. In the midst of my analogy, which I was pretty proud of, he closed the laptop and stood up. “Thanks, honey, I think that’s all the new information I can handle for today,” he said. I had tried to give my grandfather more than he was prepared to receive, leaving me feeling like a failure and him like a fool.

This got me thinking about generational learning approaches and the implication for volunteer training and orientation. When you organize training opportunities, even informal ones, it is important to remember that adults think and learn differently than young people. With more baby-boomers volunteering than any other age group, a trend that will only intensify as more move towards retirement, understanding the principles of adult education is more important than ever. Here are some hints that will make your training sessions more effective for any age group, but that are especially important for older audiences:

• Emphasize the relevance of the training: Adults will resist material forced on them or that is only vaguely described as being interesting or “good for them to know.” Try to make the training applicable to your volunteers’ daily tasks and not just another lecture they need to sit through before they can get to the “real work” of their service.
• Make it interactive: studies show that we retain only 20% of what we hear in a lecture setting, so consider incorporating discussions, practical exercises, scenarios, role-playing, and writing.
• Construct the session around discussion: Adults learn by relating new material to preexisting knowledge. By discussing their beliefs or past experiences, adults reinforce new information.
• Involve volunteers in planning and implementing training: Giving adults some control over their learning process acknowledges that they are grownups and helps keep them engaged and enthusiastic.
• Be cautious and protective of volunteers’ self esteem: Kids learn to walk by falling down, but mature learners are much less open to trial-and-error than children. Many adults will resist trying something new if it involves the risk of making an error and feeling foolish as a result.
Nonprofits cannot hope to improve their world without first improving their volunteers. Often volunteers are charged with challenging tasks that take a lot of knowledge and training to do well. Whether you are teaching your volunteers to facilitate group discussions or showing a senior how to use the internet, remembering the basics of adult education will help you equip your volunteers to serve with passion and self-confidence.

Elizabeth Cole is an AmeriCorps member with the Maine Commission for Community Service and a presenter at the 2009 Blaine House Conference on Volunteerism.

Resources: Print Resources: Ellis, S. J., & Noyes, K. H. (1990). By the people: A history of Americans as volunteers. (Rev. ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. / Furano K. et al, (1993). Big Brother/Big Sister: A study of program practices. Philadelphia, PA: Public/Private Ventures. / Herman, R.D. (Ed.). (1994). The Jossey-Bass handbook of nonprofit leadership and management. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Morrison, E.K. (1994). Leadership skills: Developing volunteers for organizational success. Tucson, AZ: Fisher Books. /Roaf, P. A. et al, (1994). Big Brother/Big Sister: A study of volunteer recruitment and screening. Philadelphia, PA: Public/Private Ventures.

By Martin J Cowling

In a few weeks time, the Blaine House Conference on Volunteerism will convene under the theme: Compassion-Action-Change.

As I prepare my presentations for the conference, I have been reflecting on these three words and particularly the word: Compassion. What is its meaning? What does it mean for our not for profits? For our communities? Our nations?

In Nick Hornby’s 2001 novel “How to Be Good”, he tells of a character who decides to be “good” to the utmost extent. His goodness becomes sickening and suffocating. This is not the sort of compassion we are looking for.

What is the compassion we are looking for?

Compassion is not a term we often hear in business or government. Even in the not for profit sector, it is not always welcome. The word seems to cut across much of how we are told that we “should” behave in these fields. We are told that we are supposed to be “tough, unyielding, undeterred, competitive and focused.” As a result, compassion, for many sounds like a soft or as passive word.

Compassion is the human emotion prompted by the pain of others. The feeling often gives rise to an active desire to alleviate another’s suffering and therefore ultimately to altruism. The basis of compassion is therefore: “Do to others what you would have them do to you.”

This is a value therefore that is fundamental to our societies. Far from being a passive word, compassion implies strength, courage and determination to act. It is definitely neither a sickening or suffocating term.

There are many many volunteers across the globe who show compassion through their own lives.

I was recently visiting a couple who have taken in children into their home. Children abandoned by parents who are unable to care for them. This couple opened up their home and their lives to children who need love, care, good modeling and an education.

In the severe fires that swept Australia in early 2009, volunteers took in and protected Koalas that had been burnt by the fires. In New Orleans volunteers took in the cats and dogs that were stranded in that city.

Compassion drives “Doctors Without Borders” volunteers in Africa operate on people impacted by natural disasters and war, often under the most terrible of conditions. These examples are compassion in action.

When people come to us to volunteer, motivated by the compassion they feel to a person/people/cause or issue, how do we deal with this?

Do they find an organization motivated by compassion? Or do they experience something which undermines that compassion. When people hear about your board meetings, attend your internal meetings or read your internal emails, memos and notices, do they see an organization that’s very soul is one of compassion?

Do they find organizations that help people live out this compassion that they feel? I was working with a charitable organization where one volunteer said to me “I wish we treated each other as well so we treat the clients”. That’s an indictment on that not for profit and its culture.

Do incoming volunteers find organizations that reward compassion? In most volunteer based organizations we reward the volunteers for the number of hours, they complete or how many years they have served. Do we ever reward volunteers on how they live out the values of our organization? Is the “Volunteer of the Year” chosen because they turned up a lot or because their life exemplifies the values wee are seeking?

Our volunteer involving organizations were generally started by people with compassion. How do we maintain that compassion in the future legions of people who follow? Three simple ways?
1. Lets talk about our values including the compassion of the founders
2. Let us deliver our services with those values
3. Let us reward these values

I would be interested in your feedback on how you do this and how we can support each other to do this.

Martin J Cowling is the CEO of People First -Total Solutions and the Keynote Speaker at the 2009 Blaine House Conference on Volunteerism.

By Heather Banester Bassett

Remember being told, throughout your high school years - “Get Involved”, “The more well rounded you are the more likely you’ll be accepted into college.” Well, this remains to be true even throughout your working years. When applying to colleges, high school students are trying to set themselves apart from “the other college applicants.” In the working world, especially today, people are finding that they are to set themselves apart from “the other job applicants.” So, what does it mean to “Get Involved” in the working world? Just like in high school, volunteerism is one way to “Get Involved.”

Maine has experienced an increase in unemployment over the past year and with this comes an increase in people competing for the same jobs. Employers have seen a dramatic increase in applicants. The competition amongst job applicants is fierce in most cases. This increase in the unemployed and increase in competition over limited jobs then leads into an increase in the period of time in which a person remains in a job search. This period in which people remain in a job search results in gaps in employment history.

I reached out to my Maine Human Resources Network and asked employers to share some thoughts on volunteerism and the role it plays with job applicants. Here is what I heard.

Although most employers understand that the current economy has caused a majority of the unemployment and a longer unemployment period for some, it does impress employers to see that people remain “Involved” during their period of unemployment. Beverly Frizzell-MacCallum, Human Resources Officer at Androscoggin Bank replied “I would view it as a positive if someone were to use that down time as a chance to get involved with volunteer work. What a great way to show that you made the proverbial lemonade!” Krista Thurlow, Branch Manager at Bonney Staffing Center in Biddeford, Maine also shared insight on filling gaps in one’s employment history on their resume, “…I am always more impressed by someone who can tell me they have been volunteering, rather than ’sitting home, or not quite sure’ what they have been doing the past 10 months (they have been out of work.)” As for setting yourself apart from the other applicants, Lisa Janelle, Vice President of Human Resources at Sebasticook Valley Hospital mentioned “…a person who volunteers over time at something they feel passionately about just speaks volumes about that individual’s character.”

Besides the extra boost volunteerism can add to your resume, the act of “Getting Involved” can help you gain relevant experience. Krista Thurlow credits her volunteerism work with a Policy Council at a nonprofit for her transition into an office environment. “From my perspective, volunteering absolutely CAN help a resume! Especially when there is a person looking to transition their skills and/or gain experience in a new field…I had experience working retail/food service, but had gone to college for business.” Because of her personal career transition success with volunteerism, Krista promotes volunteering to job seekers she councils.

Volunteerism can give you that extra kick to get you out networking. “Getting Involved” can increase your exposure to business leaders, community leaders and job opportunities that you may not have heard about otherwise. Beverly Frizzell-MacCallum mentioned “…one of the best things about volunteering is the contacts that you can make in the community. Many business people are involved in non-profits and it is a great way to make connections and learn of opportunities.” She also suggests utilizing your volunteerism contacts for references.

Managers and volunteer project leaders can play a key role in assisting job seeking volunteers. As a manager or leader of a volunteer projects, capturing a volunteer’s interest to gain additional experience is a sure sign that you will have a dedicated volunteer. Capitalize on these opportunities and engage your volunteers. It may open the door to more support in areas that you would not have thought about before. Be sure to document the experience the volunteer gained and after a job well done, be sure to offer a letter of recommendation. This reciprocal support between volunteer manager and job seeking volunteer can have a lasting impact and possibly a long-term volunteer and advocate. Your newly employed volunteer may also pave the way to new networks at their new place of employment. Isn’t that what networking is all about? Job Seeking Volunteerism – a win-win recruitment tool for volunteer projects.

What is the best way to list volunteerism on your resume? Now it’s time, as the job seeker, to set yourself apart from the other job seekers out there and show that you are a well rounded individual. There are many schools of thought when it comes to resume templates. Regardless of the template, do not list your volunteer experience with your regular paid employment history. You don’t want to mislead the reader into thinking it was a regular job. If the experience is relevant to the job you are applying for, add the experience you gained in the qualifications section if you have this as a separate listing. Add a section under your normal job history called “Relevant Experience” - list Volunteer, (title if any), Organization, City, Sate, Time Period and List out the relevant experience gained. If the volunteerism is not directly related to the position you are applying for, simply list your volunteer projects under Associations and Activities - list Volunteer, (title if any), Organization, City, Sate, Time Period. Highlight your volunteerism in your cover letter, especially if the experience is relevant and also if the volunteerism took place in between jobs.

Volunteerism - a great way to boost your resume, close employment gaps, build your network, stay connected, show that your an involved and well rounded individual, and all the while, doing a wonderful thing for someone or something else.

Heather Banester Bassett is the Marketing/PR Director for MyJobWave.com, Employment Times and HRTimes Magazine. She has been an active volunteer for career and human resource related organizations like Maine Career Development Association, Central Maine Human Resources Association, Best Places to Work In Maine and is a guest blogger. For more career related tips and articles visit www.MyJobWave.com.

By Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom

Last month I attended the National Conference on Volunteerism and Service in San Francisco. This was the biggest and most spectacular gathering of volunteer leaders and change agents ever in the United States. The organizers really outdid themselves in terms of star power, meaningful engagement, flawless logistics, etc. So how can we improve next year? Better, more effective use of social media. Social media was a professed new focus of the conference this year, but it was clear to me that this was merely a test year. The greatest sign that the involvement of social media in the conference was not well planned: NO WIFI!

For the uninitiated, let me step back a minute and describe what a conference looks like that effectively engages social media. Conference organizers create the structure that allows conference goers to go the extra mile to engage with one another and share their thoughts and ideas with their peers as well as with the masses of people who wanted to attend the conference but were unable to. For example, the conference decides on a hashtag (a key word that every attendee will use when writing about the conference online so that the information can be found and aggregated). For this conference it was #NCVS. If you go to http://search.twitter.com/ and type “NCVS” into the search box you will find posts from before, during, and after the conference.

Where NCVS organizers dropped the ball was in not enabling social media use at the conference itself. They even set up a blog about the conference but didn’t blog during the event! If they had WIFI access and even someone designated to be tweeting or live blogging from each session or main event, it would have created a rich conversation for people both within and outside of the conference to follow. One of Twitter’s greatest strengths is in helping a large group of people who are all interested in the same thing but don’t know each other, have a massive conversation. If everyone is using the same hashtag / keyword then you can get up-to-the minute information about that topic from everyone at the conference. On a practical level you can find out how long the line to get into the opening plenary is, which session has an engaging presenter you want to see, where to get coffee within a few blocks, and feel the enthusiasm as everyone writes about their reactions to Michelle Obama’s speech.

For more ideas of how Social Media can be effectively used in a conference setting, check out Alan Levine’s guest post on Beth Kanter’s blog.

For more information on Social Media in Local Government, check out the “Wikis, Podcasts, and Blogs –Oh My!” article from the Fall 2008 edition of NAVPLG.

- Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom, Volunteer Program Specialist, Volunteer Arlington and Board Member, National Association for Volunteer Programs in Local Government (NAVPLG), www.navplg.org

By Anne B. Schink

Managers of volunteers are busy people, especially today with tight budgets and increased pressure to bring on new volunteers. In most nonprofit organizations, serving on the Board is a leadership role; consultants provide short term expertise; and traditional volunteers provide direct service or administrative support. Engaging pro bono and highly skilled volunteers requires setting aside some of these traditional assumptions.

What is a pro bono volunteer or a highly skilled volunteer?
A pro bono or highly skilled volunteer is someone who donates his/her professional level services as an “unpaid consultant” to the nonprofit organization. A pro bono volunteer is different from other volunteers in that they bring expertise to an organization on a project basis that includes clear guidelines, deadlines, and deliverables. Pro bono and skilled volunteers range along a continuum of technical expertise and experience in terms of skills, levels of commitment, and the types of projects they are interested in doing.

Pro bono and highly skilled volunteers bring experience, expertise, and perspective to the organization. They are valuable assets for creating an infrastructure. The most common areas are: human resources, marketing and branding, IT, financial management, and legal services.

Among the tools that the Corporation for National and Community Service has provided for managers of volunteers is a new Nonprofit Readiness Toolkit for Pro Bono Volunteers: How to prepare your organization for pro bono and highly skilled volunteers. Under a contract with CNCS I have had the pleasure of creating this toolkit over the past several months. The link below will take you to an online course that will help you prepare for those volunteers we have been talking about. It includes a narrative, a case study, and a checklist at the end to use to assess the readiness of your organization to receive these volunteers who are enthusiastic about putting their professional skills to work in support of your mission.

http://nationalserviceresources.org/news/non-profit-readiness-toolkit

You will need to create a user name and password, but don’t let that be a barrier to taking this course. Having that user name and password allows you to access many other valuable courses through the Resource Center that are designed to provide professional development opportunities at your own pace on your own computer.

For more on this subject, check out the next issue of the VolunteerFare newsletter. I will provide more detail about pro bono volunteering and the benefits to your organization. If you would like to learn about it in person, be sure to register for the Pro Bono Volunteering workshop at the Blaine House Conference in October.

Anne B. Schink is a volunteer management consultant and the author of the Nonprofit Readiness Toolkit.

By Rochelle Runge

With the opening of registration for the Blaine House Conference on Volunteerism it got me thinking about professional development in our field. It can be so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day that we forget about our own enrichment. One of the ways I remember is by putting a note on my calendar that pops up to remind me. I find that if it’s not on the calendar it doesn’t get done! Whatever your strategy its import to keep up on the latest in your field.

I recently went to the National Conference on Volunteering and Service. Although I was very excited to go, I found myself a little stressed out before leaving, fretting about all the things I needed to get done at the office. We had a service project we were working on with the Governor for United We Serve and many other things going on! When I left I was a bit apprehensive, but after my first class I was so happy I made the effort!

I learned new things, met interesting people, and made some great connections. Most off all I felt refreshed and re-energized to do my job! It reminded me why professional development is so important! I’m excited about a similar opportunity right here in Maine, The Blaine House Conference on Volunteerism! There is more information about it below along with some other great resources- some you may recognize others you may not. Either way copy and paste them into you calendar and set aside some time to refresh and re-energize yourself!

Educational and Training Resources for Managers of Volunteers:
Certified in Volunteer Administration is the only international professional certification in the field of volunteer resources management.
Nonprofit Buzz is a great resource for anyone who leads, manages, staffs or volunteers for a non-profit organization.
Energize empowers and inspires leaders of volunteers worldwide.
People First -Total Solutions works with nonprofits to improve the efficiency, and effectiveness.
The Corporation for National for and Community Service
Competencies for Managers of Volunteers- Asses your skills!
United We Serveis a nationwide service initiative that will help meet growing social needs resulting from the economic downturn. With the knowledge that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things when given the proper tools, President Obama is asking us to come together to help lay a new foundation for growth. United We Serve is an initial 81 days of service but will grow into a sustained, collaborative and focused effort to promote service as a way of life for all Americans.
Tips from the Maine Commission for Community Service on recruitment, working with different generations, writing position descriptions, and much more!
Blaine House Conference on Volunteerism-Keynote Speaker- Martin J. Cowling When: October 13, 2009
Where: University of Maine, Orono
Time: 8:30AM- 4:30PM
Early Bird Registration: $75 *Other Discounts Available.
The Blaine House Conference on Volunteerism is the State’s only professional development conference tailored exclusively to the needs and challenges of leaders like you in the state’s volunteer sector. Workshop Topics Include:
- Social Media
- Volunteer Management from Beginner to Advanced
- Building Partnerships
- Kennedy Serve America Act
- Pro Bono and Highly Skilled Volunteers

Rochelle Runge is the Public Relations Officer for the Maine Commission for Community Service and a guest blogger.

By Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom

Volunteering has made it into the news a lot recently for a couple of different reasons. First, the recession is increasing the ranks of the unemployed as well as increasing the demands on voluntary organizations. Second, President Obama, from campaign rhetoric, to getting his hands dirty on MLK, Jr. Day, to signing the Serve America Act has shone a light on service in the United States. What is the impact of all of these new developments on volunteer managers?

You have an opportunity to take advantage of new volunteers who can bring a wide variety of skills and backgrounds to your mission.
- Who are some of these new volunteers?
- Recently unemployed adults from a variety of sectors including marketing, finance, customer service, and more.
- Recently retired – the first surge of baby boomers taking advantage of early out programs. Many of these individuals will want to work part time or look for opportunities for paid work down the road.
-Young adults looking for resume building opportunities during this competitive job market.

These new volunteers represent the larger trend in volunteerism that was anticipated with the retirement of the baby boomers and introduction of the millennial generation into volunteering.
- They have new skills to offer and really want to bring those skills to your mission.
- They need flexible schedules and the ability to engage at different levels over time.
- They may want to take the lead on a project or work with a team of volunteers on a project for your organization.

So what should you do to prepare for and welcome these new volunteers?
- Work with the staff of your organization to identify possible roles for skilled volunteers.
- Examine current volunteer roles to see if they can be restructured for more flexibility.
- Rethink your recruitment messaging to appeal to these new volunteers and their motivations.

For more information and ideas, view the presentation from our March roundtable, “Boomer Engagement: Inviting Boomers In” by Andrea Taylor, PhD, Director of Training for the Center of Intergenerational Learning at Temple University.

To read about the trends check out these news stories:
From Ranks of Jobless, a Flood of Volunteers
CNN – “Jobless, But Working”
Supporting Local Agencies During Challenging Times
A Special Moment for Service

For helpful articles on engaging skills based volunteers:

Baby Boomers and the New Age of VolunteerismPro Bono Volunteering ResourcesOrganizational Readiness

Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom is a manager of volunteers with Volunteer Arlington and a guest blogger.