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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 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 Noble Smith

In every generation, some piece of local, regional or Federal legislation, or some momentous activity or occasion or some human event initiates a life-style change, a change that affects almost every aspect of our country.

Certainly when President Obama on April 21st signed into law the Kennedy Service America Act, some recognized instantly, others still were in wonderment, but the volunteer force and its impact on this country’s volunteer sustainability changed abruptly.

Some would say, “so what, it won’t help my pocketbook”, or other phrases such as “what’s in it for me” or “it’s just another bureaucratic labyrinth that will cost more than it’s worth.”

Others, rightfully so, across this country in all walks of life, all age, gender, race and socio-economic groupings are beginning to understand that service to this country through volunteering is now very much apart of our modus operand.

For Maine, the magnitude, complexity and diversity of the Act’s implications are still under intense assessment, planning and organizational implementation. Maine’s existing volunteer commitment and leadership, recognized nationally, has already begun a process, in an orderly business-like manner, to expand, enhance and grow the volunteer movement and its participation at all levels of the State’s needs. These adjustments will start to alter the landscape when the Act becomes effective on October 1st.

But, the impact of this Act is not just for Executive Directors, CEOs and top management. The impact is a bottoms-up initiative with strong top to bottom fiduciary, management and training mandates. The Act’s content has impacts from the smallest to the largest non-profit, to a wide diversity of human service and life-sustaining organizations and to a whole new set of service initiatives.

AmerCorp, alone, will grow from its current 17,000 participants to over 250,000 by 2017. Five new service Corps - Education, Health Futures, Clean Energy, Veterans and Opportunity - will be established thereby providing substantial and expanded volunteering options for local, regional and national service.

The senior administrative staff of MCCS and several Commissioners journeyed to Boston on the Friday start of the Memorial Day Weekend to participate in a historic “listening session” with our national partner – the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS).

The MCCS Commissioners will review in extensive detail the impact that the Service America Act will have on Maine during their annual retreat in June. Once all the legislative enactments are evaluated, MCCS and CNCS have agreed upon the steps that are in the best interest of Maine, our volunteer work force and how Maine can accommodate the new national criteria, a series of postings will be made on MCCS’ web site outlining in detail this most positive generational change.

As you read earlier this week, in the critically important blog by MCCS Executive Director, Maryalice Crofton, just determining the extent, magnitude and potential impacts of the Act represent a Herculean task. The thoughts, insights, guidance and council from all of Maine organizations that garner and encourage volunteer involvement should begin an open dialogue with MCCS.

The years ahead are extraordinarily bright for this State’s volunteer involvement. Maine is extremely fortunate to have a brilliant, hard working professional staff and an expanding group of volunteer Commissioners, all of whom share an exciting vision for the future.

Noble Smith is an MCCS Commissioner and a featured blogger.

by Pete Phair

Back in the 1970’s, seeds of legitimacy were planted that, with careful social cultivation, began to blossom into the budding concept we now know as community service. Flower analogies aside, back then, adults were the primary volunteers in this land and benefactors were mainly organizations like the Jaycees, Pop Warner football, political campaigns or the local Memorial Day Parade Committee. Volunteering was something few citizens participated in (compared to current day practice) and unless compelled by a judge, one was fairly picky when choosing a cause to root for.

Today, volunteers run the gamut in terms of age, abilities and causes. Causes run the gamut from saving the whales to saving the planet. Organizations now have complete departments to manage volunteers and volunteer support systems. And one of the many positive side effects in the growing trend toward volunteerism is the emergence of youth as a volunteer work force.

Recognizing the significant payback students receive when helping others, many high schools now require a specified number of community service hours before students can graduate. Some have paid staffs that coordinate these service learning programs with the end result involving some of the following outcomes for their high schoolers:
• Personal development effected in a positive way
• At-risk behaviors tending to wane
• Civic & social responsibility becomes more than a chapter in a text book
• Society benefits from active and energetic contributors
• Students’ academic profiles develop a rosier aspect rather than the alternative
• Students are more motivated to learn while in school
• Students are more motivated to actually be in school
• Volunteering often leads to career path exploration for students
Not to mention that schools with active service learning programs see their school climate improve, respectful interactions increase and the overall learning environment flower. Locals have a more positive perception of the kids in their community and just so it won’t get lost in the translation, the community itself is the better for their efforts. Well, and so are organizations like ours.

Colleges and universities also practice the art of service learning and it behooves those of us in need of volunteers to tap into these valuable resources. When I was with the Bicycle Coalition of Maine, we enlisted the aid of college students to help us teach bicycle safety classes to elementary school children. Here at WinterKids, we will use similar protocols to supplement our Active Academics Workshops in Maine schools and if it had not been for McAuley and Cheverus High School students, our Welcome To Winter event this past January could have been a very different experience for over 300 Portland children and their families.

We’ve come a long way from the Jaycees and Pop Warner football and with that growth comes more substantive, more comprehensive development of volunteer systems across the globe. Whether you are in need of a body to hold a paint brush, or a brain to enter complex data into your database, consider the talents that young people have in abundance and contact your local schools and colleges. In other words, reap what those seeds of legitimacy hath sowed.

Pete Phair is an Outreach Coordinator at WinterKids and a guest blogger.

By Tudy Hamilton

With the start of a new year, and a new administration, there seems to be lots of energy and hope around “change”. Change is happening all around us, and I challenge you to get involved! We can either direct change or be directed by it.

Our very profession is undergoing changes, as we speak. Volunteer Management is starting to be viewed as a career path, rather than an add-on to an already full job description, or an “other duties as assigned”. Get involved in promoting is as a full time job. Make sure your colleagues, you community, and your agency know exactly what Volunteer Management is, and the positive impact it carries.

Most professionals have professional associations. Get involved in one near you. If there isn’t an association in your area, work with those in your area to start one. Don’t wait for one to magically appear. Associations take time and effort to build and maintain, but they are well worth it. Where else can you find a group of people that share both the joys and sorrows of what you do? Take turns hosting meetings and planning trainings.

Advocate for funding! Check out those stimulus packages, and government budgets. Get involved by contacting your elected representatives and advocate for Volunteerism! You may have the very argument or fact that they are lacking to sway them in your favor.

Celebrate your volunteers. Your organization may not have its own formal awards to recognize volunteers, but there are plenty available. Get involved by nominating your volunteers for the Governor’s Service Awards, MetLife, American Red Cross Heroes, 6 Who Care, or your own community awards.

Remember, as you carry out your daily activities, that we are in a position to set the stage for the future of Volunteer Management in our communities. The choice is simple: get involved now because you’ll be affected later.

Tudy Hamilton is the Volunteer Manager at SeniorsPlus and a featured blogger.

By Robert Moore

Research conducted by Elizabeth W. Dunn, Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia, has indicated that even a small amount of money given to a charity, rather than spending it on oneself, leads to happiness. Professor Dunn’s research further indicated that helping others with acts of kindness such as volunteering is likely to benefit well being and result in greater happiness as well.

If acts of kindness lead to happiness, why is volunteering declining? According to the
U.S. Department of Labor, the percentage of our population who volunteer held steady at 28.8% from 2003 – 2005, dropping to 28.3% in 2006 and 26.2% in 2007. Is it just that we as Americans are becoming more selfish, or is the declining economy making more people actually need the services that they were once volunteering for?

In the United States, the value of the volunteer time has an estimated economic contribution of $158 billion dollars annually. When cash resources are tight, the value of volunteers takes on additional importance to nonprofits. So what can you do? A few thoughts on how to retain or even increase volunteer resources to your organization during these challenging economic times:

1. Marketing! Intensify volunteer recruitment messages by increasing media attention about your organization’s increased needs.

2. Recruit! Look for new pools of volunteers who want to give gifts of time and skills because they are less able to give less financially. Volunteers typically become involved after being asked to volunteer by someone in the organization. Don’t forget the unemployed – a volunteer position can provide a sense of accomplishment and networking opportunities at the same time!

3. Assess your organization for new ways that volunteers can meet community needs, while at the same time reducing stress on your staff. Remember, even the most unanticipated or unexpected situation provides you with an opportunity.

4. Make sure that your volunteer opportunities do not require out of pocket costs.

5. Avoid any perception that volunteers might be used to replace staff. The uncertain economic times add enough stress as it is. You don’t need staff looking over their shoulder wondering if the volunteer that they are training/assisting will soon be replacing them.

6. If you have one, try to maintain the volunteer manager position. Even if you are faced with the need to make cuts, the dollar value that he/she brings to the organization is many times his/her salary costs.

7. Ensure that the leaders of your volunteers are well trained in the best practices for volunteer management; consider placing your volunteer manager on the management team, if he/she is not already on it.

Robert Moore is the Executive Director of the Friends of the Cobbossee Watershed and a featured blogger.

By Anne Schink

A major study of the next generation of volunteer leaders demonstrates the importance of providing support for those invested in the nonprofit sector and for identifying a career path for the advancement of those with potential to be executive directors in nonprofit organizations.

The Meyer Foundation and CompassPoint Nonprofit Services conducted a study of 6,000 young people employed in the nonprofit sector. The findings should put us all on notice that we are going to have to do more to groom the next generation of volunteer leaders if we are to fill the large number of positions that will become available in the coming years.

At the same time the survey demonstrated several indicators of strength in the sector: one in three respondents aspires to be an executive director some day; of those who aspire to be an executive director 40% feel they are now ready or will be ready in five years to take on the responsibility for being an executive director. This generation of people is highly committed to the work of nonprofits; they are gaining skill and experience that should lead to success in nonprofit organizations. They view the nonprofit sector as a good place to work and a place where they can contribute to change. They believe they are doing meaningful and satisfying work.

Barriers to continuing to work in the nonprofit sector pose real challenges to the sector: long hours, personal sacrifice, low salaries, inadequate contribution to retirement all discourage people from making long term commitments to the work of the nonprofit organizations whose mission they support. Many feel the job description for executive directors is unappealing to the next generation of leaders.

One other challenge of particular concern to Maine is the lack of training opportunities and mentorship from others in the field. They do not see a clear career path they could travel on their road to being an Executive Director.

Does any of this ring true for you? On your New Year’s wish list what do you need? What would it take for you to make a long term career in nonprofit work?

Anne Schink is the Project INVEST Coordinator for the Maine Commission for Community Service and a featured blogger.

Many of you know, or have heard of, the Certification in Volunteer Administration. A group of AmeriCorps program directors and another group of community volunteer coordinators in Maine have both taken the course and successfully completed the program. It was a wonderful self-directed learning program that relies on a peer to peer network to gain confidence in the learning for volunteer managers. In Maine about a dozen people have acquired this credential since 2001.

The Council has sent out the notice below to encourage you to complete a survey about what skills you think are essential, important or not relevant for volunteer managers. They are encouraging wide distribution of this survey, so please add your voice to the mix. For more information about the CVA process, check out their website at this link: http://www.cvacert.org

Practice Analysis Survey for Leaders of Volunteers
The Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration (CCVA) sponsors the “Certified in Volunteer Administration” credential for professionals in the field of volunteer resource management. In order to ensure that the CVA credential remains current and relevant, we must periodically update a Practice Analysis Study of the core competencies upon which the credential is based.

If you have at least 3 years of experience in leading and managing volunteer involvement, please take a few minutes to help us validate the work of our task force and ensure the CVA professional designation reflects actual practice.

To participate in this survey, click on the link below. We estimate it will take about 20 minutes of your time.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=eSo9KZqYgFJyUtdOKtZAaw_3d_3d

by Noble Smith

From a resounding and growing plea of Maine’s overworked and budget-stressed state agencies, there is an echoing cry that sounds like – help! It was a whisper just a few years ago, but today and forecasting for tomorrow, this echoing sound is reverberating though the halls of many state agency buildings.

From this budgetary point of view, Maine’s state agencies have no choice in order to stretch shrinking public dollars but to increase dramatically their volunteer management skills. They must get themselves ready for the potentially large influx of highly qualified volunteers waiting to be enlisted, assigned, managed and awarded!

From an internal management of volunteers, some of Maine’s state agencies need to “borrow” from the private non-profit sector many of their proven techniques, strategies and attitudes that guarantee a high degree of readiness and success! In essence state agencies that do not directly oversee volunteers must incorporate the established traits of high quality volunteer program operations as an integral part of their contract selection and award process.

Not that the private sector has all the answers or possesses the only techniques that “work” with volunteers, but a working partnership between the public and private sectors can be mutually beneficial and help solve ever-increasing and pressing needs of the public sector.

Given the huge and almost immediate impact of the highly qualified retirees emanating from the “baby-boomer” generation, this nation and, particularly, Maine, stands to strengthen its leadership role in the utilization of volunteers. But that success will not come without changes in attitude, without refinements and adjustments in current operations and without some risk-taking by state employees individually and state agencies as a whole.

However, one of the quintessential principles of strong volunteer training and management is largely missing from most of the state agency strategic plans of action. For example, job descriptions for the multiplicity of volunteer needs have yet to be written, let alone that the required volunteer management skills are still absent in many instances!

For some state agencies, unfortunately, there are mutterings that volunteer involvement is more of a pain than a panacea for success or even survival! Some feel, and in some few cases, perhaps rightfully so, that the increase of volunteers undermines the effectiveness of agencies’ paid employees! In addition, such statements as “we have not got enough time to write job descriptions and manage these individuals” do not represent, in this author’s mind, a realistic and common sense way of entering a future with less budgetary resources to meet minimum priorities and objectives.

The need for clearly articulated responsibilities for volunteer management in the public sector is of paramount importance as is strong leadership, leadership that recognizes that volunteer skills and involvement are not slave labor or other types of low-skilled job assignments. Rather, the lifetime experiences of this new breed of baby boomer volunteer brings added strength and professionalism to the widely diverse needs of many divisions of State government.

The public sector must assume a larger and more active role of volunteer ownership if the ultimate goal is to enhance and strengthen the overall mission of an agency.
As a relatively new Commissioner of the Maine Commission on Community Service (MCCS) but having been involved with placing and working with volunteers in both sectors for nearly half a century, I am very much aware of the enormous challenges that confront both the volunteer and the organization/agency.

MCCS is in the business of servicing all aspects of volunteer involvement. It has been one of Maine’s leading forces in the identification, enlistment, training and management of existing and new volunteers throughout the State since 1994. Again, working in partnerships with a multiplicity of public and private sector entities, MCCS continues its leadership role not only to broaden volunteer involvement, but also to provide an even higher degree of professionalism for both users and givers.

Maine, proportionally to its population, has one of the highest national percentages of individuals retiring to or retiring in the state. In discussion with numerous groups of retirees over the past few years, two responses stand out when asked about their involvement in volunteer endeavors:

• “no one has asked us”;
• “there are many organizations and state agencies who want volunteers, but many of them have no idea of how to effectively use, train and manage us”.

The volunteer challenges ahead are daunting, the budgetary implications enormous, the impact for fulfilling mission and priorities ever present, while the potential people task force is, in essence, readily available IF we manage it effectively and in a business-like manner. Sensitivity to volunteer skills and lifetime experiences coupled with the necessary applied management skills by leadership and employees at all levels are quintessential for success.

Noble Smith is President of Noble Smith Associates, a 28-year old development, fund raising management and marketing company.