2008 Blaine House Conference on Volunteerism
Work Shop Descriptions
All Day Workshop: 9:15 AM - 4:00 PM
Presenter: Ed Anderson
Session: Legal & Economic Impact of Utilizing Volunteers
Level: Intermediate – Advanced
Offered: All day seminar
While the federal, state and local governments race to prepare for the next major disaster or terrorist event and while pharmaceutical companies and scientists grapple to find alternative vaccine production methods for a potential pandemic, individuals and communities must learn how to self-prepare for the first pandemic wave. This lecture will focus on the legal and macro- and microeconomic impacts of utilizing volunteers in the preparedness, response, and recovery of disaster management. The workshop will cover the factors that will assist in disaster preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery and address specific areas of law that will cover legal implications of volunteer usage. Approved for 4.9 MCLE credits.
Session 1 Workshops: 9:15 AM - 10:35 AM
Session: Opportunities Unlimited: How to Accommodate Volunteers with Disabilities
Presenters: Janet May Center and Valerie Smith, Center for Community Inclusion & Disability Studies
Level: Intermediate
Offered: Session 1
This session will provide participants with examples of accommodations and adaptations which enable people with disabilities to serve as volunteers. We will illustrate how to determine what accommodations may be needed and how to obtain them. We will provide informational about organizations that you can partner with in your region of Maine (i.e. local rehabilitation providers).
Session: Unlock The Hidden Potential of VolunteerMaine.org
Presenters: Volunteer Maine Project VISTAs
Level: Novice to Advanced
Offered: Sessions 1, 2, & 3
Have you been looking for an online tool to manage volunteers, a library of resources for managing volunteers, or how to manage an event online? This workshop will give you a ‘behind the scenes’ tour of the www.volunteermaine.org website. AmeriCorps VISTAs from the Volunteer Maine VISTA Project will lead the tour of the site and help you find your way. This workshop is appropriate for first time users, as well as those who want to understand the advanced features the site offers. Using interactive exercises and self-paced learning, you will gain experience with the many exciting features of the free website!
Session: Strategies and Examples of Starting and Continuing Mutually Productive, Community Relationships.
Presenter: Lori Tsuruda
Level: Intermediate
Offered: Session 1
Understand what potential partners from the business community, service organizations, civic groups, and faith-based potential partners seek, then discuss how to shape your programs to balance partners' needs with your organization's priorities. Learn techniques to build relationships and how to engage your organization's board and professional networks to target potential partners.
Session: The Four Rs: Recruitment, Reward, Recognition, & Renewal
Presenter: Martin J. Cowling , People First – Total Solutions
Level: Novice to Intermediate
Offered: Session 1
Competition is fierce these days to recruit - and keep the best volunteers. This workshop outlines the eight key steps in volunteer recruitment, then considers appropriate rewards and recognition before considering issues of renewal in your volunteer program. Most importantly, the session will focus on how your agency can achieve sustainable and long term results for your volunteer program.
Session: Putting the Pieces Together: Effective Screening of Volunteers
Presenter: John Patterson, Nonprofit Risk Management Center
Level: Novice to Intermediate
Offered: Session 1
Screening applicants for volunteer positions is a critical risk management strategy. This is particularly true when volunteers will be working with vulnerable individuals—children, dependent elderly and individuals with disabilities. This work shop will go through the sequence of steps for screening volunteers based upon their specific responsibilities.
Session:The Fire Training Tetrahedron - Neighborhoods, Commerce, & Firefighters
Presenter: Vicki Schmidt
Level: Intermediate
Offered: Session 1
The Maine Fire Protection Services Commission has identified recruitment and retention for volunteer fire departments and emergency services as a major concern. Based on the fire tetrahedron which gives fuels, oxygen and heat the self sustaining reaction it needs to keep a fire going; in this same theory regional organizations can be the self sustaining action that gives citizens, businesses and local responders the needed elements for quality training and organized services. This workshop will help you identify training needs with a region, opportunities for locally based partnerships, as well as training program implementation strategies. Emergency and fire services training opportunities offered by the state Community College System will also be discussed.
Session: The Tipping Point
Presenter: Neil Cambridge, Comparison International
Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Offered: Session 1
Despite the best efforts of many clever and committed people, success rates for change initiatives and improvement action plans are generally poor. To succeed, a change must garner the commitment and energy of people who did not invent the idea or decide to implement it. This can be a tricky undertaking. The Tipping Point workshop helps participants to improve their effectiveness at implementing change. The workshop applies lessons from public health. It turns inside-out what we know about the spread of an epidemic and applies it to spreading acceptance of change in a program or organization, suggesting what we need to do to create contagious commitment. to the changes we are trying to implement.
Keynote Speaker session: 10:45 AM - 11:45 AM
Location: Hauck Auditorium, Memorial Hall
Networking Lunch and Exhibit Hall: 11:45 AM - 1:15 PM
Location: Memorial Union
Session 2 Workshops: 1:15 PM - 2:35 PM
Session: Motivation by Generation
Presenter: Dr. Jean Twenge
Level: Intermediate
Offered: Sessions 2 & 3
This workshop will address how to motivate different generations in volunteer organizations, based on the research on generational differences in personality traits and attitudes. This includes ways to recruit and retain young people using their language and motivators. We will also discuss how to use "voluntoursism" in ways consistent with the generational differences.
Session: 101 Ways to Sabotage your Program
Presenter: Martin J. Cowling , People First – Total Solutions
Level: Intermediate
Offered: Session 2
In January, 2005 the first of four articles by Martin J Cowling's in the Sabotage series "The Five Lethal Factors Volunteer Managers Employ to Harm Their Programs" was published in the Journal: E Volunteerism (www.evolunteerism.com). Sabotage is an action aimed at weakening an enemy, oppressor or employer through subversion, obstruction, disruption, and/or destruction. The articles and training do not suggest that the sabotage being undertaken by volunteer managers and organizations is deliberate but it is very serious and very concerning.
Session: Unlock The Hidden Potential of VolunteerMaine.org
Presenters: Volunteer Maine Project VISTAs
Level: Novice to Advanced
Offered: Sessions 1, 2, & 3
See Description in Session One
Volunteering Reinvented: Human Capital Solutions for the Nonprofit Sector
Presenter: Gretchen Van der Veer, Corporation for National & Community Service
Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Offered: Session 2
In 2007, 60.5 million volunteers contributed more than $150 billion in labor to the nonprofit sector, which in turn resulted in significant cost-savings and economic benefits for local communities. While more nonprofits use volunteers, some struggle to strategically plan for managing and growing this resource. Please join us for an interactive workshop on how to conduct a strategic “volunteer capital” analysis.
Session: Volunteer Service—Risky Business?
Presenter: John Patterson, Nonprofit Risk Management Center
Level: Novice to Intermediate
Offered: Session 2
Volunteers are necessary for many community-serving organizations to be successful in achieving their missions. Volunteers may also bring with them risks that threaten the safety of service recipients, other volunteers and staff members. The acts of volunteers can also expose the organization to liability and possibly put the organization out of business. This workshop will review a risk management process that identifies volunteer related risks and practical methods to control them.
Session: Pulling Together for Good: Community partnerships for impact!
Presenter: Megan Latimer, Hands On Network
Level: Intermediate
Offered: Session 2
Join this interactive session to explore how to make the most of partnerships in your community to grow volunteer impact. This session will focus on how to create and sustain innovative partnerships in your community designed to engage people in service. Through discussion and activities, we will learn about what to look for in a community partner, how to create strong agreements, and discuss pitfalls to avoid.
Session 3 Workshops: 2:45 PM - 3:55 PM
Session: Social Marketing – An Effective Tool to Reach, Retain & Regain Volunteers
Presenter: Kim Laramy, Ethos
Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Offered: Sessions 3
Social Marketing is all about using the principles of commercial marketing to effect positive behavior change. It is a discipline that has successfully addressed recycling, smoking, healthy eating and underage drinking, among many others. But can we use Social Marketing in the volunteer management arena? In this workshop we’ll explore how to use the principles of Social Marketing to encourage volunteerism through reaching new potential volunteers, retaining our existing volunteer contingents, and regaining those who have left volunteerism. This session will include an introduction to Social Marketing and a working session to better understand target audience barriers and motivators as well as how price, product, place, promotion and policy can be applied to your program. This workshop is best suited for an intermediate to advanced volunteer manager.
Session: Unlock The Hidden Potential of VolunteerMaine.org
Presenters: Volunteer Maine Project VISTAs
Level: Novice to Advanced
Offered: Sessions 1, 2, & 3
See Description in Session One
Session: Motivation by Generation
Presenter: Dr. Jean Twenge
Level: Intermediate
Offered: Sessions 2 & 3
See Description in Session Two
Session: From Obession to Profession
Presenter: Martin J. Cowling , People First – Total Solutions
Level: Advanced
Offered: Session 3
Where have we come from and where are we going as a profession? This workshop, will take you on a 40 year journey of volunteer management, from the past to the future. It will also challenge participants to think about what role they might play in where we are heading as a sector.
Session: Minimizing Risks While Getting the Most out of Your Volunteers
Presenter: John Patterson, Nonprofit Risk Management Center
Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Offered: Session 3
This workshop explores ways to integrate risk management into volunteer programs without it becoming too cumbersome. It will go beyond the basics into development of risk management tools such as volunteer handbooks, performance feedback and—unfortunately—firing volunteers.