Idea Center
Subscribe to the Idea Center RSS feed!
Truths About Volunteering #18
"Volunteer is a pay rate not a job title."
I stumbled on this great quote from Susan Ellis, of e-Volunteerism (@energizeinc), today after talking to a chapter president in New England. In that conversation she noted so many things she was managing and in that context referred to one that she wouldn't ask her volunteers to do - it wasn't in their job description. She understands that volunteer is the pay rate not a "dumping ground."
The New Conference Attendee
ASAE10, ASAE's annual conference in Los Angeles this past month, was notable for a number of reasons and one of them is a learning experience in and of itself. This year’s meeting really highlighted the new conference attendee. Who is the new conference attendee? One who embraces new learning concepts, one who embraces technology, one who creates their own learning opportunities, one who votes on a session with their feet, one who creates an experience with the formal meeting at the backdrop.
This past month I delighted in watching – and participating – in scenarios where this new conference attendee was at the helm. In some ways, I could even have been called the new conference attendee. Here are some examples:
Maddie Grant liveblogging sessions to create vibrant, running notes from five difference sessions. Imagine peering over the shoulder of an attendee to read their notes and see their interpretation of the content. Liveblogging provided just that.
KiKi L’Italien carved out a space in the Engagement Lounge to livecast her popular DelCor Social Media SweetSpot, her weekly ustream-cast event where she highlights news, activities and examples of association’s finding their sweet spot. This became a highly interactive unsession within the conference.
Ben Martin and Sterling Raphael brought a third panelist into their session “Connecting Industry Associations through Collaboration and Sharing” with the help of Skype video. This third person added a neat dimension to the conversation (along with a great example of using technology).
There were several “powerpoint free” sessions where the focus was on an open dialog with equal parts participation by attendees and the “facilitators” or subject matter experts. In the session I did with Marjorie Bynum, SOCAP International, and Mary Ghikas, American Libraries Association entitled The Benefits of a Strategically Balanced Community … we began by telling our stories and then opening the conversation. Our room was filled at the start and stayed filled throughout – a measure we think suggested that the dialog was in fact engaging.
By the time the Monday general session had reached the final third, more than half of the attendees had left. While on one hand you would focus on problems with that, on the other, it’s refreshing to see that attendees can and will “vote with their feet.” We are not waiting for you to feed us – we’re finding the meat of the meeting and going there.
One of the most popular parties is the YAP Party – a self-organized dance party that – despite its reference to Young Association Professionals – draws all ages and boasts a growing attendance. There’s no cost to attend (its BYOB) and it’s not exclusive in any way.
While ASAE didn’t do everything perfectly (on my what association does!), they did create a conference that had room for the new attendee. I hope my associations will do the same.
ASAE10 Hits - 5 Cool Links
Home again. Works awaits, but my mind is full of ideas, resources, tips and new friends’ names and faces. #ASAE10 hits a homerun.
Here are just five voices among the many from #ASAE10:
- Jeff Cobb: Score One for Learning 2.0 at ASAE Annual on how this conference embraces the informal community
- Lisa Junker: 3 Things the YAE Committee did differently on how volunteer leadership is changing (woot!)
- Jeff Hurt: 18 Questions To Ask Your Members About Mobile proofing that annual offered the mix of immediate actionable items along with visionary, soft stuff
- Jessica Sidman: Dream On on doing things differently from recaps of the presentation by 1-800-GOT-JUNK? entrepreneur Cameron Herold and the Risky Chapters session (with our very own Peter!)
- Shannon Otto: Sites from ASAE10 because sometimes pictures say it better than words.
You can of course hear lots more voices by following the #asae10 hashtag and checking out the Annual Meeting Hub.
#ASAE10 Here We Come
Leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again .... oh baby
Well I do know when I'll be back again. It'll be after 5 days of non-stop fun and learning at #ASAE10 in Los Angeles. Here are the first 5 reasons I'm going (there are way more!):
- To connect - connect with friends I know and those I will know!
- To attend the Executive Management Section Council meeting. We're focusing on four key areas this year: board governance, change management, organizational development and volunteer management. I'm excited to dig in to these key areas.
- To help launch the new ASAE Foundation ... I'm a member of the development committee. This is a great moment in our profession as we launch a foundation to focus on research and research-based knowledge, leadership and innovation.
- To lead a discussion on The Benefits of a Strategically Balancing Member Community with Marjorie Bynum, SOCAP and Mary Ghikas, American Library Association. This is not a how-to session but one that will explore where member communities - virtually and on the ground - fit into our strategic plans and how to balance the cost and benefit of these.
- To be in the first annual ASAE Flash Mob! The #ASAE10 flashmob goes down THIS Sunday, August 22 in the Texas Pavilion booth (#921) at 10:45 am PDT. It's all about joining in the dance ... if you're in LA, join in. If you're not, well stand up and dance anyway - here's the choreography.
Follow the conversation on Twitter #asae10 or here. And its still not too late to join in the Virtual Conference if you can't make it to LA.
A Volunteer's Story: Don Boucher
Our next conversation celebrating the association volunteer (read more here) is with Don Boucher, Sr., SRA of Boucher & Boucher, Inc. who currently serves on the board of the Washington DC Metro Chapter of th
e Appraisal Institute (AIDC). He is a long time appraiser (37 years and counting) who believes that if you want to be a positive influence in your industry then you must become involved with your professional association at some point in your professional life.
"10% of the people do all the work…and you’ve got to be one of the 10% some time in your life."
Don was introduced to association volunteerism and the appraisal industry by his father who served as the national president of the American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers in 1971. When American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers (AIREA) and the Society of Real Estate Appraisers (Society) merged in January 1991 creating the Appraisal Institute, Don assisted in the merge both at the national and local levels. Shortly after, Don took a break from volunteering to focus on his business.
During the first decade of the 21st century, the appraisal industry began to undergo many changes, and Don felt not enough was being done to protect the appraiser. These changes coupled with the looming housing crisis and the nation’s economic woes spurred Don to reconsider his commitment to association volunteering. After all, if he wanted things to improve for the appraisal industry then he needed to step up, if only for four to six years, and become an active representative of the people he loved and the profession he respected
Don now serves at two levels. Locally, his positions on the board of directors of AIDC have included director (he’s currently in a three year term), 2009 chapter secretary, and 2010 chapter treasurer. Nationally, he is the Regional 6 representative to the Government Relations Committee of the Appraisal Institute (AI) dealing with legislation and issues that will affect appraisers across the country.
Don’s appreciation for the association volunteerism goes deeper than just his service. “Life is about relationships,” he says, and it’s the relationships he’s developed as a result of his involvement with AIDC that has made it all worthwhile. He especially enjoys meeting people new to the industry and those working towards their designations (MAI, SRA or SRPA). He told us about one colleague who obtained her SRA at age 50. Amazed by her tenacity, Don became her staunchest fan: "I was encouraged and amazed how she hunkered down to get her designation at a later age in life. When I saw that I just immediately went over and told her she was my hero. It’s just so encouraging when someone accomplishes something like this." They are great friends to this day.
Don estimates that between his responsibilities with AIDC and his position on the Government Relations Committee with AI, he spends easily an hour each day responding to the approximately thirty e-mails he receives. Combine this with the meetings and conferences he attends, he probably dedicates around 50 to 60 hours a month to his association volunteerism responsibilities. And it’s worth every minute.
So what final piece of wisdom does Don impart to others considering volunteering for their professional association?
"If you really care about your industry and you want things to happen that are positive, you have to devote some of your life and give back for those positive things to happen…You’ve got to get involved at some point, even if it’s just making a four year commitment. Make the time…make the commitment…do it. Because if you just sit around and don’t do anything, when things go badly, you have nobody else to blame but yourself."
Have a story to share? Tell us. And connect with us on our Association Volunteers! Facebook page.
The New Role for Volunteer Coordinators
Robert J. Rosenthal, Director of Communications for VolunteerMatch, wrote an inspiring post on Beth Kanter's blog following the June 2010 National Conference on Volunteering and Service. He wrote about how volunteer coordinators could help their organizations become nettworked nonprofits.
He made several thoughtful observations, the richest of which was captured in his quote:
"Yet I think it’s another fear [beyond fear of failure] – fear of the unknown – that’s one of the biggest limits. When things are unknown, they can’t be envisioned at all. The earth remains flat, and it’s hard to eliminate the barriers that stand in the way of exploration."
We know that our volunteer program are no longer working. We know that at the chapter and component levels, we are in dire need of volunteers. Even at the national level, while we may have the number of volunteers needed, we don't have the right volunteers. Yet, the thought of changing our programs stirs up such fear. Attending a meeting recently of a national association where we talked aboutt changing the leadership structure at the chapter level, I saw this fear firsthand. Because the change couldn't be envisioned in a concrete way, some volunteers kept saying it would not work. Yet, the current system isn't working either. They know the current system and that is the difference.
So how do we paint a picture of the future? How do we make the unknown more familar? We could cite examples such as the proving that the earth is indeed round. Maybe we need to just make the change and let those who can't believe without seeing, stumble on the truth.
In the case of recreating our volunteer programs, it may mean a new role for volunteer coordinators - we're not just recruiters but change-agents.
Etched In Jello
We were leading a full-day strategic planning session for a California chapter and in the midst of a making a difficult decision, the chapter president said, "well our decisions are etched in jello." Within this statement was a wonderful bit of wisdom. Too many times chapters aren't able to take a leap of faith and try something different. The refrain "but we've always done it this way and it works" puts up a impenetrable wall.
With one statement, this president opened a door. If the decision didn't work or they ran into trouble implementing it, they could fall back. Making the change didn't mean they were wedded to it forever.
His comment got a few chuckles and a vote to change. It's that kind of leadership that is needed in more chapters. When's the last time your chapter took the leap?
How chapters & social media are alike
My aha for the day (maybe the week or month!): associations are approaching social media the same way they approach chapters and other components. The aha came out of reading an insightful post from Scott Gould on How I Profile A Community’s Participation To Inform Next Actions. About four paragraphs into what Scott warns at the start is a long post, there is the statement that triggered by aha:
Relationship is participation with one another.
Two thoughts followed my aha. First, that explains a lot about why associations are reticent to embrace social media for as with components, success requires they “give up” control while steadfastly remaining committed to supporting the efforts. Second, it’s just likely that associations will have a forever “love-hate” relationship with social media as they do components (particularly chapters!) because it’s seen as a competition. Of course there is a more compelling reason to figure out how to effectively operate in the social media sphere than there ever was on the components side. This is all tied into the fact that social media or media 2.0 is a game-changing force. So just maybe, associations will succeed in this arena more so than the components arena. This was certainly be true if we’re willing follow the lead of folks like Scott.
Scott’s post goes on to provide a very interesting approach to profile participation specifically to fuel group action and I highly recommend you read further. And while you do, consider these similarities between social media and components and ask if we truly embark on building our skills and shifting our culture to embrace the power of the social media, can we apply this throughout our associations? Will this equip us with creating the association of the future that embraces social as a way of being (no-one says it better than Jeff De Cagna) and lets us grow all our networks – including chapters, SIGs, CoPs, councils, groups, fans, etc.?
Social Media & Components both are:
- Built on community
- Built by participation
- Reflections of the community involved
- All about sharing and shared beliefs, experiences, needs, wishes …
- Driven by collaboration and co-creation
- Out of our (HQ’s) control
- Going to exist with or without us (HQ)
- Having a profound effect on our brands (good, bad, indifferent)
- Having a profound effect on our bottom line – they drive engagement which drives dollars
In what other ways do you see the two similar? And can creating a culture in which one thrives, help the other too as well?
Taggies Target Fab Nonprofit Tag Lines
Taggies is the nickname for the 2010 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards & Report created by Nancy Schwartz, who works with nonprofits and publishes Getting Attention blog and e-newsletter. This year the awards added a new category for programs – like your volunteer program. In fact, Robert Rosenthal, from Engaging Volunteers sent out a call to all nonprofits to do just that. I think the call is really to grab our attention on the importance of having a tagline.
We know how important volunteers are to us. Yet we spend far less money, time and marketing effort on selling our volunteer programs. My partner and I taught a series of courses on developing volunteer management programs for the Nonprofit Leadership Development Program at Anne Arundel Community College in which we included an entire section on marketing. We pointed to successful brands like the American Red Cross volunteer and the Girl Scout Leader as examples of organizations that really understood the value of creating a volunteer brand.
Associations haven’t embraced this though. Have you seen or heard of a tagline used by an association for its volunteer program? A Google search turned up nada. I think it’s because we focus so intently on the organization’s tagline and those cool taglines for membership campaigns and conventions. What if we shifted some of that effort to creating a brand for member volunteer program? Volunteers are after all our engaged members. Highly engaged members after all drive retention, acquisition and participation. So there’s an ROI here for those that need that to trigger action.
I did find some interesting ideas which associations could build on…
- Produce Marketing Association’s volunteer page headline (that could become a tagline): “be the face of change.”
- American Water Works Association’s get involved page calls volunteers the “cornerstone on which AWWA was built.” Could the tagline be “We are the cornerstone”?
- Volunteer Pilots Association’s tagline is People Flying People in Need – yes the tagline is the association’s tagline but it’s also the volunteer tagline by virtue of the fact that the association is all-volunteer.
- Young Alumni Volunteer Association’s tagline is Connecting People Through Volunteering which could work as a volunteer tagline for any of us.
- American Marketing Association’s tagline is marketingpower … could they use networkingpower for their volunteer efforts?
- The Virtual Volunteer Project has an interesting recruitment tagline: Don’t Just Surf, Volunteer and list of other options (most of which are pretty lame) including “Click into Action” that might get you thinking
And my favorite:
- Professional Volunteering – the killer app! This is the headline for a blog posting by one of my fan association volunteer’s Nick Senzee written way back in 2006.
If you need some help working on a winning tagline, check out Nancy’s pointers from “The Perfect Association Tagline” from AssociationBizNow or in her article “What Makes A Strong Tagline Work,” Communications News, December 2009, ASAE & The Center.
And in any case, take 3 minutes now to enter your nonprofit’s taglines. The deadline for entering is July 28. All entrants will receive a free copy of the fully-updated 2010 Nonprofit Tagline Report in late 2010. It’s billed as “the only complete guide to building your organizational, program, fundraising or special event brand in 8 words or less—filled with how-tos, don’t-dos and models,” so it’s gotta be worth the 3-minutes.
Buzz2010 Inside Wisdom on Chapter Relations
I couldn’t attend the second installment of Buzz 2010 this past Tuesday (enjoying vacation) but was delighted to see the twitter stream and the recaps from a number of great sources including Jamie Notter’s Polices are good. Relationships are better. And the kernel I picked up from Jamie is really wisdom from Wendy Harman at the American Red Cross: if one of her chapters isn't in compliance, instead of a cease and desist letter, she reaches out to the chapter and asks how she can help. She is investing in the future (building relationships) while working through a troubling situation today.
How many times in our day do we stop to remind chapters what they haven’t done or have done wrong vs asked them how we can help?
As Jamie noted so perfectly: “Asking for help will contribute to building a relationship. Telling someone to stop doing something or you'll call a lawyer damages relationships.”
More coverage on Buzz 2010:
- Twitter stream on #buzz2010
- SocialFish (yep the creative minds behind it all!)
- Biznow
Missed the first two? Check out videos (the second will be available August 11th). And, don’t miss the third and final on August 18th Social Media ROI with Brand strategist Olivier Blanchard.
Always in search of ideas.
