Volunteers do follow rules ... if they can understand them.

Two cases in point. A chapter board recently decided to not follow the national membership campaign because, well, the rules didn't make sense. One directive said the membership offer was x while the other said it was y. The other national org said create your calendar using these tools only they left out something and now we're "up the creek." Have you read your own rules?

Maddie Grant kicked off a Meme, in response to Craig Newmark’s post, asking all association peeps to answer “how are you going to change the world in 2012”.

In 2012, I hope to help associations reinvent the volunteer model. With my intrepid partner, Peter, and a host of very cool peeps (like my fellow ASAE Executive Management Section Council team and good friend Leslie White), my goal is to deconstruct the volunteer model. Then, tapping cool examples from the community-service sector along with innovative ideas coming out of a few associations, we’ll explore lots of options, ideas and possibilities.

We know that volunteers are what make associations unique as organizations and fuel our success. But,  even as we in associations embrace new technologies and – to a more limited degree – new business models, we haven’t addressed the volunteer model. We are still recruiting, developing, managing and rewarding as we did decades ago even though this no longer works. ASAE's Decision To Volunteer study sent out an alarm in 2008 that we can expect a turnover rate in our most active volunteers of up to 28%.  It’s time to change.

We’ll get some help on this journey through ASAE. A group of us from the EMS Council submitted an idea for a think tank project that I understand has been selected for funding in 2012. Also, two of us from the Council have submitted a very cool session for Annual Meeting on the topic (fingers crossed!). And, we have an informal group of association execs who are exploring, through open conversations, new models and sharing their own association’s journey. (We welcome more to the table for those conversations – just contact me for details.)

Lastly, to help inspire people to volunteer for their association and to shine the light on the great contribution association volunteers make, we launched a Facebook page Association Volunteers! Join us there, like it, add your own comments, and celebrate volunteers you know!

Happy to hear from others … join the meme (hint, hint Leslie White, KiKi L’Italien, Cynthia D’Amour, Frank Fortin,  Kerry Stackpole, Kim Howard).

Our next volunteer is a little different because he is the unique position of being on both sides of the association world: as a professional for a large national association and as a volunteer for his state association. As he puts it...

Meet Chaz Miller, Director of State Programs for the National Solid Wastes Management Association, a North American trade association representing for-profit companies in the waste services industry. In his spare time, Chaz is an active volunteer with the Maryland Recycling Network (MRN), a Maryland based association of individuals and organizations whose mission is to promote and practice the 3 “Rs” of recycling. Chaz's volunteer experience as includes past positions with ASAE –The Center for Association Leadership on the CAE group and the Government Affairs group. But it's through NSWM and MRN, that Chaz, a long-time advocate of recycling, has found a way to contribute to his personal mission on both the national (NSWMA) and local levels (MRN), proving that one person can make a difference.

Here's another in our series on awesome Association Volunteers. This volunteer believes it's never too late to take that leap…

There is something in it for everyone at whatever stage of your career as long as you still have an interest in growth and increasing your knowledge.

Not every member of a professional association immediately finds that inner-volunteer. Take Jim DeArmey, Information Services Coordinator for Baltimore County Public Library. Jim is not only BCPL’s go-to guru, he is also an active volunteer with Maryland Library Association (MLA), a state member of the American Library Association (ALA). But as you’ll soon see, it took a while for Jim's inner-volunteer to really kick in.

This morning I opened a new container of a certain product only to discover that it was barely 2/3 full. Of course, the container was marked with the standard “Packaged by weight not volume. Contents may settle during shipping and handling,” but this was a simple powder. How much settling could have occurred? Now I don’t necessarily have a problem with the actual amount in that container—it is, after all, what I paid for. I just have a problem with the initial appearance of much more.

Day 21 ... Yesterday ASAE Greater Washington Network held one of its Super Swaps (a great idea for other associations) and among the topics was volunteerism. In fact of the six sessions, 2 focused on volunteerism.  I followed the discussion by Twitter (check out the hash tag #asaegw or for a cool recap Elizabeth Engel’s post). One comment in particular struck me:

I know that it’s important to focus on the positive, but in the long run we will build volunteerism by understanding what didn’t work and fixing it. I have been an active volunteer for ASAE for more than 10 years, with another association for about 5 years, a chamber of commerce for 4 and my church for, well forever. I rarely—wait a minute—never, get asked what went wrong.  If they asked, here are a few I’d share. The sales pitch was way different from the actual job. We did a lot of meeting and little accomplishing. Our team produced, the organization then shelved the product.

All of the situations can be fixed and frankly many are the result of staff just not really knowing. So sure, ask what went well and then what didn’t.

Day 15 ... My son had a routine stop by a police officer. It passed without incident. My son complained that the only reason the officer stopped him was because of his age. Other parents had similar stories. And then a few of my peers shared their similar experiences as teens.

Bottom line, police do "profile" teen drivers. But most parents I talked with agreed this was necessary. We collectively cited the number of accidents teens are involved in and the tragic deaths of teens we knew. We characterized this profiling as a strategy for staying on top of teen behavior. One mom noted, after all, it takes a village to raise a kid and the police were simply being there (on the road) when we aren't.

The liberal in me and the protective parent in me alternately agreed and worried. When was profiling right? When did a police officer's stop and subsequent search of a teen's car "just because" cross the line to harassment?

I don't know. But I do know that profiling is going on in all walks of life. Sometimes the line was clear. When my chapter's board for example didn't want a young professional to lead the chair because of age, that was clear profiling. When another chapter passed over potential volunteer leader who was in their late 50s, that was clear profiling. In both these situations, you could make the case that the position lost could have had a positive impact on their careers. Clear or fuzzy?

Where should we draw the line?

 It’s been a while since we posted our last volunteer story, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been listening.

Say hello to Davida Breier, fulfillment specialist with Johns Hopkins University Press who volunteers for the Independent Book Publishers Association and the non-profit independent publisher No Voice Unheard, offering her expertise in publishing and marketing to help promote the missions of both organizations. Davida feels truly lucky to be in the position where her professional life and volunteer activities are directly related.

Day 9 … A colleague asked me for recommendations on questions for a board candidate to determine if they were right for the job. It made me reflect on how so many of us don’t bother with that step at all. We don’t put as much thought and effort into finding the right person for the board as we do in finding the right person for a paid position. Yet in many ways the volunteer leader has more power and often can do more damage (whether through bad actions or inaction).

One of my favorite sources for board interview questions is a Guidestar article “What to ask every prospective board member.” In particular, I like these:

• How much time can you give to us?
• As you think about the three primary board roles—ambassador, advocate, and asker—in which role(s) do you think you will want to be most active?

 Three other questions I’ve used or heard used:

• How will the organization benefit from your participation?
• What would make for a satisfying board experience for you?
• What kind of work do you hope you don't have to do as a member of the board?

 There were two that she is using that I’ll add to my arsenal:

• If the Board took a vote and moved forward in a direction that was the opposite position of your chapter, how would you respond if you received an email or question from your colleagues regarding this outcome?
• Describe in your words the association’s strategic vision and how our chapters support that strategic vision.

It would be interesting to post these questions with the descriptions of your volunteers roles and on the call for volunteers. Do you have any others you've found useful?

Do ask, don't tell. Need to know something about volunteers or volunteering for your association? Go to the source - the volunteer.

An ASAE member is hosting an informal discussion on what demotivates chapters. The invitation was to all component (chapter) relations professionals who oversee chapter programs for national associations, not chapter volunteers. I doubt that the #1 demotivator will ever come up: the national organization.