Office Depot has it right - customers want things to be easy. That goes for busy members as well. We need to make it easy to volunteer. ASAE's Decision To Volunteer study and countless others tell us volunteers want to easily be able to find the right opportunity, sign up and do it. What's interesting is that community service volunteering has really taken this to heart and there are countless of new portals that facilitate that. Associations on the other hand still put up barriers like:

Conservative estimates put the number of service projects on MLK Day of Service at more than 10,000.
From President Obama and his family to kids and their families at an elementary school in DC, people took a “day on not a day off”. Twitter crackled with news coming in from all parts about in impromptu and very-organized activities (follow #MLKDay).

One of aspects of this service that went unreported are the hours put in by association volunteers on the all-important business of their associations. I don’t mean in any way to discount the work of many for communities and charities, but I would like the shine a light on the thousands of volunteers who toil for their professional and trade associations.

Non-volunteers see themselves as different from volunteers ... even though it's frequently a misplaced assumption.

Read more at Pathway to Service.

This is one for the books. A story about an association, ASAE specifically, that created an excellent member experience – so much so that as one member leaves the profession, she brings on board to the association her replacement and pledges to remain active as a volunteer. And, she shares this on the association’s listserv.

As we mentioned in our last post, we are pleased to launch a year-long project capturing the stories of association volunteers. We’re picking up on the National day of Listening, StoryCorps' project to encourage Americans to collect and share stories.

We begin with Lisa Miles’ story as told to Carol Blattau. Lisa, president of Miles Public Relations, is the consummate association volunteer. Her passion for her profession fuels her passion for her volunteering. And she has cultivated this passion through the Maryland Chapter of The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA-MD).

Today – the Friday following Thanksgiving – is National Day of Listening. It began in 2008 when StoryCorps launched the effort to encourage Americans to start a yearly tradition of listening to and preserving a loved one’s story.  It’s an effort to collect stories that will surely grow more valuable with each passing generation. 

This day has spurred a year-long project here at Mariner to collect and share the stories of association volunteers. Over the next year, we are seeking your stories.  We will gather them, create an archive and share these for all to read, find motivation and celebrate the thousands of volunteers who make associations rich. To share, just contact us and we’ll set up a time to talk. Or send us your story.

In a 155-word story, Cynthia D'Amour answers the question. What question you ask in return? The question of what's more important that our chapters follow our rules right down to the last detail or that they deliver great, meaningful results?

Three great posts for chapter administrators, chapter leaders and national staff:

• Leslie White's post on policies that sheds light on where we go wrong and how to go right - applicable whether we're talking about a policy for your education chair or an affiliation agreement - great Leslie!
• Beth Kanter's post on the last Blogpotomac that offers really two learnings: 1) a look at a great event format and why it works and 2) reflections on what it means to have great community.I joined Beth at Blogpotomac and she's right!
  
• Phoebe Owen's post on nonprofits in the cloud with great tools just waiting for all of us.
  

And a bonus ... here's a link to Lisa Junker's click links.

Enjoy and share your favs!

Volunteers rock ... consider that The Ark was built by volunteers, The Titanic by paid staff.

I’m not surprised and not sure why anyone else is.

VolunteerMatch.com shared that headline and web stats based on the second full day of Entertainment Industry Foundation’s iParticipate TV campaign. It seems that the media, despite an all star cast, is struggling to convert media attention into social action.

A little background …