Being invited into a circle of...Support!

An ongoing experience in the Advanced Volunteer Management Institute was the Support Circle.  Introduced early on, we were explicitly told that many of us will love this experience, some will enjoy it, and others will just not…but to tolerate it because you never know what will come of it.

As a result of an icebreaker exercise…we were split up into groups of four.  In other words, it was random luck that brought the four of us together…but what luck it was.  We were four women from different sectors of the field from all across the country who ended up being a huge support to each other throughout the pre-conference institute.

We met four times over the course of the three days and each time a different person was allowed to talk about the issues that she was facing in her position.  After her narrative, we then had the opportunity to ask questions, give support, and share our input into her situation.  It was such a great experience not only to have others give input into my situation, but to be able to provide support for others in the field.  Sometimes it takes looking another’s program to spur me on to strive for the full potential that mine can reach.

I am excited about the possibility of supporting each other from afar after the conference…and also about thinking about how something like this can be created on a local level in my community.  It’s different from a mentoring relationship as there is not a perceived hierarchy in the relationships…it’s about a mutual give and take…and can be formed with folks of similar as well as differing levels of experience.

Thanks to my partners in this group for making it a great experience for me to be a part of!!!

Overview Day 1 of the Advanced Volunteer Management Institute

It wasn’t a long day per see…but it was crammed full of so much information that by 5 o’clock I was ready for bed.  Of course trying to get over being sick probably contributed to the fatigue as well.  Just a brief overview here.  I will go into more detail about some of the material presented in later posts.

Went to pick up registration and saw many people with these pretty reusable grocery totes along the way…hoping secretly that it might be the conference bag…and to my pleasant surprise it was!  Thanks Target !!!

From conference registration walked over to the institute registration.  It was amazing to walk along the streets of San Francisco…definitely different from Louisiana in so many ways!!!  Mingled with some people over pastries and then found our way to the opening session.  First was a welcome by several different people.  A noteworthy stat from the welcome:

Over 4500 people registered for the conference!  Wow!!!

We were also introduced to the idea of support circles during the morning and we met through an exercise the three other people that would make up our circle for our time together.  We met together two other times throughout the day sharing some of our joys and struggles with our job currently and get input from each other about strategies to approach these issues.

The meat of the morning session consisted of each of the faculty members presenting their hot button issue of the moment in Volunteer Management, which Linda Graff called Issues on the “Top of the Mind”.  I will go into more detail in another post about the session—it was a hoot!!! and I think quite therapeutic for all of us as I think we all individually think about these issues, so seeing the collective body admit can normalize the struggle. 

• Susan Ellis spoke of the pull/push we are getting to promote/participate in single days of service v. engaging highly skilled volunteers.
  
• Rick Lynch spoke of the overlooked and missing component to our volunteer programs of strategy.
  
• Betty Stallings couldn’t pick just one…so she came up with her top five with #2 being “clarity in the role of the manager/direcor/coordinator of volunteer resources plays in the organization” and #1 being “the impact of executive and board leadership on the success of the volunteer program.”
  
• Martin Cowling spoke of the impact of the global recession on volunteer management.
  
• Steve McCurley spoke of having fun in volunteer management.
  

Over lunch we were treated to a welcome from Points of Light/Hands On Network and an update about the merger.

After lunch began the sessions.  I attended two by Steve McCurley.  The first was Ethical Issues in Volunteer Management and the second was Building Credibility with Line Staff.

With all that and meeting tons of new people from all over the country/world…it was a full day!  Thanks to everyone I have met so far for sharing your knowledge and experience.  I seriously don’t know how I have never made it to this conference before, but you can bet it won’t be my last!!!

More about the individual sessions later.  We are starting the institute way early this morning because the First Lady is speaking at the opening session this evening, thus needing more time for extra security procedures.

Day before...National Conference on Volunteer and Service

How fitting to really kick this blog off with my first trip out to the National Conference on Volunteering and Service.  I am going out a day early to attend the Advanced Volunteer Management Institute.  I am so excited to be able to learn from some of the leaders in the field.  The faculty for the AVMI is a list of ROCKSTARS including Susan Ellis, Martin Cowling, Betty Stallings, and Linda Graff.

I will be sharing what I am learning all week both here and on my twitter feed (@volunteerwords).  Feel free to comment or reply back.  Would love to hear what you are thinking!  Also check out other NCVS related content at http://ncvs.blogspot.com/, http://twitter.com/ncvs and by searching #NCVS on Twitter.

Class starts some crazy early hour in the morning so I will catch you on the flipside!