Volunteering

So here we are, heading into a new year (and decade!) with a mixture of optimism and trepidation (yes, I put optimism first 😊). So many questions: What does 2021 hold for us? How will this past year affect – positively or negatively – our associations, our chapters, our volunteers, our staff, even our own […]

What does it mean to coach your volunteers? We are being called to shift our approach to volunteer management from command and control (here’s what you should do) to a coaching mindset where we support and guide our volunteers to meet the change head-on.

Once upon a time, there was a passionate volunteer committee chair. Thanks to Covid, this committee was reinventing its activity and had a compressed timeline. The challenge was making the most of the virtual committee meetings. It called for strong facilitation skills.

So now that we’ve learned how to approach difficult conversations as opportunities rather than obstacles to avoid, how can we take those lessons further and apply them to conversations with our most precious resource … our volunteers?

Your association and chapters probably face the same challenge the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) wrestles with: filling the industry and association leadership pipeline. What if a chapter had success in this? Here’s a story of a bright spot.

It’s November – the month of thanks! And right around the corner is April’s National Volunteer Week (4/18/21). In reality, we don’t need a month or designated week to say thanks to our volunteers. We should be showing our appreciation all year long.   Here are a few inexpensive ways to update your appreciation for […]