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August 27, 2008

How to hit pay dirt by recruiting disabled volunteers

I have enjoyed discussing volunteering with you this summer. I hope that the topics we have covered will help you plan how you can use volunteering to get your 'foot in the door', gain valuable work experience, develop skill sets to advance your career and expand your personal and professional network.

As you pursue volunteering here are 6 things to keep in mind that can enhance your success:

  1. Enthusiasm.
    Showing enthusiasm, whether it's your first volunteer job or your first job or even a change of life job, is integral to making your experience successful. Being passionate and excited about the work you are doing communicates to the volunteer manager, or boss that you are indeed excited about what you are doing and its eventual success.

  2. Co-operation and team work.
    Learning to work together as a team for the common goal or common good is a skill that is hard to learn for many, but extremely valuable.

  3. Integrity.
    Despite how it looks in movies and TV and sometimes in real life, the end doesn't always justify the means. Nor do the means always justify the end. Compromising your ability to be trustworthy and trusted invalidates the work that the team has done, not to mention your own reputation. Keeping your personal integrity is one of the more important aspects of learning about yourself and what you value.

  4. Preparedness.
    Learning to adapt to other people's schedules or pre-requisites teaches you how to follow requirements and manage time. This is a skill you probably learned in elementary school, high school or college through homework, doing projects and practicums. Time management and properly doing what is asked of you will help you whether you're in a volunteer position, a job or starting your own business.

    Being totally prepared means having a good grasp on all the aspects of a project, an assignment, a business plan or a fundraising event. It means literally being able to walk through all the points and knowing what the expected outcomes will be. It's the ability to see the big picture and not just some aspects.

    Being fully prepared in all aspects will show your boss, your bank, the volunteer manager, the CFO or CEO that you are capable and responsible for whatever you do.

  5. Good Communication skills.
    Being able to talk about your ideas, presentation, plan or resume without overusing jargon or tech-speak is indicative of good communication skills. You should use clear precise plain English. However, don't simplify it so much that you give the impression you are patronizing your audience. You want them to understand what your main thrust or idea is and not be scratching their heads after you've finished, saying to themselves, what did she say?

In addition, James J. Elekes, M.Ed, MPA, CPM adds in his post from last week another important element for success, specifically:

" (A) Sincere "Thank You". After you've done everything you can humanly do to make the sale, provide the service or, improve the organization's efficiency, it's not about blowing your own horn!

"'Thank you' is the most often forgotten phrase that
links you to a second purchase of your product or
service. It says in two simple words 'I appreciate
your business' and, 'I value you as a
client/contact/professional.'

"It's the 'Thank you' that secures the connection
made and reinforces the value placed in the
individual/entity."

The last eSight special feature in this series, How to Hit Pay Dirt by Recruiting Disabled Volunteers is written to help volunteer managers effectively integrate volunteers with disabilities into their organizations.

Please take a moment and let us know about a positive experience you have had volunteering.

If you know a non-profit/community service organization that actively welcomes people with disabilities to work with them we'd like to hear from you.

Posted by Liz Seger at 04:55 PM | Comments (2)

August 20, 2008

How Volunteering Can Lead To A Successful Business

I've been very fortunate to have been involved with volunteer programs that have had many good volunteer managers.

I also think having been a volunteer manager myself in the early 90s for the Erie Lakeside Branch of the Red Cross that I have learned many transferable skills and I now know what works and what doesn't when it comes to volunteer management and volunteer programs.

Volunteer managers have to juggle the different motivations their volunteers have as well as the various personalities, expertise, skills and undiscovered talents. A good volunteer managers must learn how to motivate each in a manner that honors each volunteer.

Many volunteers begin by making demands concerning their schedule and expect the volunteer manager to adapt to their requests rather than the other way around.

Volunteer managers often have to balance out what the agency needs and what your needs are and make them as perfect a fit as they can. Not all agencies or non profit groups can always do that. But most volunteer managers will do the best they can to accommodate their volunteers and their needs, whether they are able-bodied or disabled.

James Elekes describes the practices of well managed volunteer programs and identifies the following as being important:

James concludes by saying "Ideally, the gains one receives from 'Community/Volunteer Service' gives the individual a sense of value added to their life once they've completed their interaction with the organization/entity."

While you are researching what volunteer position you want, don't be afraid to check out the volunteer program itself. Interview the volunteers, the volunteer manager, even the Executive Director or a Board Member to get a "feel" for the agency to see if you'd make a good fit. Seize the opportunity to look at leadership styles and how an effective volunteer manager may play an important role in what you learn in being a leader in school, in your church, at home or at your place of work.

You may even find that your experiences as a volunteer can create a niche that you might fill as an entrepreneur.

Read this eSight resource:

How Volunteering Can Lead To A Successful Business

Then join in our conversation this week and let's explore,

"How can volunteering help you
learn entrepreneurial skills?"

Posted by Liz Seger at 06:06 PM | Comments (5)

August 13, 2008

What to Expect from a Volunteer Program

Thousands of volunteers with all kinds of different skills sets were needed for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The Paralympics in September will also need volunteers. Have you ever considered volunteering with the Olympic or Paralympic programs if the Olympics are coming to your part of the world? Canada will host the 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler, British Columbia and London, England will host the 2012 summer games. If you live in those areas there may be many opportunities for you to help out, increase your social networks and make a new friend or two or perhaps even find a job lead.

If you have a special skill such as speaking a second, third, or fourth language it may make you a very needed volunteer who can translate for visitors to your community. Or perhaps volunteering within the refugee or new immigrant center, helping to make newcomers to the country feel welcomed and acknowledged as well as you being one of the first persons to introduce them to a new and sometimes strange culture. I think each of us has experienced being "new" or "the different kid/adult" in the room and can probably empathize with how refugees or new immigrants feel.

I know that in developing and implementing workshops for various groups, having a volunteer who could sign was not only helpful but saved me money not having to employ an ASL interpreter, which can be very expensive if you have a smaller budget. The skill or talent you don't think is all that important may indeed be vitally important to a volunteer manager or someone in your social network and you're the only one who can fill that niche.

In her book "A foot in the Door" Katharine Hansen lists the very best contacts for new and recent graduates. I think she was thinking permanent jobs but they might also make interesting contacts for volunteering opportunities as well.

For the new college graduate, just about anyone associated with your college experience can form the foundation of a solid (social) network. The cream of the crop include:

These are also helpful for anybody who may have been downsized or wants to change to a second or third career.

Volunteer opportunities are indeed everywhere if you look for them knowing your skills, passions, and strengths.

Just because a job is not for pay does not mean that it will be easy to get. This week's eSight feature article discusses some of the hurdles you may face and what you will need to work effectively as a volunteer.

Read What to Expect from a Volunteer Program.

Just being friendly to people can be the start of an opportunity to volunteer or perhaps find a permanent job.

As a student in my late teens and twenties I volunteered on a few municipal, provincial and federal political campaigns. About ten years later my volunteering in campaigns lead to a call from the chief constituency assistant of my particular MP in Ottawa, would I come and work for him locally in his office, helping to write his speeches, co-ordinate events, help with constituents' concerns, which I did for ten months. It was an interesting experience but it also made me realize I didn't have the stomach for the thrust and jab and sometimes cruelty of working in and around politics.

This year, with the elections going on in the US and possibly an election in Canada this fall, might be the perfect opportunity for you. Not only to get involved helping your favorite candidate get elected but offering your skills as a volunteer for the campaign and perhaps making a few new contacts. Who knows what could develop later on?

One more story, one about just being friendly on an airplane which got me a cook's tour of the Vancouver aquarium eighteen years ago. I was sitting beside an older woman, who I found out was a marine biologist for the Vancouver aquarium. I was on my way to a cruise to Alaska right after the Exxon Valdez spill and she and I were talking about the damage to the animals and birds and the habitat. She said, give me a call when you come back to Vancouver and I'll take you to the aquarium.

I got to see the ins and outs of the aquarium that the public would never see, almost my own Nature episode and in the process got to help bathe a few of the sea otters who had been endangered as the Vancouver aquarium had been entrusted with helping them get clean and ensuring their survival.

I also got a little insight into the kindness and sensitivity of killer whales and dolphins. As I was walking along the edge of the tank, the trainer stopped and asked if I had some kind of a disability and I said oh I'm legally blind and I guess you've notice my balance problems. He said, well I did but a bunch of the whales and dolphins have too, turn around and look. And there were the orcas with a baby in tow and the dolphins following me around whenever I moved. No, it wasn't that I had fish or smelled like fish, that was my first thought too. The trainer explained that the orcas and dolphins always spotted visitors who had disabilities before the trainers did and wanted to be around them to protect them.

Without talking to the marine biologist on the plane, I'd probably never been able to get inside the Vancouver aquarium in that way and it also fostered a love of orcas and dolphins in me that is still with me today 18 years later.

A chance meeting or a volunteer experience can lead to who knows what, if you're open to the opportunities all around you and willing to give them a try.

In our conversation this week let's identify the following:

What were the most important qualities of the best managed volunteer program you've encountered so far in your education or your career?

Posted by Liz Seger at 10:47 AM | Comments (2)

August 06, 2008

Finding Volunteer Opportunities

Over the past month we've examined how to find the things you love to do, the areas you are passionate about and how to blend them with the skill set you've put together on your resume to find a possible volunteer position that will help to empower you in both your job and your voluntary activities.

We've seen how a volunteer manager from a Canadian non profit views volunteering.

Last week we discussed how you've used volunteering to try out a potential career.

Jim Hasse explained it this way. "Early in my career (and over the span of 10 years), I took the lead in publishing centennial books for two church congregations (one small and the other larger than average), and both times I felt I was way over my head.

"But, both experiences taught me how to delegate, how to plan and how work with a volunteer group of individuals who just might have very different visions of what a centennial book should be.

"Those experiences prepared me for working with senior management –- and Price Waterhouse, at the time –- to plan, create and produce annual financial reports (26 in all) under strict guidelines for my employer's stockholders.

"I learned how to work within an established "system" (yes, church congregation and financial auditing firms definitely have their own unique "systems") to get a job done.

"It's something I had not learned in college but needed in order to work with administrative people as a communicator in the secular world."

Through volunteering Jim discovered that he enjoyed helping make the "system" work and it helped him find his career niche.

My friend Linda, a nurse who has a degree in public health, worked for a number of years at a local Red Cross branch and at a larger one in Oakville, Ontario, where she participated in disaster training and emergency readiness planning. She also ran the branch with dignity, respecting all her volunteers from the youngest teenagers to seasoned volunteers with more than 40 years experience. She listened to all their opinions, and with grace and tact put together successful programs in these Red Cross branches. So much so that her consumers and volunteers still keep in touch with her.

Linda then took that experience working with our older volunteers and ran a nursing home and now, having come back to our little city, is sitting on the physician recruitment committee as a volunteer, helping in the fight to save our hospital's ER. She is able to discuss the concern of both seniors and people with disabilities with eloquence and passion. And she is well aware of the consequences of not having an ER, let alone a hospital, in our area. Linda utilized her volunteer experiences and her particular skill set to a maximum.

Another person who provides insight into the needs of people with disabilities is Dr. Karen Wolffe. In her keynote address at the 2007 VISIONS Employment & Technology Institute she said:

"We gain self-esteem when we can report out to other people what it is we are doing for others, not just receiving from others, but doing for -- you don't have to tell them if you are only working one day a month. But you should be doing at least that much. Even if you are saying to yourself, 'I don't have any time to be doing any kind of volunteer work because I'm so busy looking for work,' please let me help you understand how this works. You need to be doing something beyond just looking for work, or not looking for work -- that would be even worse -- that lets other people know that you are actively engaged in life and work to build your own self-esteem and to feel good about yourself and to be able to present yourself as a competent, confident human being. A number of you in this group are looking for work. That is wonderful, that is great, that is super. I want you to look for work, but I want you to work while you look for work. Truly.

"Other things that you gain from work -- remember paid or non-paid -- is you gain a social network. People connecting to people. Understand: I'm a career counselor. I have spent my entire professional life helping people find work, and when people say to me, "What's the best way to find work?" I say to them, always and forever, what I am going to say to you, which is other people. Other people are your best way to find work..."

Read the full transcript of Dr Wolffe's, "Cornerstone to Success: Work"

You can also listen to Dr. Wolffe's presentation. Playing time is approximately 52 minutes.

Listen to "Cornerstone to Success: Work" with Real Audio

Listen to "Cornerstone to Success" with Windows Media

In addition, don't miss this weeks eSight's feature article, Find Out What Volunteer Opportunities Are Available To Help You With Your Career

Please join this week's discussion on the eSight Networking Forum:

What resources did you use to find your most
rewarding volunteer positions?

Posted by Liz Seger at 02:24 PM | Comments (4)