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VAN Reading, Resource and Leadership Corner

By on August 20, 2012

Contributed by Nikki Russell

The VAN Reading, Resource and Leadership Corner:  a bi-monthly post to the VAN blog that will keep you up-to-date on the latest thinking, online and local resources, and best or promising practice relevant to effective volunteer engagement.   

Reading and Resource Corner:

Join your VAN Peers for our next  next Professional Gathering  this Wednesday as we explore Leadership Vs. Management.  We’ll be meeting from 11:30-1:00pm at the Museum of History and Industry . I won’t be able to make this month’s Professional Gathering, and I’m seriously bummed.  I am really interested in exploring both the Leadership and Management aspects of our roles as Leaders of Volunteer Engagement for our organizations.  Note that instead of “Volunteer Program Manager”, the typical title we utilize to describe the volunteer engagement role we fill in our organizations, I inserted the word “leader”.  So what does it mean to “lead” volunteer engagement?  What does it mean to “manage” volunteer engagement?  Is there a difference between leadership and management?  Do we, as leaders of volunteer engagement, operate as both leaders and managers?  I can’t wait to hear what comes up in Wednesday’s conversation.  Please do share: continue the conversation on the Volunteer Administrators Network on LinkedIn or post a comment about the Professional Gathering topic on our Facebook page: Volunteer Administrators Network (VAN) Northwest.

I did a quick search on Leadership Vs. Management online.  Needless to say, there are volumes of information/articles and resources.  I did find one discussion of Leadership Vs. Management that I thought would make an excellent conversation starter.  Take a few minutes to watch this short video:

Local Workshops:

Bellevue College is offering a 8-hour, two-day course on Volunteer Management in November as part of their Non-profit Management series.  Taught by Marjorie Trachtman (who’s workshop on “Authentic Leadership” at the VAN Conference received rave reviews), the 2-day course will be offered on two consecutive Fridays- November 2nd and 9th.  The course description and registration information will be available online at www.gotobcc.com.

 

Leadership Corner:

In a recent post to Leadership Freak, Dan Rockwell explores 5 ways leaders can find and tap potential.  I think that as leaders of volunteer engagement, finding and tapping human potential is what we’re all about.  Here’s a quote I pulled from his blog post that particularly resonates with me as a leader of volunteer engagement:  Leaders help people paint themselves into pictures of what’s around the corner in the universe of “not yet”.  How do you find and tap the potential of your volunteers?

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Nikki Russell currently works as the Volunteer Initiatives Manager for United Way of King County, managing and delivering the volunteer resource management training series. In this capacity, Nikki has developed workshops and trainings for local and regional conferences as well as tailored trainings in volunteer resource management to meet the needs of local nonprofit organizations. Nikki is the lead trainer and consultant for the Volunteer Impact Partnership, a United Way of King County volunteer management capacity building program implemented locally to nonprofit organizations. Nikki serves as the Chair of Steering Committee of the Volunteer Administrator’s Network (VAN) Northwest and is currently serving on the Board of the Association of Leaders in Volunteer Engagement (AL!VE) and the Board of the Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration. Her non-profit background includes 17 years of experience in program planning and volunteer program management. She holds a Master’s degree in Anthropology from Boston University.

One response to “VAN Reading, Resource and Leadership Corner”

  1. offshore company
    offshore company October 21, 2012 at 11:27 pm | | Reply

    parties. Skilled volunteers help with web pages, blogs and IT. Leader volunteers run programs or events with minimal supervision from staff. Even self-directed work teams solve complex organization challenges with staff as members of the team rather than directing the team. The chart below summarizes how the field of volunteer engagement is changing… and for good reason. Today’s new breed of volunteer usually doesn’t want to be a cog in a wheel anymore – even if they’re doing direct service. The following chart, from the book Boomer Volunteer Engagement by Jill Friedman Fixler and Sandie Eichberg (2008) highlights the way many leaders in the field view the field of service heading. Scott Martin and Temple University have also been leaders in the field and use a similar chart. In short, the field of volunteering is moving from commanding and controlling people to delegating and empowering them.

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