TO: Leaders of Local Associations of Volunteer Coordinators, sometimes called DOVIA’s

  FROM: Ivan Scheier

  DATE: June 1984

  ON: ACTIVITING YOUR LOCAL DOVIA:
A Few Reasons Why People Who Have Lots of Other Places To Go, Might Decide Instead To Attend Your Meeting, or Even Join Your Association

First try to visualize all those people who might attend your meetings, but hardly ever do. Then imagine them asking themselves.

Why Bother?

… and be sure you can come up with some very good reasons why they should bother.

Many of the meeting motivators described here can occur informally, almost unconsciously, as by products of a good meeting. But there’s nothing wrong with deliberately pumping the process a little bit. In presenting a few reality-tested ideas for this, I, nevertheless, realize there is no such thing as a meeting you can’t refuse. But maybe we can make it a little harder.

First of all, don’t lose people unnecessarily because of scheduling difficulties or memory lapses. Your well-publicized meeting should preferably be at the same time on the same day of every month (for example, the third Tuesday, noon to 1:30 p.m.). Another idea that helps here is to have everyone of your core group of regular attendees take personal responsibility for inviting and reminding, if necessary, one other person, or two other people.

Next, remember that people can be turned off by a reputation for long, boring meetings which rarely start or end on time. An action-pack hour or hour and a half is about right. The disadvantage of being seen as a time drain can also be minimized by building your meeting around a meal. People usually eat anyway, probably lunch, but perhaps breakfast. For lunch, brown bag it or make it tasty, inexpensive, light. The meal might be catered by a volunteer group for fundraising purposes; it might even be contributed by some organization.

Everything about your association should be seen as economical. Thus, you might help people save money via a lending library, a book exchange, reduced fees at workshops, even package deals on car rentals, vacations, etc. Membership fees, workshop fees, newsletter subscriptions, costs of other publications of the association should all be a rock bottom costs. People who require expensive memberships, conferences, etc., can easily obtain them at the national level.

The meeting should be smooth as well as brief, led by an effective facilitator of group process. Sometimes, otherwise excellent officers do not happen to have these particular talents. Such officers should consider delegating the meeting facilitation function to people who have the skills for it, much as club officers sometimes delegate procedural decision to parliamentarians.

If overall meeting is short, the "business" part of it should be microscopic. Shoot for 10 to 15 minutes. Avoid obsessive discussion of by-laws. Indeed, avoid by-laws altogether, if you possibly can, or anything which distances discussion from what the association is all about: helping its members and the people and organization they work with. To be sure, some people enjoy tinkering with internal organization complication for its own sake. But not many do.

Well, then, what should major content of the meeting be? Let’s return to the question posed by our regular absentee:

Why Bother?

Or put somewhat more positively

To Go Or Not To Go?
(to the meeting)

Here are some reasons it might be "Go."

1. I’m Likely To Get Concrete Help With Specific Needs.

1. Some DOVIAs have "need auctions" as a regular feature of meetings. Each attendee can concentrate the entire attention and resources of the group on her or his specific volunteer leadership need. Samples:

-Who knows about some good placements for my teenage volunteers?

-Where can I borrow a portable stage for my volunteer performing group?

-Does anybody have anything on the dollar value of volunteer time?

Almost always, people get some help in just a few minutes, either directly from audience, or as leads to other individuals or organizations. Need auctions work well for ten to thirty people; larger groups can be split into subgroups. Be sure bashful people get a chance, too. You can enjoy the process even if you don’t happen to have a specific need each month.

2. Resource-need matches can also be made in more sophisticated (and time-consuming ways). Among these methods are MINIMAX and Central Network Pools. MINIMAX is a practical process for matching gladly given resources with needs. It is well tested in real-life situations and highly motivating. Allow 45 to 75 minutes. In Central Network Pools, people get credit for contributing easy-to-give skills, talent, or materials, which are then stored in a central resource bank or pool. The credits can then be spent to acquire any of the range of resources stored in the pool.

2. I’d Like to Meet People With Similar Interests and Concerns.

1.Just attending a DOVIA meeting helps you meet people with generally similar interests.

2.A more organized way of connecting people is Common Interest Calls. Have people complete the sentence:

I would like to be in touch with someone else who is also interested in or concerned about

(Usually assumed to be in the general area of leadership of community volunteers.)

Put in a separate slip for each topic, put your name, address, and phone number on each slip and star the topic if you’re interested enough to contribute time coordinating or otherwise organizing or facilitating a group formed around this concern or interest.

There is no practical limit to the number of common interest calls an individual can place in this process. However, three to five per person is a practical range for each occasion in which the procedure is used.

Slips go into a ballot box or into a pile on a table. A committee sorts the slips into clusters defined by similar interests or concerns. The ballot box can be regularly re-opened for "voting" by members at each meeting or every second or third meeting.

The vast majority of slips almost always arrange themselves quire clearly into clusters with titles like "training volunteers," "volunteer-staff relations," "volunteer recognition," "transportation," etc. However, unless this is a very small meeting, the sorting committee will need at least twenty minutes for their work. For larger groups, therefore, the sorting should probably occur at a previous meeting or between meetings.

Main cluster titles can be placed on tables so people can join their preferred common interest group for lunch. Clusters can also be listed in newsletters or in a special common interest directory. Finally, common interest groups can define subject priorities for mini-workshops or other special meetings.

You’re unlikely to run out of cluster titles right away. Fifty people, each filing five common interest call slips, can easily define 12 to 15 major clusters and many other significant though less numerous clusters.

3. I’d Like to Learn And Grow And Further My Professional Development Through Training And Education.

1.You can almost always find resource people within the association for all or most of the major common interest clusters. If not, there’s likely to be an expert somewhere in town who can be persuaded to volunteer. Finally, most cluster group members have much to share with each other in the topic area.

DOVIAs have done well with mini-workshops. Based on such matching of close-in resource people with learning needs. One or more of these workshops can be presented at each monthly or bimonthly meeting.

2.The Learning Exchange is a similar, but somewhat more sophisticated way of accomplishing the above, especially if you have not previously established cluster groups.

4. I’d Like To Feel More Supported And Affirmed in My Worklife, And Less Isolated.

Just being in a DOVIA can be a great help here. Even better is being active in a DOVIA. Best of all is being active in a DOVIA which emphasizes recognition for careerists in leadership of volunteers. For example, a growing number of local associations have annual awards for outstanding volunteer directors. Other possibilities include:

1.A "Bragtime" at each meeting. Each person is invited briefly to give some good news about her or his program or organization, preferably recent.

2.Guided Converse. People are paired, preferably with individuals they don’t know or know well. One person briefly gives some good news about what they are doing, then some issues or concerns. The other person listens without interrupting. Roles are then reversed. Finally, the two people try to give each other leads on where they might get help with their issues or concerns. The whole process takes about ten minutes.

Guided Converse can also be done with up to four or five people in a group. This version takes 20-30 minutes.

3."The Circle." Four or five people sit in a circle. Each person briefly shares some important and/or interesting things about themselves. The others listen without interruption. After the circle of sharing has been completed, every one tries to thing of ""connections," i.e., "You ought to meet up with or be in touch with _____." We seek here some other person or organization the speaker could profitably interact with, to learn, to teach, to support or be supported by in their interest or life experience. Collectively, the group tries to suggest at least one connection for every individual in the circle.

5. I’d Like to Find Out About Current Job Openings in the Field.

These should be collected and presented at each meeting.

6. I’d Like To Learn About Ways My Volunteer Program Could Advantageously Cooperate With Other Volunteer Programs Or Organizations.

 DOVIA projects of this type include joint recognition events for volunteers, cooperative recruiting efforts (at volunteer fairs, for examples) and joint fundraising.

 Now let’s visualize a typical meeting-you-can’t-refuse (can you?). The Down-home DOVIA meets regularly, like clockwork, on the third Tuesday of every month (except summer?) from 12 noon sharp until 1:30 (not 1:35).

11:45 – noon Anyone who wants to can come early for informal mingling. This is entirely optional and not a formal part of the meeting.

Noon – 12:15 A brisk business meeting includes, as always, note of any current job opportunities in the volunteer leadership field. Also on the agenda this month are progress reports and discussion on (1) the volunteer coordinator of the year selection process and recognition event; and (2) a joint recruiting effort (Volunteer Fair).

12:15 – 12:55 A Need Auction and, if time remains, either ‘Bragtime’ or discussion with your choice of cluster groups. (The cluster titles are on the tables when you arrived for the meeting).

12:55 – 1:00 Brief description of two immediately following workshops to help you make your choice. Individuals not interested in either workshop are free to leave at this point.

1:00 – 1:30 Choice of two practical, hands on mini-workshops based on cluster groups.

1:29 ½ - 1:30 Adjourn