Free Webinar on Volunteer Management

Looking for an introduction to volunteer management for someone at your partner site?  Looking to train a volunteer at your organization to take on some of the responsibilities of heading up the volunteer program?

Check out this promising free webinar from Charity HowTo: Getting Volunteers to Your Nonprofit.

 It's taking place on December 7.  Does that time not work for you?  No worries!  Check out their list of free webinars here - they've got the exact same one happening in January, too.

Happy training!

Generosity Day?

So, everyone in the United States has probably heard of Thanksgiving.  But what if there were a holiday about giving thanks by showing generosity?  What if there were a day when everyone were called to serve and to give to the causes around them?

Enter: Generosity Day.

Generosity Day, a small movement started just a couple of years ago, seeks to "Re-boot Valentine's Day."  The idea: show love, show your thankfulness, and do it by giving generously to those around you.

I love this idea - what if we all decided, on one day, to serve.  What if it were a national holiday, like Thanksgiving is?  Thanksgiving is so inspiring - everyone appreciating what they have, enjoying the community around them, and many choosing to serve.  How inspiring would it be to see our communities come together on another day - all around generosity?

I hope you have a great Thanksgiving, and show your thanks for your volunteers, the staff at your organization, and your community support.  But let's start the call to turn it back around into giving.  Let's turn that idea of appreciation into a day of special projects, good deeds, and a call to our community to lend a giving hand to give-back generously!

VIP Conference 2011 Recap

November 7-10, all of VIP got together for the unique opportunity to enjoy training and team building together.  This was our only chance to be together as a program for the year - and it proved to be a great time!

We got the great opportunity to hear from a number of experienced facilitators.

Our impactful opening keynote was given by Patricia Bennett, President and CEO of Resource Development Associates in Oakland.  She ushered us into the conference with a call to work together to overcome all of the important issues in the world that we all care about

Afterwards, I (look... that's me in the picture!) got the pleasure of reviewing AmeriCorps service with everyone - including what I hope was a fun game of AmeriCorps logistics trivia bingo!

We got the treat of a variety of breakout sessions led by great trainers - from event planning to diversity to professionalism to volunteer management.

Amy Salinas, of CAC Consulting

Briana Downey, CalSERVES consultant

Mike Kamer, former VIP Fellow

Taylor Ford, CalSERVES staff

Each evening, each supervising organization team got the chance to meet together, debrief the day, and share what they had learned with their team.

St. Joseph's Health Systems VIP team

Thank you to everyone who participated in our conference!  It was an inspiring time for all as we got to see the breadth of organizations involved in VIP and the depth of everyone's passion for service.

Let's carry this excitement, the relationships we built on our teams, and the skills we learned back to our organizations and our teams for the rest of this service term!

We're back!

VIP AmeriCorps members and staff at Wonder Valley

Happy Wednesday!

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks for VIP!  Our biggest, latest news: we held our statewide conference last week at Wonder Valley Ranch Resort in Sanger.

Keep a lookout for a post on Friday about our great week together as a program!