Share Minnesota Public Awareness Campaign: Inspirational Volunteer Stories Needed

Minnesota is taking steps to better leverage the talents of individuals 50+ as they apply their skills, talents and passion to Minnesota’s priority issues.  

The Minnesota Board on Aging in partnership with tptMN will be developing short videos in order to share stories of volunteers, age 50+, who have made a real difference in their communities. 

The videos will be developed this summer. They will begin to air this fall on tptMN. They will also be distributed via the web and other mediums.

Lt. Governor Launches Share Minnesota

We need your help to identify people in your community who would inspire others to take action in their own communities. It is vital that people see themselves in roles they might not traditionally think of as volunteer roles and know they can make a real difference in their communities.

Things a nominee might have done:
• Taken the initiative to find solutions to a community problem
• Inspired others to get involved in a cause
• Created an innovative program or strategy to help an organization meet its mission
• Stepped outside of the traditional role of a volunteer and taken on a leadership capacity in an organization or community

We are particularly interested in stories of volunteers working in the arts, with kids, and with the environment.

Selected nominees will be asked to travel to the Twin Cities in August to attend a taping session. Mileage reimbursement and a per diem will be provided.

Please submit your nominations to Lee George at leepetergeorge@gmail.com by July 18, 2012.
All information included in this nomination form will be given to tptMN. tptMN will make final decisions about which nominees are selected and will contact the selected nominees directly.

Nomination Form for Share Minnesota Public Awareness Campaign

Name of nominee:
Phone number of nominee:
Person nominating (including contact information):

Organization nominee volunteers with:

City or region where nominee volunteers:

What sector does nominee volunteer in (Environment, Education, Arts, Other):

Volunteer’s availability in August 2012 to attend a taping session in the Twin Cities:

In 200 words please describe the impact the nominee has on your community. What have they done to make a difference? Please keep in mind this story will be distributed to a statewide audience and will be used to encourage and empower others to volunteer.

Volunteer Management and Community Organizing

What is the difference between Volunteer Management and Community Organizing? Last week I had the privilege of presenting with Antonio Cardona and Katie Kohn from Public Allies at the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Leadership Conference and this question really presented itself. We had set out to talk about creating accessible organizations that truly reflect the community an organization is serving. Taking a look at the intersection of  Volunteer Management and Community Organizing was just a bonus.

Many of our organizations have an origin story that goes something like this. A few passionate members of a community saw an injustice, a gap in support or services or a need in their community. This issue affected them and their families in a negative way and they decided to do something about it, they started a nonprofit. At the beginning this group of very passionate people took on all the legal, financial and strategic responsibility. There were no paid staff. If they were lucky after a few months maybe they were able to find a grant and hire on a part time paid staff person. As this nonprofit became more successful it increased its revenue and added more staff (these staff sometimes are from the community the nonprofit serves and sometimes they are not). This is a normal path of a nonprofit. At the same time this nonprofit is growing and adding paid leadership the community leadership decreases. The power, authority and influence of the community becomes diminished.

What I have seen happen when an organization no longer is accessible to the community, when there is not a space for the "served" to have a voice or influence, the organization creates programs that are bandaids and don't create sustainable solutions to social issues. The organization is not creating out of listening, truly listening.

What does this have to do with Volunteer Management and Community Organizing? It seems to me that at the beginning of an organization there is much more of a community organizing influence and as an organization evolves it adds a component of volunteer management. Community organizing and volunteer management aren't mutually exclusive but they are different. There are a few things that stick out to me from my experience being a Community Organizer and a Volunteer Manager.

1. Volunteer Managers and Community Organizers seem to be distinct groups of individuals. You may have both within an organization but they will probably be in different departments.

2. Community Organizers seem to be connected to advocacy, public policy or social justice causes. They seem to be more outwardly focused. They organize people within a community to take action on something that directly affects them and which they are passionate about. This may happen outside of the organization.

3. Volunteer Managers seem to be connected to efficiency, process and the organization. They seem to be more internally focused. They organize people within a community to do work for the organization which in turn will help others in the community.

4. Within community organizing there is value in just gathering people around a cause, to work in solidarity with others who are passionate about what is happening. In volunteer management the value is on a task being accomplished to meet a goal.

5. Within community organizing there is value in people organically gathering and doing to work on an issue even if it happens outside the organization. In volunteer management there is value in people working within the structure of the organization to accomplish something.

6. There is a difference in language. Community organizing: solidarity, justice and greater good. Volunteer management: support, serve mission.

I would love to hear from you out there. What has your experience been in either community organizing or volunteer management? Is there a difference? Where do they intersect?

Transition

I left my job a month ago. As much as I planned for leaving my job, the transition proved to be much more revealing than I would have thought. Leading up to my leaving the Minnesota Brain Injury Alliance I worked at making sure things were complete at the office. This meant much more than just making sure my desk was clean, reports done and notifying partners and volunteers of my departure. It meant creating an opportunity, a possibility for something new to grow in my absence. It is easy and convenient for negativity to grow as people leave an organization. The work the Minnesota Brain Injury Alliance does is to important for this negativity to creep its way in.

In order to create a possibility of a powerful transition and an opportunity inside this change I had many conversations.

Starting at the top, with David King the Executive Director and Brad Donaldson the Associate Director of Operations (and my boss) I let them know how important my time spent at the Alliance was to me. How much it had given me as a developing professional; how their guidance, patience and support allowed me to have 15 years of experience in the 5 years I was actually there. I also let them know about the possibility I wanted to create inside this change and what I saw as possible breakdowns in the interim.

I also met with my staff, Anna Karena the Volunteer Specialist, Andi Billig, Graphic Designer and Phil Gonzales, Public Awareness Associate. We met as a team and through the facilitation of Phillip Rand from Landmark Education, we genuinely and openly talked about what this transition means to each of us. We looked at what was there, positive and negative and who we can be in that space. It is a conversation I would have liked to have had years ago because it opened up a new level of relationship for our team and I believe, if I wasn't leaving, would have allowed us to see the humanity in each other clearer, bring us closer as a team and be able to serve people with brain injury better. A great lesson in not putting conversations off.

Most of these conversations were great, powerful and moving. I had other conversations that were powerful and much more difficult to have. Part of leaving the Alliance complete was making sure I became complete with people I had the most confrontation and conflict with. These conversations, while difficult, offered a tremendous opportunity for myself to reflect on who I am inside of work. I realized in mis-communication, tension and silo building that sometimes happens within organizations I was a cause in those happenings. I also realized we really can't separate our work life and our outside of work life. Who we are at work is who we are in life. Life is life. Early in my career I thought you could separate the two. How this appeared in my work is in not seeing the humanity in my coworkers. Probably in to many conversations I approached them as "this is business", I could have instead brought more compassion to those conversations. In this space I realized there is way more that connects us than separates us.

Through all these conversations I received a new respect and admiration for my coworkers and the work the Minnesota Brain Injury Alliance does. I had always enjoyed the work, mission and success of the Alliance, but now I saw how passionate and dedicated the staff at the organization truly are. Through these conversations I got to see who I was to many different people and it was incredibly humbling. I felt completely honored that people opened up and became incredibly vulnerable to express who I am to them. I really got that I am an important part to many people's lives. I say this with complete humility because what it means is I need to appreciate more the responsibility I have when it comes to building and maintaining relationships and community. This is a lesson I will bring into all my future endeavors and to each person I meet, it was an amazing gift.

If you are in a similar transition I encourage you to work tirelessly at making the community you are leaving as complete as you can, have the fun and easy conversations and have the difficult ones too.