Workshops explain details of serving on volunteer boards
This column previously appeared in the Telegraph-Journal on March 2nd, 2010.
The article was written by FUSION Saint John’s Claire Ryan:
Reasons for volunteering are as varied as the types of organizations that rely on volunteer support to exist.
And while a connection to the cause is crucial, building your knowledge of board development is also an important ingredient for creating a successful volunteer experience. The Saint John Volunteer Centre offers programs that demystify some of the more complicated components of serving on a board or committee, and is helping to produce more efficient, knowledgeable boards throughout Greater Saint John.
The Saint John Volunteer Centre has been a volunteer resource for more than 35 years and has offered an education services program component for the last five years. The purpose of the education services program is to enhance the overall well-being of our community by providing support and resources for board members, staff and volunteers of non-profit agencies. This includes needs assessments, educational opportunities, individual and group consultations and workshops.
“We try to base the workshops on board development and volunteering for different organizations and boards,” says Brian Boudreau, training resource co-ordinator at the Saint John Volunteer Centre. “We get a lot of people who are already involved on a committee but are interested in learning more about what’s required when moving up to the board level. We want to help people know what it’s like to sit on a board or committee.”
Once participants have completed a workshop, they are asked to give their feedback on what kinds of topics they would like to see a session address in the future and this information is used to develop a schedule each year for a program called Noon Nuggets. The volunteer centre’s Noon Nuggets program is a series of one-hour, brown-bag lunch board development and volunteer management workshops offered over the noon hour. The workshops, offered with support from the United Way, take place monthly from September to June and are open to the public. Noon Nuggets draws upon the experience and expertise of community members, who lead the sessions, which cover a range of issues pertaining to work with non-profit agencies.
“When they leave, we hope they are leaving with a better understanding of what they are (or aren’t) doing and how they should operate,” Boudreau said.
The education services program allows volunteers to become more efficient, effective members of their organizations, and also give them an opportunity to share their particular knowledge or expertise with other members of the community. When the “do’s and don’ts” of how a board or committee should operate are clearly and commonly understood, the volunteers are able turn their attention back to the issues or activities at hand, rather than being mired in the organizational details.
Upcoming Noon Nuggets topics for the remainder of the 2010 series include: program evaluation, community interfacing, how to read financial statements for the non-profit sector, fitted volunteer recruitment and compassionate communications.
Claire Ryan is on the FUSION Saint John board. Reach her at cryan@mtpr.ca.
