President's Letter

Gretchen Jordan, CVA

'Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything, except over technology' – John Tudor

Technology and especially Social Media is everywhere in our professional and personal lives. Just five years ago most of us had never heard of facebook (it is only little over six years old) but now we all likely have one for ourselves, our volunteer program and may be using it to connect and reach out to all our friends, family, and volunteers. It never ceases to amaze and inspire me when I see those in their 70's and 80's on facebook!

And the technology expands; now we have twitter and texting as the newer communication modes and as I write this there are even more being created. It's likely if you have a teenager or work with teenagers, their main mode of communication is texting. I've heard colleagues talk about success using social media to help manage the volunteers who serve their agency and not just for teenagers, but for boomers as well.

How does this fit into AL!VE and Volunteer Resource Management? Technology can be a very helpful tool as long as we have the right equipment, knowledge and attitude about using it. There are many great products out there to help you or your agency with tracking, recruiting, or thanking volunteers. But the latest and greatest won't be of help to you unless you know how to use it. There are many online trainings and resources available – AL!VE is continuing to provide great webinars for our members and the public – check out our website for more details at www.volunteeeralive.org. We're also on Twitter and LinkedIn. We continue to update and add features to our website as well.

Have some technology skills you'd like to share? Consider being a part of a committee on AL!VE. Want to learn more? One of the great resources I have used is www.techsoup.org. It's a great place to start if you don't know the difference between a tweet and a packet. There are plenty of good resources out there – go for it and have fun!