As we launch AL!VE’s 2018 initiatives and programming I’m amazed to see what’s coming to fruition from the work we’ve all been doing over the past few years. There has been no better time in recent memory to get involved at the local, regional, or national level.
 
From financial support to volunteerism, we continue to see a groundswell of support for grassroots initiatives and organizations. I strongly believe that this is the best time to support these efforts, so I encourage you to get involved with your local association of volunteer managers. To that end, AL!VE is initiating a working group to seed, nurture, cross-pollinate, and learn from local associations. We are still in the infancy of this project, which will support more practitioners through the fostering of existing associations and helping new ones into being. If you would like to help with this effort, please contact us.
 
AL!VE’s programming in 2018 will continue to focus on supporting practitioners through novel engagement, such as our new(ish) communities of practice. We will also be continuing our focus on our organizational partnerships, offering our members discounts, services, and education.
 
Lastly (but not finally), AL!VE is excited to continue to support the efforts that came out of the Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration’s convening of a National Summit in the summer of 2017. AL!VE’s Dana Litwin and contractor Betsy McFarland have been moderating a series of conversations which will lead to the creation of a national alliance of a diverse set of stakeholders and influencers of volunteerism nationally. AL!VE is also working to create partnerships to bring a second national summit to creation late in 2018 or early 2019. Three other initiatives came out of the summit that AL!VE hopes to support indirectly including: research-practitioner collaborations, creating a national vision for volunteerism/volunteer management, and increasing communication between and outside of our industry.

You can read more about the summit here.
To sign up to help, click here.
 
I invite you to get involved in any of these initiatives. Above all, make sure you get involved in these exciting times!
 

To register, click on the title webinar name below or visit our calendar.

Volunteer Pro & CharityHowTo: Make it Stick! How to Design Volunteer Orientation & Training that Engages Learners
02/13/2018 (fee-based)

VolunteerMatch: Managing and Aging Volunteer Corps
02/15/2018 (free)

Volunteer Match: Build Staff Buy-in for Volunteer Engagement
02/20/2018 (free)

Volunteer Match: The CVA Credential: A Mark of Excellence
02/21/2018 (free)

VolunteerMatch:Writing Accurate and Useful Volunteer Position Descriptions
02/22/2018 (free)

Volunteer Pro: How to Conduct a DIY Volunteer Program Audit to Boost Your Results
02/27/2018 (fee-based)

Volunteer Pro & CharityHowTo: Teamwork Makes the Dream Work- How to Lead Volunteers and Reduce Your Stress
03/06/2018 (fee-based)

Volunteer Pro: How to Save Time & Expand Your Capacity With Volunteer-led Teams
03/07/2018 (fee-based)

Verified Volunteers: Rethinking Volunteer Recognition, presented by Beth Steinhorn, VQ Volunteer Strategies
03/08/2018 (free)

Volunteer Pro: How to Grow Powerful Volunteer Leaders From the Inside Out
03/20/2018 (fee-based)

Volunteer Pro & CharityHowTo: Amazingly Successful Events! How to Recruit, Orient & Manage Event Volunteers
03/21/2018 (fee-based)

VolunteerMatch: Creating a Comprehensive and Engaging Volunteer Program
03/22/2018 (free)

VolunteerMatch: Creating a Culture of Volunteer Engagement
03/27/2018 (free)

VolunteerMatch: Walking the Walk: Engage Volunteers in your Volunteer Engagement Program
03/28/2018 (free)

VolunteerMatch: Telling the Story of Volunteer Impact
03/29/2018 (free)

VolunteerPro: How to Plan Volunteer Days of Service Without Going Nuts
04/05/2018 (fee-based)

Welcome to our newest AL!VE members:

Molly Seguin
Alvis, Inc.

Kevin Engel-Cartie
ThinkCause

Patricia Fields
United Way of Johnson and Washington Counties- Volunteer Center

Tera Kringle
United Way of Johnson and Washington Counties- Volunteer Center

Alex Stanton
United Way of Johnson and Washington Counties- Volunteer Center

Michelle McGraw
Great River Health

Jessica Bleile
United Way of Dubuque

Shelly Kaiser
Marshfield Clinic

Anne Owens
Volunteer Center of Story County

Justin Ellis
Iowa Campus Compact

Monique Ellefson
Iowa Campus Compact

Geovanni Almanza
Iowa Campus Compact

Ryan Rogers
Iowa Campus Compact

Emily Shields
Iowa Campus Compact

Kara Trebil-Smith
Iowa Campus Compact

Lorraine Michelle
Consultant

Brianna Beyrooty
Ascencia

Marci Zogg
United Way of the Quad Cities Area

Nichole Sorgenfrey
United Way of Muscatine

Sue Driscoll
United Way of East Central Iowa

Kayla Paulson
United Way of East Central Iowa

Amy Keltner
United Way of East Central Iowa

Ali Wilson
United Way of Wapello County Volunteer Center

Susan Ness
Signature Hospice

Kate Bausman
Greater Richmond Association for Volunteer Administration

Larissa Van Donselaar
Marion County Public Health Department

Sheila Swift
St. Joseph School

Listed below are upcoming recognized days of service within the next couple of months.  This may be a great opportunity for your organization to host service projects.

Random Acts of Kindness Week
February 11^th - 17^th, 2018
#RAKWeek is an annual opportunity to unite through kindness. Led by the Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Foundation and formally recognized in 2000, this seven-day celebration demonstrates how kindness starts with one—one act, one smile, one coffee for a stranger, one favor for a friend.

Cesar Chavez Day
March 31^st, 2018
An official holiday in six states and dozens of cities and counties throughout the United States, this day honors the life, work, and values of activist Cesar E. Chavez with a day of service and learning.

We are here for you!  If you have a question, recommendation or concern, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@volunteeralive.org. 

Or visit our website at www.volunteeralive.org.

AL!VE and IJOVA are pleased to announce that IJOVA is now an open-sourced resource for volunteer engagement professionals. Current as well as all past issues are now available on AL!VE’s website. 

Articles will still continue to be reviewed and published by IJOVA Editor–In–Chief Ryan Schmiesing, Ph.D. of The Ohio State University and the IJOVA Board of Directors.  “This new partnership will ensure that our colleagues will have free access to quality academic manuscripts, and encourage our peers to continue the important work of written publications for our field," states AL!VE Board President Jason Frenzel, CVA.  "As a long time subscriber to the Journal, I’ve appreciated and used the findings of my peers in my professional role."  Lori Gotlieb, IJOVA Board Member, agrees.  "The IJOVA seeks to provide an exchange of ideas and a sharing of knowledge and insights about volunteerism and volunteer management and administration, both in North America and internationally and this new partnership will allow us to grow not only our readership but a dialogue on many volunteer engagement topics."

Check our home page and the IJOVA link for more details.

7 Best Practices in Background Screening
Presented By: Verified Volunteers
March 22nd, 2018
1pm (EST) / 10am (PST
Free for AL!VE Members!

Join AL!VE and Kimberly Chochon from Verified Volunteers in their effort to help create safer environments for AL!VE member organizations.  They will share the top 7 important insights to background screening best practices.  During this webinar, you’ll learn:

• The importance of a quality background check and how instant, low quality checks can leave your organization open to significant risk

• How to keep compliant under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)

• Tips for a high quality and efficient background screening program on a tight budget

To register, click here.

Info Webinar: Free Volunteer Management Software
February 12^th, 2018
1PM EST / 10 AM PST

In partnership with Samaritan Technologies and Cabot Cheese, learn more about how AL!VE members can take advantage of free volunteer management software, an exclusive member benefit. The 30-minute program entails an overview and explanation of the qualifications to receive the software will be explained as well as time for questions.

To register for this upcoming webinar, click here. 

Can't make it? This webinar is offered quarterly so you can sign up for upcoming events as well by clicking on the link above.

To learn more about this benefit, you can also visit our website.

Leading the Way, Not Managing the Day
October 23 & 24, 2018

Learning how to change from managing to leading can be key to breaking through to the next level of your professional development as well as impact to your organization.  Join other volunteer engagement professionals for this live-stream conference across North America as remote sites all over the United States and Canada learn locally from national presenters. This event will be presented in a ‘Ted Talks meets Late Night Talk Show’ format, with the opportunity to discuss the speaker's presentation within your local group and pose questions for the panel of presenters.  

Presented by AL!VE, Better Impact, and VMPC (Volunteer Management Professionals of Canada), this event is designed for local Associations of Volunteer Engagement Professionals, Volunteer Centers, State Commissions on Volunteerism, Educational institutions, or organizations with a team of volunteer engagement staff.  

Requests for Proposals for speakers are now open. To learn more, click here.

Host site registration will also open in early April.  If you’d like to be placed on our mailing list with further updates and to learn when registration officially opens, click here.

After two decades running large social service volunteer programs, I became the manager of a docent program in a science museum. While continuing to develop my general volunteer management skills, I especially appreciated the opportunity to network and engage with other museum volunteer managers who really understood what I was experiencing.

Opportunities like that are Communities of Practice (COP): networks of professionals with a commonality - industry, demographics, size, sector, etc. - that allow the exchange of deeper and more specific information, as well as encourages closer interactions among network members.

As AL!VE grows in numbers, its membership also increases the diversity of industries, organizational structures, size, and demographics. To meet your more specific needs, we are starting Communities of Practice that reflect our members’ variety of experiences, issues, and needs.

The first COP that we’re starting is for volunteer managers who work in organizations in rural communities. If you are interested in joining a COP for rural volunteer managers, please contact Michelle at Michelle.Raymer@IowaEDA.com.
 

If you have an idea for another COP or would like to help us identify and organize other COPs, please contact Emilie at brometbauer@yahoo.com.

AL!VE aims to excel at providing every member with the support and professional development that they need to thrive in this profession. The AL!VE Programs and Advocacy committee is responsible for providing the majority of these offerings and we’ve got an an aggressive agenda of events and activities on our 2018 calendar. But we need your help! We’re looking for AL!VE members who want to share their skills, interests, and commitment to professional development to join our committee.

Here is some of what is on our agenda and how you can help:
 

• Professional Development Webinars through AL!VE Partner and AL!VE Academy webinars. Help develop topics, schedule webinars, facilitate webinars, find speakers or, if you’re a new or seasoned presenter, present a webinar on an advanced topic.
   

• Communities of Practice for our members who want to connect, dialogue, and network with others who share interests or who are in specific industries. Help recruit COP participants, organize and facilitate these meetings.
   

• AL!VE Website Resource Pages will be the clearinghouse of the rich and extensive volunteer management resources available on the web, through networks and in academia, and in print. If you love mining the web for all of these resources, we need you, your interest, and skills to join us in this important work.
   

• Advocacy information about legislative policy, and social, and economic trends that impact our profession will be shared on our website. If you enjoy following these trends, write a blog, or have ideas on how we can share this important information with our members, please join our committee.

To accomplish this, we will need many heads and hands, so, if any of this looks interesting or if you have particular skills or ideas that you’d like to share, please volunteer to work with me and the other committee members. Our regular meetings are the second Friday of every month at 9am (Pacific). You can email me at brometbauer@yahoo.com.

AL!VE hosts a quarterly roundtable discussion for Associations of Volunteer Engagement Professionals.  We will share successes, challenges, resources, templates and information.  These discussions are meant for board of directors or leadership in these local associations, not individual AL!VE members. At each roundtable, we will have updates on our current project to expand services and supports for local associations.
 
February 21^st:  Financial Management & Revenue Generators
We'll discuss different ways of managing finances, safety protocols, earning your 501(c)3 status, and more.  We'll provide a basic budget template custom designed for local associations.  Attendees are encouraged to share their best practices, challenges, and ideas. 

May 16^th:  Revitalizing Your Local Association
Everyone has had the ups and downs. We will discuss practical solutions and ways to get local, regional, or national support.

August 15^th: Peer Recognition
Does your association of volunteer engagement professionals recognize your peers?  We will discuss providing a meaningful ways to recognize the peers in your local community. 

November 14^th:  Making the Most of Social Media 
Are you making the most of social media for your association of volunteer engagement professionals?  Learn tips & tricks for utilizing Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter to communicate, recruit, inform and train your members and the community about the value of our profession.

For more information or to register for these events, go to our Calendar of Events.

(These topics are subject to change depending on regional or national events).

New to AL!VE or just want to check in?  Find out what's happening or get a quick fix of networking with your peers. 

New members will get a brief overview of our mission, benefits, activities and committees.  Existing members can get a refresher, check in and ask questions. We'll share upcoming announcements, activities, calendar events and trainings.

Webinars will be approximately 30 minutes with an additional 30 minutes allocated for networking or discussion.  

Register for one of our upcoming webinars:
Monday, February 26^th, 2018 ; 1pm EST / 10am PST
Tuesday, April 10^th, 2018; Noon EST / 9am PST

The AL!VE Board of Directors are proposing the following three bylaw changes which need to be voted on by the AL!VE membership:


To see our bylaws in its entirety, click here.

According to our bylaws, provisions may be made for electronic voting and amendments must be passed by two-thirds vote of the membership.

Please review the proposed bylaw changes listed above and click on this link to cast your vote:
https://goo.gl/forms/hsaga2n9nhLfdVtw2

Voting will remain open until March 31, 2018.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact Beth Whitmire, AL!VE Past President and Acting Secretary at bethwhitmire94@gmail.com.

FEATURED:

MAVA Conference
June 6^th-8^th, 2018 (St. Paul, MN)

From best practices in volunteer recognition to adapting to the changing needs of volunteers, the future of our profession is being written right now! Attending events like the 2018 MAVA Conference will only help you build partnerships that will shape what it means to be in volunteer management over the next decade and beyond. No matter where you are located in the world, get to Minnesota in 2018 and help us elevate our profession. It’s happening now, and you have a unique opportunity to invent the wheels that will push us and our industry up to the next level.
NOTE: This is not a repeat of the National Summit that took place in July 2017. See more information about that in the President's Message. 

National Service Training Conferences
March 19^th-21^st, 2018 (Chicago, IL)
April 30^th-May 2^nd, 2018 (Greenville, SC)
May 14^th-16^th, 2018 (Seattle, WA)
Come together with national service program colleagues, state service commission staff, CNCS and volunteer management partners for an educational and inspiring training opportunity.

NCAVA Annual Statewide Conference on Volunteerism
May 16^th-18^th, 2018 (Raleigh, NC)
The conference is provided annually by NCAVA to help fulfill its mission to provide educations and leadership towards effective volunteer management in North Carolina. The intended outcome each year is to assist participants in learning new ideas and best practices, gaining skills that enhance professional development and strengthening networks that are sustainable beyond the conference.

Texas Volunteer Management Conference
May 3^rd-4^th, 2018 (McKinney, TX)
Who Should Attend? Professional volunteer administrators who work for nonprofit organizations or publicly funded agencies such as the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, municipalities, parks and recreation centers, museums and schools. The conference also welcomes anyone in the private sector responsible for working with volunteers.

Service Unites: Conference on Volunteering & Service
June 18^th-20^th, 2018 (Atlanta, GA)
Service Unites, Points of Light's Conference on Volunteering and Service, is the largest service-related convening of nonprofit, government, business and civic leaders in the world. Each year, thousands of people who really care about the future of volunteer service convene in one place - to learn from, share with, and get inspired by one another - to work together to increase the number of volunteers in the world and the impact of the work they do.