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The East Central Illinois Volunteerism Conference is designed to help you develop skills that will enhance your relationship wit hthe volunteers at your organization. This year's conference offers presentations on a varity of topics presented during two concurrent sessions. See the schedule to find out more about when workshops are offered.
Click To See Slide Show Of Highlights From 2009 ECIVC:
Workshop Session I: 10:45 AM - 12:00 PM
Making your Special Events Special
Connie Pirtle, Strategic Nonprofit Resources
You will learn tips and techniques for successful event planning and generate new ideas for the future.
Speaker Bio –
Connie Pirtle is the Founder and Director of Strategic Nonprofit Resources, a Washington, DC, area firm that serves nonprofit organizations in all areas related to volunteerism. She has 20 years of experience working with trustees, volunteers, volunteer program managers, executive directors, and senior staff members on effective community engagement.
Rethinking DisAbility
Lois Barnhart, Serve Illinois
This presentation is aimed at capturing the attention of the audience and moving it to think about disability in a different way. The speaker will present information that will touch the heart as well as the head, utilizing informational quizzes, video excerpts, power point (with handouts) and interactive activities all expressing what a disability is, the value of the individual and the benefit for all.
Speaker Bio – Lois is the disability outreach coordinator for Serve Illinois. Her organization, Kreider Services, retains the contract for providing the outreach service to the Commission. Her focus is the inclusion of persons with disabilities into service through volunteerism and AmeriCorps programs. Louis hold a BS in Human Services, concentration Family and Individual Development from Northern Illinois University and have 28 years experience in the field of Human Service.
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Volunteer CPR: Band-aids, Surgery or Life-Support
Kellie Anderson, Urbana Schools and Parkland College
What is a volunteer manager to do when a volunteer situation suddenly goes awry? Volunteer A dislikes their duties – but still loves your agency’s mission. Volunteer B is disillusioned, hurt, angry, and feeling useless. Volunteer C just can’t take it anymore and needs a break. Does this mean the demise of a valuable member of your volunteer team? Volunteer managers are often “relationship first responders”. What can we do to salvage the relationship between our agency and the volunteer, retain the volunteer, and insure needs are met? Considerate compassion. A purposeful plan. A respectful response all in the volunteer manager’s first aid kit for a volunteer in need of “CPR.”
Speaker Bio - Kellie Anderson manages volunteers in two venues: tutors and mentors for two elementary schools and literacy tutors for adult learners. Her experiences as a mother, as a community member, and as a volunteer manager have shown her the difference that can be made when people resources are carefully nurtured, tended to, and applied to seemingly insurmountable circumstances.
Telling Your Organization’s Volunteer Stories
Laura Huth, doGood Consulting
You may know how valuable your volunteers are – but do your stakeholders? Do your donors understand how their giving is multiplied by their donated hours? Does the community you serve get a chance to really know your volunteers? Does the public get a glimpse into the variety of different ways your volunteers are involved in the community? Learn how to tell stories about your volunteers in a way that benefits your organization and your stakeholders.
Speaker Bio - Laura Huth leads the award-winning team at do good Consulting. She has in-depth experience in nearly every aspect of non-profit management including fundraising, staff development, marketing, strategic planning, special events, and media campaigns.
At age 24, Laura founded the Illinois Student Environmental Network, a statewide training organization increasing the skills of student environmental groups across Illinois. After 10 years with ISEN, Laura served as executive director of the local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity for three years. She turned the organization into an award-winning powerhouse, building seven homes a year and dramatically increasing funding.
Concurrent to her non-profit work, Laura also served for eight years on the Urbana City Council.
Laura specializes in full-scale donor-driven fundraising strategies, program development, strategic planning, marketing strategies, storytelling, and investing local businesses and media in the work of area charities. In 2008, Laura was named the Woman of the Year by the Central Illinois Business magazine. In 2009, she was named Outstanding Fundraising Executive by the Association of Fundraising Professionals of East Central Illinois.
Looking Forward: Recent Volunteerism Studies And Their Implications
Sheri Seibold, University of Illinois Extension
Workshop participants will learn about recent research studies published that deal with volunteer management capacity and the new volunteer workforce. This session will allow participants to discuss the results of the studies and share how they relate to their own situations. The group will then share strategies for building upon known best practices in volunteer management and how to incorporate recommendations on how to effectively utilize the new volunteer workforce.
Speaker Bio - Sheri Seibold is an Extension Specialist, 4-H Youth Development with University of Illinois Extension. She provides leadership in the areas of volunteer development, risk management, and staff development. Sheri holds a M.S. in home economics education from Northern Illinois University and a B.A. in home economics education from Iowa Wesleyan College.
Preparing Agency Providers for Youth Service Volunteers
Judy Taylor and Cathy Blunier, University of Illinois Extension
Many schools, religious organizations, and youth organizations today require young people to complete community service hours for graduation or other program requirements. With proper thought and preparation, this can be a win-win situation for agencies and young people. This session will help participants consider the challenges and benefits of such a partnership and to assess their readiness to provide positive community service opportunities for youth.
Speaker Bios - Judy Taylor and Cathy Blunier are both Youth Development Educators with University of Illinois Extension and have both served on Illinois Extension’s State Volunteerism Task Force for 18 and 10 years respectively. Both have managed county 4-H volunteer programs with hundreds of volunteers. Cathy has had greater hands-on experience in different settings, while Judy has had more opportunities to provide trainings at many levels, including local, state, regional, national and international venues. Both have authored volunteer training modules and various staff development materials for staff working with volunteers. Both believe that volunteers are the lifeblood of community organizations and enjoy working with people that seem to give so freely of time and talents as the volunteers we get to work with.
Concurrent Session II: 1:00 - 2:15 PM
Empowering Volunteers to Take the Lead
Megan Holland and Brian Barnes, Carle Hospital
This workshop will focus on three things: first, assessment of the current program or management styles in use by your organization to train and supervise the volunteers, what is working and what isn’t. The second part is about creating an environment that fosters and encourages leadership. Thirdly it is about creating a structured program that allows volunteers to effectively manage themselves.
Speaker Bios -
Megan Holland has been managing volunteers and volunteer programs for over five years. In the last three years she has served as the Director of Volunteer Services at Carle Foundation Hospital. As Director of Volunteer Services, she oversees all volunteer programs which includes 1,200 volunteers annually in a variety of services. Previously she was the General Manager of the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra where she worked closely with the Guild-the volunteer body of the symphony. She holds a B.A. in Music and English from Millikin University, Decatur IL. She is a volunteer herself for 40 North/88 West - Champaign County's Arts Culture and Entertainment Council, PEO - a women's organization supporting women's education and serves on the Advisory Council for RSVP - the Retired Senior Volunteer Project - a national organization. She also serves as a board member for District 3 of the Illinois Hospital Association's AVR group for volunteer coordinators. She has been volunteering in one form or another since she was nine years old.
Brian Barnes is the Coordinator of Student Programs for Carle Foundation Hospital. Brian manages the College, Community, Career Development and Teen programs for Carle. Brian holds a Bachelors Degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Psychology. Brian also works at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts as a House Manager. Brian has been with Carle in various capacities for the past seven years. During the past two years, Brian started the Student Leader program that utilizes returning volunteers to manage the college volunteers in each department. Brian has also been an integral part in building the college program to hold nearly 500 students, tripling the size of the program over the past 3 years.
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Contagious: Using Stories And Social Media To Turn Volunteers Into Viral Advocates
Pete Moore, The Baby Fold
Come and hear how organizations are using social media effectively to attract and motivate their volunteers. Find out what makes a story viral and how your volunteers can help infect others to drive your mission. This session will explore the concepts and tools behind social media and prepare volunteer coordinators to begin telling stories that spread.
Speaker Bio - Pete Moore is the Marketing and Public Relations Specialist at The Baby Fold in Normal where he oversees new and traditional communication and marketing strategies for the agency. He also helps coordinate his agency's major fundraising event, the Festival of Trees, which utilizes over 800 volunteers every year. Pete has been active in local media—working in radio, newsprint, and web development—since 1996. In 2006, he developed McLean County's first on-line volunteer database as part of a Leadership McLean County project with PATH Crisis Center. Pete is passionate about the use of new technology to level the playing field for non-profits. He also happens to believe that Twitter and Facebook are much more than a gigantic waste of time for organizations.
Yours, Mine and Ours: Effectively Using A Multi-Agency Workforce
Shay Simmons, McLean County Health Department
Large-scale events, such as a community vaccination campaign, require numbers of volunteers that can exhaust an agency’s in-house resources. This workshop is intended for Intermediate level coordinators/administrators, and will study ways to successfully contact, train, and manage a volunteer workforce from both internal and external sources.
Speaker Bio - Shay Simmons is the Emergency Preparedness Coordinator for the McLean County Health Department in Bloomington, Illinois. She enlisted in the United States Marine Corps from her home in Detroit in 1979, and relocated to central Illinois after leaving active duty. Her Marine Corps career included assignments as a Weapons and Tactics Instructor, Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Warfare Defense (NBCD) Officer, and an exercise/training planner. She retired from the USMCR in 2000. She has been a Red Cross volunteer since 2005 and served for two years as the chairman of the Disaster Services Committee for the American Red Cross of the Heartland chapter in Bloomington, where she is currently a Red Cross instructor and member of the Disaster Action Team. She joined the MCHD in September 2009, just in time for the H1N1 Novel Influenza pandemic response. Shay received her B.A. in Asian Studies from Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, and her M.B.A. from the University of Illinois-Urbana.
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Managing Offsite Volunteer Coordinators And Volunteers
Lauren Smith, Champaign Schools
This workshop is geared towards the Volunteer manager who supervises various volunteer coordinators at off site locations. It will cover communication, reports, expectations and requirements for overseeing off site volunteer managers. It will also cover basics for supervising off site volunteers.
Speaker Bio - Lauren Smith has been the Community Outreach Coordinator for Unit 4 Schools since August of 2007. She oversees the mentoring and volunteer programs in Unit 4, A+ Business Partnership Program, Senior Gold Card Club, and more. Prior to working as the Community Outreach Coordinator, Lauren worked half-time as the Mentor/Volunteer Coordinator for Bottenfield and Garden Hills Elementary Schools for three years. Recently the Garden Hills Homework Club that she and Parkland Professor Brian Nudelman started in 2007 (and continue to run) received the National Service Learning and Civic Engagement Collaboration Award for a partnership between a K-12 school and a Community college. Lauren’s degree is in graphic design and she spent 12 years working as a Graphic Designer following college.
The Ins And Outs Of Volunteer Role Descriptions
Judy Taylor and Cathy Blunier, University of Illinois Extension
No one volunteers to fail at a specific task. But without clear expectations, time commitment required and responsibilities included in the role, we may be setting up our volunteers for just that. During this workshop you’ll receive guidelines for developing volunteer roles, participate in discussions about the benefits and general considerations you need to look at as you develop a role description and the opportunity to prepare a volunteer role description for a role you’re planning to recruit in the near future.
Speaker Bios - Judy Taylor and Cathy Blunier are both Youth Development Educators with University of Illinois Extension and have both served on Illinois Extension’s State Volunteerism Task Force for 18 and 10 years respectively. Both have managed county 4-H volunteer programs with hundreds of volunteers. Cathy has had greater hands-on experience in different settings, while Judy has had more opportunities to provide trainings at many levels, including local, state, regional, national and international venues. Both have authored volunteer training modules and various staff development materials for staff working with volunteers. Both believe that volunteers are the lifeblood of community organizations and enjoy working with people that seem to give so freely of time and talents as the volunteers we get to work with.
BARNGA– Where Everything Appears the Same
Larry Wilson, University of Illinois Extension
BARNGA places participants in a simulation where they actually experience the shock of realizing that in spite of many similarities, people from other cultures have differences in the way they respond to situations in life. BARNGA helps people learn that we all must understand and reconcile these differences if we want to function effectively in a cross-cultural group.
Speaker Bio - Larry W. Wilson is an Extension Educator in Community and Economic Development at the Chicago Extension Center. Wilson provides community-based leadership training, researches and develops programs on volunteerism and community leadership, and works closely with community groups and grassroots organizations. Wilson's education includes a B.S. in Animal Science and Vocational Education, a secondary education-teaching certificate, and an M.S. in Extension Education, with a focus on Adult and Continuing Education. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the field of Leadership and Organizational Development, through the College of Education.
Wilson helped design the national and Illinois Family Community Leadership (FCL) Program that teaches citizens and grassroots leaders how to work with and influence political leaders and public policy. Wilson has worked with all ages and sizes of audiences. His expertise in facilitating educational workshops through an engaging, interactive model has been recognized around the world. Wilson has served as the Co-Chair of the University of Illinois Extension, Community and Economic Development Team and Chair and facilitator of the Chicago Fresh Advisory Committee; is a member of the Northeast Region Staff Development Committee and served as facilitator for the Governor’s Green Community Initiatives Visioning Projects in Chebanse, IL and the Little Village and Austin Neighborhoods in Chicago. Wilson has previously presented numerous workshops at ICOVA.