Guest Post: Carol Blattau, Mariner Management & Marketing
Our last post recapped our October idea swap which highlighted some of the lessons we learned in 2020/21 and how we can use them to shape a more positive future. During the swap, we also split into groups to brainstorm on three specific challenges. Any sound familiar?
Train the trainer: We know our volunteers were already stressed and the pandemic only piled on more angst so asking them to give their time to training won’t be met with great enthusiasm. We need to ask, then, how can we tie volunteer training into something that’s going to support and engage volunteers? And, because we saw first-hand how the resilience of our chapters depended on strong local leadership, how do we use training in the context of succession planning? A couple of ideas to get volunteers on board with training …
- Simplify the process by focusing on one or two things (i.e., recruitment) that truly matter. Overwhelming volunteers with a litany of items just leads to more push back.
- Build on the idea swap format and switch it to a training model that, as mentioned above, focuses on the basics like chapter management, financial issues, etc. People liked the idea swap so let’s leverage its popularity. Let them train each other.
- Incentivize participation in training with discounted/free tickets to the annual conference, training, social outings, etc. Allow CEUs, if you can, to be applied to training.
