October 26, 2022
June 15, 2022One of the many heroes of Covid-19 that has arisen is the volunteer. Whether it is neighbour-to-neighbour, non-profit organizations, local business owners or faith based and non-traditional volunteer groups. Thousands of volunteers have stepped up to the plate to help where they can, answering the calls from the community.
June 09, 2022Have we made much headway in the past few years? Is this because we spend most of our time focusing on the volunteer management cycle instead of change management or planning practices. The volunteer management cycle is a core component to building and managing a volunteer program but it is focused on activities and process. What I am talking about is more about “you” the person who is charged with overseeing the program. We need to start shifting our thinking as leaders and how the volunteer program can integrate itself into an organizations strategic plan, and as a leader of volunteers, your ability to sell it to your senior leadership team.
January 26, 2022Can you imagine an organization said to support Black people with no or just one Black person on the board? It’s like a panel discussing women’s rights with no women (which also happens). It makes no sense. “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair,” is a famous quote by Shirley Chisholm I often hear in advocacy groups. I still believe it’s sound advice, but it also doesn’t capture how hard it can be for some people to carry around their chair everywhere, all the time. And it takes the pressure off the others at the table — they don’t have to change a thing. They are comfortably sitting in their chairs and don’t even have to acknowledge your chair is different or how much effort it took for you to bring it to the table. “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair”