Training Ideas, Resources, Tools

The larger a conference, the harder it is to actually meet new people. And if participants are really diverse, the obstacles to personal interaction seem to multiply.  To address these issues, the Asian Pacific Volunteer Leadership Conference (APVLC), which took place in Honolulu, Hawaii, in September 2008, designed a special series of small group sessions called “Reflection Pools.”  Over 300 conferees from a dozen countries were divided into groups of 10, and convened four different times during the three-day event.  The Reflection Pools participants were given clear instructions in order to jump-start their conversation.

In this Training Design article, Susan J. Ellis describes how she designed the Reflection Pools, how the APLVC experience represented real success, and how anyone can use this idea to add value to any conference.

Despite the prevalence of small nonprofits and all-volunteer organizations, training for leaders of volunteers is often geared towards the full-time volunteer manager working in a large organization.  While most training is valuable to volunteer managers in all sizes of organizations, this common focus does not give the leaders of volunteers in small organizations a chance to explore the challenges when volunteers are responsible for most of the work and staff resources are slim to nonexistent.  How to insure follow-up? How to avoid burn out? How to bring in new members? 

This Training Design is offered with small nonprofits and organizations in mind.  It is designed specifically to be delivered by volunteer centers, nonprofit management centers, academic programs and trainers/consultants who wish to meet the needs of volunteer leaders in small nonprofits, community-based groups and other informal all-volunteer organizations. It will provide participants with an opportunity to address common challenges, share ideas and learn practical tips to maximize their success through volunteers.

Formal volunteer awards are designed to acknowledge the extraordinary achievements of extraordinary individuals, those volunteers who’ve extended themselves beyond expectation and contributed their services to an issue, project or cause. But it’s not easy to jump into the award nomination process. Criteria vary widely, nomination deadlines don’t always coincide with a particular time of year, and awards aren’t always well publicized. The good news, however, is that award opportunities for volunteers are increasing with the growth and accessibility of the Internet. And there appears to be a growing appreciation and understanding of the value of nominating volunteers for individual awards.

In this Training Design, we review how to avoid existing road blocks when nominating a volunteer for an award. We’ll also highlight the multiple benefits that come from seeking formal recognition for volunteers. Training Design materials include the development of a nomination timeline, award do’s and don’ts, and techniques for writing a winning nomination. This training will inform participants from start to finish on the process of nominating a volunteer for a formal award. And it will emphasize the benefits and value of tackling such a process by answering, “Why should our organization nominate a volunteer for an award?”

The face of volunteerism is changing globally and our field is being challenged to respond in new and innovative ways. How do we create programs that welcome and affirm the variety of experiences our volunteers bring to the table? How do we meet the needs of our organization and mission in the process of change?  In this Training Design, we focus on considerations and strategies for building cultural competence within volunteer programs. We provide handouts and activities that encourage and strengthen volunteers’ awareness of their own culture(s), as well as those of their colleagues. This Training Design can be used as a tool for both reflection and action in shaping volunteer programs that are welcoming and attractive to a diverse volunteer pool. 

This edition of Along the Web looks at online periodicals that focus on volunteerism – including magazines, newsletters, blogs, mailing lists and more. We organize the periodicals into specific categories, and give a summary of many that we feel are particularly useful and important.

People are the competitive advantage of the voluntary sector. And yet we seem to concentrate very little time on how to work with this amazing resource. This Training Design presents a workshop that introduces five important tools to help organizations fully engage specifically skilled volunteers.

Gwen Fujie calls it “martial arts ideas for the mind and mouth.”  In this article, Fujie explains why “Tongue Fu!” leads to cooperative communication and more peaceful relationships, both essential elements to success in volunteering. Based on author Sam Horn’s popular book by the same name, Fujie argues that Tongue Fu! is the “constructive alternative to giving a tongue-lashing or to being tongue-tied, a step-by-step process for turning hostility into harmony and aggravation into aloha.”  

There’s The Talker. The Know-It-All.  And, of course, The Silent Type. When it comes to challenging participants during training sessions, we’ve all experienced them. This Training Design offers a review of some of the most common challenging participants, along with tips on how to prepare in advance so that they don’t disrupt the rest of the audience – or the trainer.

When it comes to volunteer training, the secret to success may lie in the approach. In this Training Design, learn how the switch from a problem-focused approach to a strengths-based approach called Appreciate Inquiry can make a huge difference in your volunteer training and ultimately your volunteer program.

How do you avoid having to sell a solution or future direction that the management or leadership team has created? Because it IS a sell job when a few people decide on a new way for the many.  When there are circumstances where any answer is a potential right answer – and there is a large group of stakeholders invested in that answer – there is another way:  large group interventions (LGI).  Instead of training people on a new direction and having to parry objections and dissatisfactions, including them in the creation process avoids the uphill battle.

There are several designs for large group participative events:  Search Conferences, Future Search Conferences, Open Space Technology, Real Time Strategic Change, World Café, and the Technology of Participation, to name some of the most popular.   There are some basic principles behind all of these techniques that are discussed in this article, along with specific design ideas when using the search conference method.