The Value of One, The Power of Many Staying Apart to Come Together
by: Heather Johnson
Volunteering is helping people through this pandemic. Volunteers are stepping up to offer support through formal and informal avenues and, as a result, communities are weathering this storm, regardless of the boat they are in.
Volunteers continue to provide health and wellness programs, connect with the lonely, isolated and marginalized, and teach and mentor learners of all ages. Volunteers also make a difference for those dealing with homelessness, food insecurity, and addiction to name but a few ways people support their local communities.
This past year has been witness to many volunteers embracing virtual roles as well as many continuing their in-person roles. Volunteers came forward to help others; volunteers also stepped back to protect others.
As leaders of volunteers, we applaud each volunteer who said “I can help.” This year’s National Volunteer Week theme, The Value of One, The Power of Many, reflects the individual and collective efforts volunteers exhibited throughout this pandemic.
This time last year many of us were scrambling to transition ourselves and our volunteers to life on-line. Celebrating National Volunteer Week virtually—again—in 2021 may be challenging you (again!) to come up with effectual ways to recognize your volunteers.
Formal recognition does not always translate well to virtual platforms, and informal recognition may seem to be exactly what you are currently doing with volunteers. That said, here are a few ways to congratulate your volunteers and to showcase their impact in 2020:
Endorse or recommend volunteers on their LinkedIN profiles
Ask your Executive Director and Board Chair to call ten (10) volunteers during National Volunteer Week. This is two calls per day per person.
Host an on-line trivia event: use a tool such as Mentimeter to create interactive polls, quizzes, and word clouds.
Send handwritten thank you cards to volunteer team leads. Ask staff to write cards to the key volunteers supporting their programs.
Create a thank you video featuring staff and/or clients: post to your social media channels, website, and send as a link to volunteers via email.
Variation on a theme: does your organization support children with music lessons? Work with program staff to have a few students record a piece of music to share with volunteers. Does your organization provide literacy support? Ask participants to record themselves reciting a favourite passage from a book, a piece of poetry, or similar to share with volunteers.
Create impact statements on how volunteers have made it possible for your organization to continue its mission during the pandemic. Include photos, client testimonials, and a graph or two. Post to your website and social media sites.
Would you normally hold door prize draws at your in-person event? Use the Wheel of Names tool to “spin the wheel” and select winners during your virtual events.
Invite a staff member, Board Director, donor or partner to share their expertise with your volunteers.
For example:
A panel of doctors share their research that has been supported by volunteers through fundraising and/or awareness campaigns
A cooking or baking class: send out recipe ahead of time and, if you’re able, provide ingredients. Volunteers tune in to cook/bake together. There may be opportunities while food is cooking/baking to provide updates on volunteer impacts on your mission
Yoga: how about hosting a gentle or laughter yoga class?
Be mindful that not all your volunteers will be able to participate in on-line events. As you are able, incorporate some “off-line” recognition in your plan. Take time to customize recognition to an individual: not everyone will appreciate public recognition. Above all, be sincere and authentic in celebrating your volunteers and all they help make happen for your organization. #NVW2021
Advocacy Working Group: Update to the Membership
by: Heather Johnson
This article is the second in a series (first article was in February 2021) to keep the membership informed on the actions and activities of the PAVRO Board regarding advocacy. This article highlights recent Board activities with an invite to members to get involved.
Advocacy is part of PAVRO’s mission statement and speaks to the importance of advocacy as a means to move our profession forward.
In fall 2020, PAVRO established a working group to conduct research and gather information to work toward developing a shared vision of what advocacy means to PAVRO members and to gain an understanding of what advocacy outcomes are valued by our members. The Advocacy Working Group submitted its report to the PAVRO Board of Directors in January 2021.
At their January meeting, the PAVRO Board of Directors unanimously accepted the report with its nine recommendations and three action items. The report informed the Board’s advocacy section of the member/stakeholder portion of its 2021-2023 strategic plan.
The Board began crafting its 2021-2023 strategic plan late last year, and a draft plan was presented at its February meeting. Two special Board meetings were held in March where the proposed plan was discussed in depth. Goals, objectives, action plans, and tactics in four major categories were created. These are aimed to strengthen PAVRO focusing on areas of professional development, advocacy, reviewing and revising internal processes, and ensuring stability through strong partnerships and sound finances.
Some key initiatives from the proposed strategic plan include:
Create a new Board of Directors role responsible for Advocacy
Establish an Advocacy Task Force
Incorporate advocacy issues into PAVRO’s professional development content
Launch a Resources Tab on the website with an advocacy resource folder
PAVRO is also pleased to announce that the May 4, 2021 session of PAVRO 2021 LiVE ConferenceBreaking Forward: Moving from Pandemic to Possibilities will be dedicated to discussing advocacy issues. Long-time PAVRO member Reva Cooper (founder, Reva Cooper Consulting) will host a discussion on building partnerships for advocacy with organizations such as Volunteer Canada, VMPC, Imagine Canada, Ontario Non-Profit Network, and the Ontario Volunteer Centre Network.
Cost of software - provide cost options (if there are options):
There are options: the VSys Anywhere or VSys One Web and Live versions. We have the software on our servers which is the lowest cost of the options. Our users cannot access their own files. We have a basic online application that interfaces with the software. Our initial costs were approximately $10,000 including data conversion. Our ongoing renewal/support costs are $1900. This is in US Currency.
How many users can the software capacitate?
Each user (staff person) needs a license. We also have sign-in kiosks that also have to be licensed. The cost increases per user. We have multiple volunteers that support us administratively—this is only counted as one user.
How many volunteer records can the software house/accommodate?
I don’t believe there is a limit. We archive past records within the system.
Do you use the software to recruit volunteers?
We use it only for volunteers to submit applications.
Can the software be used to schedule volunteers/volunteer shifts?
VSys Live has some self scheduling, I believe. I use VSys Web, and it has functions to assist me in scheduling people.
Do you use this software for one-time volunteers? Regularly scheduled volunteers? Other?
We only have regularly scheduled volunteers, but if you wanted to track the contact information and activity of a one-day volunteer, it would work.
Is it a Canadian product? If not, where does it come from?
It is an American company.
Is it a web-based/cloud-based software?
They have both. We use the online application and this results in the applications being initially held on the servers of VSys until we download them to our own.
Do you use this software to capture volunteer stats? In your opinion/experience how accurate is it?
I feel it is very accurate for the things I use day to day. It’s not great at capturing the overall years of service. For instance, when people leave and return, which is something I have to calculate once a year, we have to supplement that with some manual record keeping.
Is it easy to learn how to use this software? (on a scale of 1-10, 1 being super easy).
The basic everyday user functions are super simple. But there are also some functions with reports and filters that can be complicated. There is a definite learning curve to how things are laid out and how layered it can be. And some features in the online application require knowledge of html code! Overall, I would give it a 5.
Approximately, how much time does it take to set-up the software so it “speaks your organization's language”?
We were able to give some feedback at the beginning to make changes in the setup. We had to change some other things, like the way we were doing it with our previous database.
What is the support you receive from the software company like? Is it timely? Helpful? How’s their customer service?
Excellent. Quick. They are receptive to incorporate suggestions in future updates. They offer regular webinars, and you can access ones from the past as well.
What do you/your team like most about this software? Why?
We like: having everything about a volunteer in one place; online applications making it so much easier administratively; being able to email our membership through the database and having a record of every letter we send; being able to save reports in documents that can be edited.
What do your volunteers like most about this software? Why?
The volunteers don’t use anything other than the touch screen sign in for the version that we have. But through this system we can send them messages and do surveys. Volunteers love when they get birthday greetings and often think we have remembered their birthday specifically.
Please name some/any challenges you/your team and volunteers have encountered with this software.
When we converted from Volunteer Works, there were some things VSys didn’t do that we were used to, but it also offered new things. I was used to the reports that I had always run so there was work involved in setting those all up again, and some reports couldn’t be replaced with just one VSys report. Sometimes you want a report that includes XYZ on the same page, but that doesn’t mean there is that capability in the system. It can be slow. Not sure if that is a software problem or our system, but I think it is the software. We have to rely on our IT team for upgrades and other internal system issues, and it isn’t always a priority for them. If our kiosks go down, we have a lot of work to do to enter hours for 100’s of volunteers that come and go in a day.
Were you able to overcome any of these challenges? If so, how?
You figure out a work-around in reports, like running two different ones and blending them yourself.
Do you think the cost of the software is worth it?
Our software is critical to how we do our work, and we use a lot of the features it offers. VSys may be more than some organizations need but if what you need to track is complex, it is worth the price.
Can the software information be accessed by or joined with other departments in your organization? (i.e.: the fundraising department).
Anyone given access permission internally can use the database but there is a cost per user. Since we have a medical form, our occupational health used to be able to go in and update health records, but it wasn’t really worth it.
Would you recommend this software to others in the field of volunteer engagement? Why? Why not?
Yes. We have three hospitals with over 1500 active volunteers. We use the system for everything from the application, tracking interviews, training, job assignments, schedules, hours, years of service, awards, email blasts, and surveys at sign in. Depending on the features you use, you are able to see who didn’t show up, who was late, if a training is overdue, etc. You can upload documents to a person’s profile allowing you to go paperless.
Thank you Janice!
Check back next month to learn about our
next Volunteer Management Software Package in the series 3 packages actually! Charity Republic + UltiPro + Non-Profit Success Pack
May 4
Advocacy - Building Partnerships for our Profession Join Reva Cooper as she speaks with Paula Speevak (Volunteer Canada), Michelle Mungar Lumley (Volunteer Management Professionals of Canada), Bernadette Johnson (Imagine Canada), Carine Strong (Ontario Volunteer Centre Network), and Cathy Taylor (Ontario Nonprofit Network) on working together to advocate for the profession.
May 6
Health & Safety as we Welcome Volunteers "Back to Work" Two great speakers presenting on the health and safety spectrum—physical and mental health. Angele Poitras, a Psychological Health and Safety advisor, brings us CVRM: It's all about you and caring, volunteers, resiliency and mental health. Sue Boychuck, a workplace safety expert, joins the conversation to put the health and safety puzzle together in a practical way with Workplace Safety 101 in a "19" World.
May 12
Are We Giving Volunteers the Right Tools? Applying a Trauma-Informed Approach to Volunteerism Rami Shami has been serving within Hospice Palliative Care for over 3 decades. Rami's presentation will apply the principles of Trauma-Informed Care (safety, empowerment, collaboration, choice, and trust) to help us prepare volunteers for what they might really face in roles in our organizations.
Members: $50 for all three sessions Non-Members: $70 for all three sessions
Alexandria (Lexi) White is a new volunteer engagement professional—coming up to three years this May. A member of the volunteer engagement team with the Ottawa Community Housing Corporation, Lexi specializes in connecting corporate volunteers with opportunities to make a difference in the lives of tenants and communities.
PAVRO: Tell me a bit about yourself—give me a snapshot of Lexi! Lexi: I’m a Carleton graduate with a BA in Communication Studies. After graduation I decided to stay in Ottawa which is now home. I love working with people, spending time with family and friends, and I am always up to try something new! During this pandemic, I’ve picked up a few new hobbies and can be found spending my free time crocheting or cross-stitching, listening to podcasts and audiobooks, and trying out new recipes.
PAVRO: What drew you to volunteer engagement? How long have you been involved as a volunteer engagement professional? Lexi: I will be in the field for three years in May 2021! I have always been interested in giving back to my community. Prior to my current role, I had experiences in events, so it seemed like a natural fit to marry the two. Now I work for a great organization and know that the work I do benefits others and contributes to something greater than myself. Who could ask for more?
PAVRO: Tell me about your current positon with Ottawa Community Housing? Lexi: I am the Program Administrator for the Volunteer Engagement program. I coordinate corporate volunteer groups each year to complete single-day projects benefiting our tenants and communities. Projects are often focused on tangible items such as building garden beds for community gardens, or making benches and picnic tables for tenants to enjoy the outdoors. In addition to knowing I am helping make these projects happen, it is also the work of connecting with our volunteers and communities to ensure they feel seen and heard that inspires me each day.
PAVRO: How long have you been involved with PAVRO? Your local AVA? Lexi: Thanks to my awesome manager Angela Bégin, I got involved with my local AVA as soon as I entered the field of volunteer engagement. From there, I quickly became involved with PAVRO and served on the planning committee for 2019’s Synergize: Collaboration in Action conference with PAVRO, VMPC, and Volunteer Canada—it was a great way to jump right in.
PAVRO: What is the funniest interaction you have had supporting either an individual volunteer or a volunteer team/group? Lexi: One time, we welcomed a group of men who were volunteering as part of their work retreat. About halfway through the morning event, they took a break to order a ton of McDonald’s breakfasts. Turns out they were all hung over from “networking” the night before. They have returned to volunteer a few times—they are always a fun group to work with!
PAVRO: What current challenges is your volunteer program experiencing due to COVID-19? Lexi: We do not have a lot of volunteer groups knocking on our door to participate. We’ve had to get creative in utilizing staff and tenant resources to be able to complete projects in our communities. This has meant being flexible in terms of where we can have the most impact with limited human resources.
PAVRO: Are you a sports fan or player? Lexi: I am! I grew up playing hockey and softball and I continue to follow these sports on occasion. Being raised in the GTA, we (of course) watched the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Blue Jays. Even though I’ve moved to Ottawa, I’m still a loyal Toronto fan!
Lexi White is the Program Administrator, Volunteer Engagement with the Ottawa Community Housing Corporation. She can be reached at alexandria_white@och.ca.
our social media corner is on a break this month
so be sure to Check back next month for more
important and helpful social media wisdom with Andy!
In the meantime... Do you have a social media question or comment that you’d like answered?
Reach out to pavro@pavro.on.ca and we’ll get it answered next month!
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