I was so pleased to recently coordinate a “Get Creative with Social Media” workshop for Volunteer Victoria, facilitated by Mandy Leith. It pleased me even more that I was able to attend the workshop with  my mother, Elaine Cougler. Her adoption of and enthusiasm for social media tools to further her writing career is proof positive that social media is being used and enjoyed by people of all ages. Here is her guest post about attending the workshop:

Last week, Mandy Leith, “media-savvy storyteller, documentary filmmaker, social media strategist, media educator, founder of [Continue reading Telling Your Organization’s Story with Social Media]

For many years, Volunteer Victoria has had a strong partnership with the Administrators of Volunteer Resources British Columbia (AVRBC), BC’s professional group for people involved in the administration of volunteers.  Every month between September and June on the third Thursday of the month, local coordinators of volunteers gather in Victoria at AVRBC meetings to learn about topics in volunteer management. 

AVRBC South Island’s most recent meeting, held on June 16th, featured a panel of presenters speaking on the topic of Creating Enticing Volunteer Positions.  Panelists Kelly Sprackett, Nancy Martens, and Christine Foster led an informative and interactive presentation.  ...

[Continue reading Creating Enticing Volunteer Positions]

Since 2000, Volunteer Victoria has been offering an Overview of Volunteer Management course once a year for those involved (or wanting to be) in the administration of volunteers.  In the course, participants learn all the basics they need to know about managing volunteers and we’ve graduated over 250 individuals from this course over the past eleven years. 

We’re currently planning for our 2011 offering, and this year we have something else exciting to announce other than just the new course dates for 2011.  Our course has been accepted for credit towards the first course – “Working with Volunteers” – in Red River College’s Volunteer Management ...

[Continue reading Training for Coordinators of Volunteers]

The following post is an article of mine originally published in the most recent issue (Volume 19.1) of the Canadian Journal of Volunteer Resources Management.  The focus of this issue is training and education.  The Journal is available to members of the Canadian Administrators of Volunteer Resources, our national association of administrators/managers of volunteer resources.  For those involved in the administration of volunteer resources in British Columbia, CAVR membership currently comes free with an annual membership to our provincial AVRBC (Administrators of Volunteer ...

[Continue reading Questions to Consider for a Successful Training Experience]

Recently, Volunteer Victoria’s Emerging Leaders Network offered a five-week public speaking course to a small group of individuals made up of mostly ELN members.  It was taught by Ginger Brunner of Dynamic HR Solutions Inc. and received rave reviews from all participants.  In this blog post, guest blogger Yasmin Rampuri (ELN member and on staff at the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria) shares her experience as a participant in this important skill-building course.

Along with 11 other brave souls, I’ve just completed a five-week “Speaking with Confidence” course which was offered through ...

[Continue reading Teaching Emerging Leaders to Speak with Confidence]

Each year Volunteer Victoria works with a wide variety of trainers to deliver workshops for our community participants.  As the Manager of Training and Outreach for Volunteer Victoria, I’m pleased that we are able to offer a good cross-section of learning opportunities for our member agencies and others in our community who need to develop knowledge and skills in nonprofit management.

Just since September last year our staff or contracted facilitators have taught workshops in: fund development, media relations, social media, volunteer management, networking skills, succession planning, communication skills, story-telling, governance, public ...

[Continue reading Our Training Initiatives]

The following is a guest blog post by Shannon Whissell, Manager, Communication & Fund Development at The Cridge Centre for the Family. Shannon kindly offered to share her learnings from our recent Planning for Fundraising Success workshop with Kari Frazer. Thank you Shannon! We welcome feedback from other participants who attended on the day as well! NOTE: Non-profit members who are new to fund development are invited to attend our no cost Q&A sessions. To find out more, contact Beth Cougler Blom or call ...

[Continue reading Bootcamp for Fund Developers – Or, how I learned to stop learning and get on the court.]

The following is a guest blog post written by Kari Frazer, facilitator of our recent “Planning for Fundraising Success” workshop.  Kari holds the international Certified Fund Raising Executive designation and has been practicing fundraising, marketing and media relations for 24 years.

In my recent Planning for Fundraising Success workshop for Volunteer Victoria I think the pivotal subject was creating the The Case for Support. Many of the 30 people in the room had an ‘aha’ moment when we went to some of their websites and looked for evidence ...

[Continue reading Your Case for Support – a critical first step]

Many organizations are struggling to answer this question as the demographics of the workplace continue to shift. Succession planning is the process of identifying and developing internal employees with the potential to fill key or critical organizational positions. In the ...

[Continue reading Succession Planning – Is Your Organization Ready for the Future?]

Our Emerging Leaders Network has made some amazing learning opportunities available to its members since the Network was created this past Spring.  A recent “Networking for Success” workshop was no exception.  In this guest blog post, workshop participant and Emerging Leaders Network member Andy Renton summarizes some great networking tips for individuals at community organizations.

“Networking is the art of building mutually beneficial relationships.” This was the opener for Sarah Daviau’s recent workshop titled “Networking for Success,” which truly was beneficial to all who attended.

After over 10 years in the non-profit sector with various organizations, Sarah now operates ...

[Continue reading Networking For Success]