We’d like to introduce guest contributor Charlene Dishaw, currently the Manager of Volunteer Resources at Delta Hospital in Ladner, BC.

After over 10 years of working in the field of Volunteer Management I was having a “heard that, seen them” feeling. I was looking for education that would elevate my work another level. The Vancouver Board of Trade brought in the Disney Leadership workshop and my passion for working with people was renewed. What did it for me? The thrill of hearing what big business has the time and money to research. And the research can be directly applied to our ...

[Continue reading Learning Outside the Volunteer Management Box]

We are very pleased to announce that our valued colleague, and friend, Leanna Hill recently won The Vancity Youth Award at The Victoria Leadership Awards.

This award recognizes a young leader between the ages of 20 and 30 who demonstrates community leadership in one or more of the following areas:

People: Building wealth with those who need it most; Planet: Sustaining our environment; Places: Promoting community growth and change.

There were so many deserving and inspirational nominees in this category, so we are especially proud of Leanna’s accomplishment!

Volunteer Victoria also wishes to acknowledge and thank all of the other incredible nominees for their outstanding contributions to our ...

[Continue reading Volunteer Victoria’s Leanna Hill Wins Youth Leadership Award]

The following is a guest post written by our new ELN Social Mavens, Yasmin Rampuri and Liz Hallett. Thank you Liz and Yasmin for hosting this very successful Fall Mingle, and for stepping up and sharing your skills and enthusiasm. It was a great event!

Emerging Leaders Network (ELN) Fall Mingle

After enjoying the lovely summer weather when it finally happened, the ELN ushered in the new season with a bang at the Fall Mingle.

The event hovered at full from days after it was posted, until the day of the event on September 15th, and we had 29 enthusiastic networkers attend in the end.

Veneto Café provided a most excellent ...

[Continue reading Emerging Leaders Network (ELN) Kicks Off Another Successful Year!]

I’m pleased to introduce guest blogger Zuzanna Szkudlarek, a Volunteer Victoria board member and member of our Emerging Leaders Network. In this post, Zuzanna writes about her great experiences (so far) as a member of the ELN. We’ve been truly fortunate to have Zuzanna participate in this Network as she is a true leader in action in our community.

Recently I was at a retreat with like minded people interested in bettering the community in Victoria. At the retreat were individuals from all sectors (nonprofits, government, and industry) ages ranging from 25-50 whereby five of us all had the commonality of being part of the [Continue reading VV’s Emerging Leaders Network: Engagement in action]

I’d like to announce that Tina Lowery of the BC Cancer Agency has stepped in to share the Regional Representative position with me for our local Administrators of Volunteer Resources British Columbia (AVRBC) chapter.  Tina replaces Nancy Martens (more on Nancy below) in this shared position as of this summer, just in time to start off our new meeting year in September.  Tina is the Coordinator of Volunteer Services at the Vancouver Island Cancer Centre and, in her words, “works with and in support of the most amazing, talented and dedicated volunteers.”

If you haven’t heard of AVRBC before, ...

[Continue reading New Regional Rep for AVRBC]

This article first appeared in Volunteer Victoria’s E-Link newsletter on July 15th , 2011. Sign up for E-Link and keep current with news and information from Volunteer Victoria.

Leadership and Management

In turbulent times, people often re-visit their assumptions and explore more closely the actions that helped contribute to organizational successes and failures. For many years, Henry Mintzberg, the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University, has explored the wisdom of focusing on organizational leadership at the detriment of investing in good management and he often shares his thoughts on the pitfalls of any number of much-championed ...

[Continue reading Leadership and Management]

Val Green, Volunteer Victoria’s Executive Director over the past 10 years, has begun her transition to retirement. She has worked with the organization for over 20 years and has been an inspiring, adept, and visionary leader not only for Volunteer Victoria, but also in the community. A board member recently shared that no task is too big, or too small for Val; an apt description of Val’s ability to make great things happen while including and inspiring her teams along the way.

We thank Val for her years of commitment, hard work, and good humour, and we wish her well in the years of adventure ...

[Continue reading New Executive Director for Volunteer Victoria]

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]

Do you know a remarkable youth? What about a group of remarkable youth?

Do you know a remarkable youth worker, or a super youth friendly organization or business?

United Way’s Youth Advisory Council, in partnership with the Intermunicipal Recreation Youth Services of Greater Victoria, have planned and are hosting this year’s Youth Now Awards to take place over International Youth Week (May 1-7). This 13th annual  awards ceremony will celebrate the valuable contributions young people (11-29 years old) make to our community.

You can be an adult, a family member, a child, a youth, a friend or anyone to nominate someone ...

[Continue reading 2011 Youth Now Awards]

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today seems a very appropriate day to kick off Random Acts of Kindness Week.  We invite everyone (individuals, companies, schools, service clubs, etc.) to join us and take part.

Share your story and/or your ideas here on our blog. This is your chance to help make someone else’s day (and to brighten up your own as well!).

We will tweet out a daily RAK suggestion (#volvicbcRAK) and look forward to hearing yours! Let’s show everyone what an amazing city Victoria is!

Today’s #volvicbcRAK suggestion is to share this “challenge” with others in your network and tell us ...

[Continue reading It’s Random Acts of Kindness Week]