Hootsuite Makes Using Twitter Even Better

This past December and January we ran two “Introduction to Twitter” sessions for individuals at our nonprofit member agencies who were interested in learning more about Twitter, the free social media tool.  The sessions were very well received and we were able to share some of Volunteer Victoria’s own story about how we have been successful with our social media campaign – in particular with our use of Twitter – since we began it last year.

The workshops were for beginners so we thought it best to start with simply talking about Twitter itself and why and how people use it.  Not surprisingly though, at both …

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Twitter Seminar

Having done extensive research on Social Media over the past five months or so, I was somewhat reluctant to attend Margaret Hoegg’s beginner level presentation on Twitter. Contributing significantly to this reluctance was the fact that, of all the social media I had researched, Twitter seemed the least desirable to me. Margaret managed to change my mind, however, as she pointed out the very tangible benefits of Twitter.  I have since started using Twitter extensively to promote my personal blog. So, I have converted to Twitter. Let me tell you why.

The benefits of non-profit organizations’ (NPOs) use of Twitter are significant …

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What will it take to be prepared?

If you’ve lived in Victoria for any length of time, you will undoubtedly have heard people talking about “the big one.”  When will the big earthquake hit, we wonder.  And will we be prepared when the time comes?

Although it is important to plan how our organizations will react to a large full-scale earthquake, it is equally important to plan how we will react to smaller, more day-to-day emergencies.  That is the message that the Victoria Emergency Management Agency (VEMA) and the Canadian Red Cross gave to non-profit organizations the other day in our half-day workshop on ”Emergency Preparedness for Voluntary Sector Organizations.”

Facilitators Sara Walsh, Elysia Dempsey …

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Overview of Volunteer Management Course: A Participant’s Experience

Today I’d like to welcome Yasmin Rampuri from the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria who has written the following guest blog post for us about her experiences taking our recent Overview of Volunteer Management certificate course.  Congratulations to all 23 of our 2009 course graduates! 

Over four Saturdays in October and November I had the great pleasure of attending Volunteer Victoria’s excellent Overview of Volunteer Management Course.  The course was facilitated by two engaging and very experienced leaders in the Volunteer Management field, Diane Kirby and Theresa Vogel.  Each of them led two of the Saturdays, and brought their different styles to bear …

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Setting our Boundaries

The other day we held a workshop for individuals taking part in our Social Solutions project, which supports coordinators of volunteers at non-profit agencies that work in the areas of homelessness, housing, mental health and addictions.  The workshop was about resetting boundaries and was led by talented facilitator Dvora Levin.

Who among us couldn’t use a reminder to set (or defend) our boundaries now and then?  The workshop came at a very fortuitous time for some participants in particular, but in fact all of us were able to come up with areas of either our personal or professional lives where we could reestablish or reset boundaries. 

But …

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