Bookings for the 2013 Australasian Retreat for Advanced Volunteer Management are now open. The Retreat will be held in Sydney from March 20 – 22 at the Novotel Brighton Beach in Sydney.

Sue Jones from the UK will be the guest international faculty member, and Tony Goodrow from Canada will be a special guest presenter. Here is a draft program and info on how to make a booking.

This is a big deal! Sadly, we don’t really have anything like this in North America. This is an intensive series of workshops that is on advanced topics related to volunteer management. Instead of basic topics like how to recruit volunteers, how to use social media to recruit volunteers, risk management in general, how to thank volunteers, etc., it will focus on much more detailed, higher-level topics. For instance, when I had the honor of being the guest international faculty member in 2010, we focused on:

• how to recruit a diversity of volunteers, reaching out to teens, 20-somethings, and various ethnicities – and how to address opposition to such strategies
• integrating the Internet into all aspects of volunteer engagement and support
• selling volunteer engagement internally, to get more staff involving volunteers and to show the value of volunteers to senior management – maybe even to get a raise for the manager of volunteers!

If you are in Australia, New Zealand, or even Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and other “nearby” parts of Asia, this conference is worth trying to attend – though note that space IS limited – you have to apply to attend, and not every application is accepted!

Here are photos from when I attended this really outstanding event in 2010. Would LOVE to have such here in the USA!

And if you are interested in booking me as a trainer or consultant, here’s info about my services.