Tag Archives: conference

Points of Light Conference, June 10-12, is free & online (& I’ll present re: virtual volunteering)

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Points of Light Conference Logo

The Points of Light Conference (formerly the Points of Light Foundation Conference) is a large annual conference celebrating and promoting volunteerism in the USA. Representatives from nonprofits, government programs, business, civic leaders, activists and volunteers themselves gather annually to celebrate, collaborate and share knowledge and resources related to volunteering and volunteers.

Traditionally held as an in-person event, the 2020 Points of Light Conference, June 10-12, will be an online experience this year, with a particular focus on sharing information related to volunteering during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is FREE to attend, but you must register to access the recorded workshops, Q & A sessions, and discussion boards associated with each workshop – including mine, on June 12, regarding virtual volunteering. After June 12, my virtual volunteering workshop, about 36 minutes long, will be available on my YouTube channel.

The conference web site is: pointsoflightconference.org

Please vote for “Living & Loving Digital Inclusion”

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There are only a few hours left to vote for my proposed session at NTEN: Living & Loving Digital Inclusion!

Voting is open only through August 31. The 2019 Nonprofit Technology Conference will be held in Portland, Oregon, March 13 – 15, and I will be able to go if I get to present! If I can’t present then – let me be blunt: I won’t be able to afford to go.

Digital Inclusion means working to ensure ICT tools, resources and associated spaces are welcoming to the widest audience possible. Helping children in communities with rates of high poverty to access the Internet and gain skills might be the first thing most think of when they hear the term digital inclusion, but it’s also about accessible web and app design, providing safe, encouraging spaces for women and girls in community tech centers and hackathons, and being mindful of our language when promoting or talking about public tech initiatives. This energizing session will give attendees lots of ideas to consider and employ.

Learning Outcomes

  • understand what is meant by “digital inclusion” in practical terms
  • understand the benefits of making “digital inclusion” a priority
  • put into immediate practice activities that improve an organization’s “digital inclusion”

Update: “Although your session received a strong level of support during the voting stages it was not selected as part of this final process to balance out the overall range of topics in the related category.” That’s the final word from NTEN. Unfortunately, I cannot afford to attend the conference (it’s VERY expensive), so even though NTEN will be right in my backyard in Portland, Oregon, I won’t be there. Very sorry to miss out once again on NTEN.

I have already developed the workshop and hope I will get a different opportunity to deliver it.

Would you like for me to speak at your conference or train at your organization? Here’s is more about my presentations and trainings. Also read more about my consulting services.

World conference on volunteering for social change

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24th IAVE World Volunteer Conference  & 20th Cemefi Annual Meeting
Theme: Volunteering for Social Change
Mexico City, November 7 – 10, 2016

The conference is designed for everyone who, whether in volunteer or paid roles, gives leadership for volunteering in their organization, in their community or at a national or global level.

“Our theme – Volunteering for Social Change – recognizes that volunteering is a powerful way in which individual and collective actions can bring needed change to our communities, our countries and our rapidly globalizing world. At the same time, we know that volunteering contributes to our own personal development – building knowledge of the realities of the world, reinforcing our instinct to care and to respond and reminding us of our ability to make a real difference in the lives of others. Together these two strands – social change and human development – form the framework for our program and accent our goal: to value volunteering as a strategic, high impact action for development.”

The specific objectives of the conference are to:

  • Position volunteering as a tool for change that promotes new dynamics of citizen participation
  • Bring together leaders from NGOs at all levels, businesses, government and academia to learn from one another and to develop mutual support networks
  • Give attention to innovative practices that increase the impact of volunteering on those served and on volunteers themselves
  • Address the issues and challenges volunteering faces in a rapidly changing world
  • Renew our mutual commitment to volunteering that builds solidarity among all people

IAVE and Cemefi share a commitment to the development and protection of the broadest range of volunteer action that addresses critical issues, seeks to build and sustain environments that encourage and value the participation of people in determining the future of their societies, and reinforces the essential value of people caring for their communities and for one another.

The call for presenters is closed.

The tag for the conference is #IAVE2016MX

More info.

No, I won’t be attending. I don’t have the resources to go, unfortunately (sad face). Looking forward to reading tweets and blogs from people that do attend.

 

Conferencia Latinoamericana de Voluntariado, 14 al 16 de octubre

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Del 14 al 16 de octubre se realizará en Guayaquil, Ecuador, la VI Conferencia Latinoamericana de Voluntariado que organiza la International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) con el lema “El voluntariado como expresión de la participación social”. A la Asociación Coordinadora del Voluntariado, ACORVOL, en tanto miembro del IAVE, le ha correspondido organizar la Conferencia Regional Latinoamericana de Voluntariado. De este modo por primera vez Guayaquil será sede de tan magno evento.

Contará con una jornada dedicada a la juventud y, durante su desarrollo, se abordarán dos grandes ejes: Voluntariado como agente de cambio y transformación social; y Voluntariado Corporativo: ¿Hacia dónde vamos?. Es de destacar que el Consejo Mundial de Voluntariado Corporativo  de IAVE (Global Corporate Volunteer Council) sesionará en este marco, por lo cual contaremos con líderes globales y regionales de voluntariado corporativo.

ACORVOL cuenta con 40 años de presencia en la comunidad, 77 instituciones afiliadas y es el referente del voluntariado en la provincia del Guayas. Particularmente en Guayaquil el voluntariado tiene una tradición que data desde la época colonial, pues tuvo que hacer frente a una saga de desgracias que generaron el comportamiento peculiar de su colectividad, dentro de la cual, el sentimiento de solidaridad ha sido una constante, llegando a ser parte consustancial de su identidad.

ACORVOL cuenta con 40 años de presencia en la comunidad, 77 instituciones afiliadas y es el referente del voluntariado en la provincia del Guayas. Particularmente en Guayaquil el voluntariado tiene una tradición que data desde la época colonial, pues tuvo que hacer frente a una saga de desgracias que generaron el comportamiento peculiar de su colectividad, dentro de la cual, el sentimiento de solidaridad ha sido una constante, llegando a ser parte consustancial de su identidad.

Desde estos valores estamos trabajando para invitar y abrir las puertas para la participación de organizaciones del voluntariado, líderes de organizaciones públicas, privadas y comunitarias, ONG’s y al sector empresarial de América y el Mundo.

OBJETIVOS

  • Ofrecer un espacio de encuentro, reflexión, contraste y trabajo a las organizaciones de voluntariado y a las personas voluntarias en el contexto de América Latina.
  • Contextualizar la acción voluntaria y su participación en el cambio de época y en los distintos escenarios que estamos viviendo.
  • Contribuir al fortalecimiento de la interacción del voluntariado con los diferentes estamentos de la sociedad.
  • Fomentar el encuentro y articulación entre voluntarios y organizaciones de voluntariado juvenil en la región que potencien un trabajo en red.
  • Visibilizar las acciones e impacto del voluntariado juvenil en la Región.
  • Presentar a la Conferencia Regional las recomendaciones y propuestas que la Juventud tenga sobre el voluntariado.
  • Aprovechar, incentivar y encauzar el potencial del personal de las empresa en beneficio de las necesidades sociales y de las asociaciones de voluntariado de la comunidad en la que trabajan a través del conocimiento de lo que es el Voluntariado Corporativo

Say it! Say it! “MANAGERS OF VOLUNTEERS”

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graphic by Jayne Cravens representing volunteersImagine you work with youth. You help a group of youth to develop skills or explore careers or improve their grades or appreciate the arts or practice an art form – whatever. Maybe you are a choir teacher or a Girl Scout leader or a tutoring program coordinator. There’s a big, national conference on working with youth coming up, and you think, great, I am so going to that! I want to get lots of tips to help me be a better leader and supporter of youth!

You arrive at the conference, and the opening speakers are all people who go on and on about how important it is to work with youth. Corporations that fund youth programs are lauded, youth are lauded, parents are lauded, politicians and celebrities that say Youth are great! are lauded – but no one ever mentions the people like you, that actually work with youth, that design and lead these programs and make them happen.

You didn’t come to the conference to be convinced to work with youth; you already work with youth. You know how great working with youth is. You have every intention of continuing to work with youth. You came to the conference to get the knowledge and tools you need to work more effectively with youth. And you were expecting for youth workers such as yourself to at least be mentioned on the first day of the conference.

That would be a really crazy scenario. But it’s how a lot of managers of volunteers feel about current national or international “volunteerism” conferences: these are focused on celebrating volunteerism, and that’s nice, but those that actually work with volunteers, that make that volunteer involvement happen, don’t get mentioned on the first day amid all the celebration of volunteers and the celebrities and politicians that love them.

Volunteers are not free. Volunteers also do not magically appear to build houses or clean up a park or tutor young people. In fact, successful volunteer engagement is absolutely impossible without someone coordinating all of the people and activities, training people, screening people, etc. – that person could be a volunteer himself or herself, it could be a paid person, it could be an employee on loan from a corporation, but make no mistake, that person, that volunteer manager, is real and absolutely essential – and deserves to be named at some point during the opening activities that kick off, say, the National Conference on Volunteering and Service?

After attending five of the national conferences on volunteering in the USA, I stopped attending (I think my last one was in 2004). By my last conference, I was tired of managers of volunteers being ignored amid all the celebrations of celebrities and politicians who think volunteers are so swell and magical, and tired of seeing and presenting the same workshops over and over. I was tired of my ideas for advanced volunteer management topics being rejected – organizers wanted only very basic workshops introducing the concept of virtual volunteering (a practice that by the year 2001 was already more than 30 years old!), if at all, and certainly nothing more advanced than that. I gave up.

It took the 2006 NetSquared conferences to remind me of what a conference for those that work with volunteers could be. Here’s why I loved that conference – it would be so great if those that organize the NCVS conference (which will be in Washington, D.C. yet again!) would read it, think about it, and rise to the challenge of presenting such a conference!

If they did, I would so be there….

Note: this blog is in response to a series of tweets by people associated with the NCVS who were miffed (maybe even outraged?) that the conference’s lack of recognition for those that manage volunteer programs was being talked about online. It’s a shame that, instead of listening and considering, they got defensive, even accusatory (apparently, because I wasn’t there, I’m not supposed to talk about it). It’s not too late to turn this into a win, to consider the criticism and really think about ways to take the conference to the next level – and to ensure volunteer managers are acknowledged. I’d be the first to publicly laud organizers if that happened.