{"id":661,"date":"2014-02-11T16:06:23","date_gmt":"2014-02-12T00:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/?p=661"},"modified":"2020-05-19T12:48:29","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T19:48:29","slug":"vvgroup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2014\/02\/vvgroup\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual Volunteering discussion group on LinkedIn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Susan Ellis and I have created a LinkedIn Group for the discussion of virtual volunteering<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We’re hoping this will be a place where organizations that are involving online volunteers can get very specific with questions and advice about their virtual volunteering experiences: sharing what tools they use to work with volunteers online, asking questions about a particular issue they are having in working with volunteers online, getting advice on how to recruit a diversity of online volunteers, and on and on.<\/p>\n

This group isn’t a place for basic questions like, “How do I introduce online volunteering to my organization” and others that are detailed extensively in The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook<\/a>, though if you would like to expand on that or another practice that is detailed in the book via this group, such comments would be welcomed!<\/p>\n

The\u00a0<\/em>Last\u00a0Virtual Volunteering Guidebook<\/em> <\/strong>is\u00a0available for purchase as a paperback and an ebook<\/a>. There is also a virtual volunteering wiki in association with the book<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Feb. 12, 2014 Addendum<\/em><\/p>\n

What I do NOT want to do is to discourage discussions on places like UKVPMs<\/a>, OZVPM<\/a>, and other discussion groups for volunteer management, about using online and networking tools (like SMS\/text messaging) to support and involve volunteers – the practice that most of us refer to as virtual volunteering.<\/p>\n

I had been opposed to the idea of creating an online group just for these discussions, because I do not want these discussions to be taken out of any online group devoted to volunteer management. If you have read even just the beginning of The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook<\/a>, you know that we chose that name in part because we DON’T want any more books about virtual volunteering, no more add-on chapters about it made to books about volunteer management, no more “virtual volunteering” as an add-on or after thought – but, rather, that using online and networking tools is integrated into all discussions about recruiting, supporting, managing, recognizing and involving volunteers, period.<\/span><\/p>\n

With all that said, we did see a need for a global discussion about online and networking tools to work with volunteers, where discussions could be focused on any country or region. So we did start\u00a0<\/span>this<\/span><\/span>\u00a0LinkedIn Group for the discussion of virtual volunteering<\/a>. I’m doing my best for it not to devolve into a “how do I involve online volunteers” discussion – we’re looking for more high-level discussions, like:<\/span><\/p>\n