Member Spotlight: How to Advocate for the Importance of Volunteerism
Welcome back to another member spotlight, where we feature some of the ups and the downs of what it’s like to work as a leader of volunteers and advocate for the importance of volunteerism.
Follow along and learn how our members are taking action and getting traction with their volunteer management strategies!
This month, I had a conversation with Kelsey Preecs, Program Officer for Volunteer Maine.
Valerie: Kelsey, can you give me a quick overview of your organization and how you work with volunteers and stress the importance of volunteerism across your state?
Kelsey: We are the state commission for community service, so we fund, manage and support AmeriCorps programming in Maine, as well as promote volunteerism in the state.
I support volunteerism within our state by supporting volunteer managers in volunteer programs within our state by offering them insight into what we’re seeing with volunteers, volunteer programs, and professional development.
We also do volunteer appreciation things and try to highlight volunteers and the volunteer programs in the state.
Valerie: And how did you first hear of VolunteerPro?
Kelsey: I have a marketing background and I thought I was going to be a marketing professional, but I kept getting pulled into community engagement.
And maybe that’s just what my aura brings. I don’t know, but I kept ending up there. Even when I wasn’t in non-profit work, I was still doing community engagement within a marketing agency.
In my last position, I started building a community engagement and volunteer program within the United Way and so I started to get into VolunteerPro there. I was building a new program from the ground up and recognizing there’s a lot of great resources for all ends of the spectrum.
I like to say that like volunteer management is not rocket science, but it’s also a lot of work. It’s not a complicated formula, but it’s a strategy. You have to really strategize and make sure that you’re on top of things. So, it’s always nice to have resources to look at and help you understand what other people are running into.
Kelsey’s Challenge: Proving the Importance of Volunteerism with Industry Support
Valerie: What was your biggest challenge as you moved into this new role of providing support to leaders of volunteers and also advocating for the importance of volunteerism?
Kelsey: My position had existed in the past, but it hadn’t existed in its current capacity. I’m the first full-time person to take this on in almost seven years. So, while there are a lot of aspects of it that have existed and continued throughout the years, there’s a lot of things that were just on the back burner.
Some of those things include a volunteer managers network here in Maine. There’s no reason why we can’t have one and especially in a place like Maine where there’s a lot of rural communities,
You know, there’s a booming metropolis that’s growing like Portland. And then you have these other smaller communities that have a population of 600, but they do have volunteer opportunities and they’re thriving!
So that’s been one of the challenges for me. I know that there’s this need out there, but how do I get everybody to come together?
And how do I build something that helps people who are in Portland who have that thriving city and then other places where you might have one person who part-time works at a school, but like could really use some resources to help harness volunteers in their community.
Kelsey’s Objective: Rebuilding Volunteer Involvement Statewide after COVID
Valerie: Did you have a specific objective or goal in mind when you joined as a member?
Kelsey: I don’t necessarily have numbers that I’m working toward. A part of that is just because the state of Maine is really different from other states because it actually has the oldest population in the country. And so volunteer programs were decimated by COVID.
Most of our volunteers are above 60 because that’s the population and those are the people who have time.
My goal is figuring out how do we come back from this really? And so, there’s no specific numbers or metrics that I have set just because I think our communities are still reeling from this. We’re still trying to figure out how do we build up these things again?
So now I am focusing more on how we engage our youth. And if you’ve never been in partnership development before that’s a very scary thing to do. It can be very intimidating!
Valerie: So, as you venture into this uncharted territory of partnership development, what’s changed for you?
Kelsey: I’ve paid attention to how Tobi holds meetings or how she stakes questions, which has helped me in how I network with people.
This has been helpful for me because I am like the mini-Tobi in my community. I’m taking what I learn with Tobi and showing others how they can apply it to their specific communities.
I’ve also been able to talk to some people who don’t think that they’re volunteer managers and convince them that they are. Just because it’s not your job title, if you work with volunteers, you have to manage them. So, I think in that sense, I can then instill confidence into others as Tobi does for me.
Kelsey’s Results: Inspiring Community Involvement & the Importance of Volunteerism
Valerie: I know you mentioned you don’t have any specific metrics regarding what you’ve been doing so far, but do you have any other kinds of results that you’d want to share with us today?
Kelsey: Some of the things around youth service we’ve been able to fund, and some people have applied for mini grants to do some projects with youth.
And so, they are recruiting these youth to do work around hunger in their communities. The youth are researching causes of hunger, what’s being done about it in their communities, what’s already been funded, and gaining community support.
I was able to learn from Tobi and share with those people who are now working with youth, the right way to do volunteer management. Now those youth are going to learn from their leaders how to as well.
So, it’s third generation at this point, sharing their expertise on how you need to engage your community to help you with your project. It’s pretty cool to see the next generation of kids being their own community engagement people, you know?
What Kelsey Wants You to Know
Valerie: Now, what would you say to somebody who is navigating similar challenges, or any volunteer management challenge really?
Kelsey: Volunteer management isn’t rocket science, but it’s hard. There’s a lot of moving parts and when you have executives who are sort of saying “oh, well it’s just, it’s just volunteers.” You don’t just call a number and then 20 people show up.
So, any extra resources, networking opportunities, and structures to look at, they’re really helpful.
They’re really invaluable resources to you as somebody who might operate within a system where there’s other people who maybe don’t understand volunteer management or don’t understand how intensive it can be.
And if you’re not getting support from your inside team, then finding people who understand why it’s so challenging and why it can be so strategic and so engaging.
So, get the resources and get the community so that you have people that you can bounce your ideas off of and bounce your thoughts off of and get those resources to help you build something. Something really great!
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