When does a volunteer management system make sense to a non-profit organization? This lunch-time Webinar will provide a survey of VMS systems and features.
Volunteers are both priceless and expensive. Their willingness to share their time, talent (and possibly treasure) has limits. Inefficient organizational processes are one way to encourage a volunteer to quit or never join your organization. This was discussed in a previous post, The Burden of Volunteering.
- VMS and the Burden of Volunteering
- Event Details
- Agenda (Draft) for the Conference
- The (Panel and Moderator) View from the Trenches
- Event Abstract and Summary
VMS and the Burden of Volunteering
(Dis)Appearing Volunteers. Volunteers do not just appear. Like an employee, they need to be recruited, trained, scheduled, evaluated, and they eventually leave. There are many Volunteer Lifecycles which an organization can adopt to manage the (dis)appearance of volunteers including the Lucky 7’s in LAST VeGA.
Hans will provide an overview of this model to help frame the discussion and where a Volunteer Management System (VMS) can reduce the ‘The Burden of Volunteering‘ and support the entire volunteer lifecycle.
To VMS or not to VMS. A veteran from the managing volunteers, Wendy from Flying-Canoe-Volant will present the case of why a VMS is not be needed. Representing the VMS industry, Brian, CEO of VolunteerLocal will discuss the benefits a VMS can bring to an organization.
Who is right for which organization? A panel and audience discussion will seek answers during this highly interactive 1-hour session. In between these two perspectives is the Canadian Birkebeiner Society (Birkie).
What is Best for the Birkie is the theme tying this conference together. The Canadian Birkebeiner Society (Birkie) runs single day events involving hundreds of volunteers. Should it follow Flying Canoe and build its own processes or use a VMS? While not every non-profit or volunteer based organization has the same challenges as the Birke, the organization provides a useful business case to structure the discussion.
Presented by CPA Alberta, CPA Community Ambassadors, this session is open to anyone with an interested in effectively managing volunteers through technology … and its limits.
Event Details
- May 28, 2024, 1200-1330h (MST) Online.
- Download Promotional Poster.
Agenda (Draft) for the Conference
- 1200h – Welcome and Introductions – Audrey and Hans.
- 1205h – 5 minutes – VMS from a volunteer lifecycle perspective – Hans
- 1205h – 10 minutes – Flying Canoë Volant’s VMS Experience – Wendy
- 1235h – 10 minutes – The Vendor’s Perspective – Brian
- 1245h – 20 minutes – Panel Questions
- 1305h – 25 minutes – Audience Questions
- 1320h – 10 minutes – close, comments, and contingency – Audrey
VMS and Flying Canoe Experience
Flying Canoë Volant is in many ways a peer event to the Birkebeiner. Run in the winter, it requires hundreds of volunteers to be successful.
Wendy and Allen will be tag-teaming their portion of the presentation.
Wendy-Rae Duthie joined the Flying Canoë Volant in 2023 and brings a wealth of experience herding cats and volunteers (literally and figuratively). She also works with Alberta Avenue Community League as the Volunteer Program Coordinator, and Winterruption YEG. As an Event Manager, Wendy is focused on practical solutions for volunteers and ensuring each one has an optimal experience ensuring they come back!
Allen Jacobson is a Professional Musician/Educator/Arts Consultant with 30+ years of performance, touring, recording, festival and events history in Canada, Europe and Asia. Community development, engagement, liaison as well as board consulting and development. He is the Director of the Flying Canoe Volant Festival – one of western Canada’s largest winter events, and produces over 50 concerts per year as Cultural Manager of La Cite francophone
The VMS Value Proposition – Volunteer Local
Brian Hemesath is VolunteerLocal‘s president, filling the primary role of writing the code that makes the platform work. He has founded or co-founded several companies over his career – resulting in two small exits and multiple failures along the way. He had the opportunity to lead a first-of-its-kind accelerator program for the insurance industry, working closely with startups and insurance executives. He has a Computer Engineering degree from Iowa State University, but hasn’t used any of that classwork in his life, ever.
The (Panel and Moderator) View from the Trenches
The Birkie and Volunteer Community
Dan Leskiw is the Chief of Course for the Canadian Birkebeiner. He loves being outside doing things like skiing, riding or working on the Birkie trails. He is a retired high school teacher and continues to play in local musical bands.
Dan is also the Race Director for the Birke’s first ever Bikenbender. A timed gravel bike race in Cooking Lake Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area.
Charles World is a Building Envelope Specialist; Vice President and Chief of Loppet of the Canadian Birkebeiner; organizing committee member of MS Bike Leduc to Camrose; and trustee of McClure United Church in Edmonton.
Alison Besecker, Network and Engagement Coordinator at Volunteer Alberta. With a focus on nurturing connections within Volunteer Alberta’s member network. Her proficiency is further fortified by eight years of hands-on experience as a volunteer coordinator, have an understanding of the realm of volunteer management. A product of her culturally vibrant upbringing, Alison’s formative years were steeped in festivals and arts events. You will see Alison out volunteering for many of the summer festivals.
The Official Cat Herders (and the Moderators)
Audrey Kotelniski will provide greetings from the Alberta CPA Community Ambassadors and CPA Alberta. She is a Senior Budget Analyst with the Government of Alberta and a part time instructor in the private college and NAIT. Previous to this, Audrey has experience in banking and land management companies. Audrey has recently joined the board of CPA Ambassadors and looks forward to leading the group into the next set of challenges!
Hans Potter, B.A. (Moderator) has been involved in the performing arts from a very young age. He strives to combine dual loves of the academics of acting and being in front of a camera or an audience. When not acting, he is directing, teaching, and raising a family in Vancouver.
Hans is always interested in discussing jobs and projects needing leadership, great communications, a good dose of fun-common-sense. He lives with his wife and children in North Vancouver.
A series of audience polls will also help the student team better understand considerations for evaluating and selecting (or not) a volunteer management system.
Event Abstract and Summary
In a nutshell, what is the event about? The following summary can be used to describe the event to a variety of audiences.
A volunteer hour is a gift without an economic obligation. Yet to maximize the value of these collective gifts, volunteer-organizations need volunteer processes. As a result, a volunteer-based organization may use a third party volunteer management system (VMS) to help recruit, schedule, evaluate, and retain individuals. Best case, a VMS reduces the burden to volunteer and improves retention. Worst case, a VMS is an impersonal barrier that sours the relationship.
On May 28, 2024, the Chartered Professional Accountants of Alberta (CPA) will examine the best and the worst of VMS’s through a free 90-minute virtual conference held from 1200 to 1330h MST. This conference is part of CPA’s community ambassador program and is open to all non-profits, CPAs, and interested community leaders.
The VMS business case for a volunteer organization will be examined from three perspectives. Firstly, what is the journey a volunteer takes through an organization, why they join, help, and eventually leave. This will be discussed from a Lifecycle perspective. Flying Canoe Volant will make the case that existing tools, such as Google Forms, are more than adequate to manage the lifecycle. An industry representative from VolunteerLocal.com will discuss the benefits of a VMS. A panel made up of the presenters and two other individuals will ask questions and examine these perspectives.
Tying the conference together is the Canadian Birkebeiner Society (the Birkie). It will be used as a business case to highlight the VMS conundrum. One of three global Birkebeiners, the other two in Norway and Wisconsin, the Birkie runs a one-day event in February in which more than a thousand cross-country skiers participate in 55, 31, and shorter km distance events. The skiers are supported by hundreds of event-day volunteers and dozens of leadership volunteers who work year-round to put on the Birkie.
The conference will be recorded and made available online to non-profits facing the question of whether a VMS will help or hinder the flow of precious volunteer hours to their organization.
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