Thank you for your commitment to active involvement within AFA this year. The time and talent that you share with the Association will help us all build a brighter future for the profession of fraternity/sorority advising and for the overall fraternal movement. This newsletter, The AFA Volunteer, is designed to accomplish a few things: provide you with resources to assist in your development as a fraternity/sorority professional and your development as an AFA volunteer; provide you with information about the Association to assist you in framing your volunteer projects and objectives; and to recognize volunteers who role model above and beyond the call of duty performance. The Executive Board is extremely committed to evaluating and transforming the volunteer experience in order to best align our practices with our strategic goals for the future. To that end, an overall Volunteer Management Plan was adopted in June 2005 and will continue to unfold throughout this year.

We are keenly aware that the efforts of our volunteers are most critical to future success. The new Volunteer Management Plan incorporates a holistic approach to the volunteer experience. Prior to the implementation of this plan, various positions held responsibility for specific aspects of volunteer management but no position was responsible for ensuring that all of our volunteer practices were consistent and complementary of each other. The recruitment, training, evaluation, and recognition of our volunteers must be improved and it is our belief that each aspect must work in conjunction with the others to be most effective. This plan provides the framework for the exponential increase in volunteer effectiveness that is necessary to achieve our desired future.

One major component of the Volunteer Management Plan is the addition of a Volunteer Coordinator. Anne Arseneau has been appointed to this two-year position and will work with Amanda Bureau, Director of Member Services, to improve all aspects of our volunteer processes.

The first annual review of appointed positions occurred in June 2005 when the Executive Board met to establish the volunteer opportunities for 2006. Several positions were determined to no longer provide a positive and meaningful volunteer experience and were not reappointed. At the same time, we have added many exciting new roles. For example, structuring the Regions around Area Coordinators was an outdated model that was no longer effectively serving our membership, so this position was eliminated. In its place we have created regionalized Membership Marketing and Recruitment teams to focus on the important goal of attracting and retaining members of the Association. All of the changes to our volunteer structure ensure that every volunteer has the potential to make a valuable impact on the Association. Our goal is that every volunteer has a meaningful experience and makes a positive contribution to the attainment of the Association’s strategic goals and objectives.

Just as the volunteer positions are shifting, you will also see changes in the process of recruiting and appointing volunteers to those roles. The 2006 involvement form was significantly different than in previous years. Participants were asked to think critically about what they can contribute, what they want to learn, and what they do not want to do for the Association. Collecting better information about why people want to volunteer and what they hope to gain from the experience will ensure that the talents and skills of members can be best matched to the Association’s priorities. This added knowledge about our member’s interests and skills also provides us flexibility in creating new committees and workgroups throughout the year.

Training
Volunteers will also see a continued increase in the training and support they receive to maximize their potential. This was most noticeable in the fall when, rather than waiting until the Annual Meeting to begin training, we began preparing volunteers for their new roles in October. Volunteer leaders (elected positions, committee chairs, liaisons, editors, etc.) were sent a Volunteer Toolkit containing documents and information to help them learn about their roles, including the Strategic Plan, the 2006 Standard Operating & Procedures Manual, position descriptions, committee rosters, and much more. They were also provided with the contact information for the person who held their position previously and for their future Executive Board supervisor and encouraged to schedule transition meetings during October.

A Basic Training virtual seminar was held in mid-October for volunteer leaders. The goal of this program was to provide the fundamentals necessary to have a successful volunteer experience by educating them on the Association’s policies and services. While the seminar may have been dry (imagine listening to someone talk about the Procedures Manual for ten minutes!), all of the information shared was essential for volunteer leaders to know and understand before embarking on their new roles. Evaluations of this program showed that most people valued the opportunity to learn about the Association’s general policies right away and felt more prepared to tackle the specific tasks and objectives of their positions.

During the Annual Meeting, the program that had been fundamental training for volunteer leaders in previous years became a development opportunity that was open to all volunteers for the first time. Allowing all volunteers to attend gave everyone the opportunity to learn about general association management philosophies, AFA and our Strategic Plan, as well as their own personal volunteer journeys. At separate times throughout the Annual Meeting, all committees and workgroups were given the opportunity to meet and plan specifically for their projects and objectives.

We will continue to strive for effective training and development of our volunteers. Volunteers can be most effective if they have the information and skills they need related to their specific roles as well as knowledge about the general direction of the Association. This newsletter and perhaps other forums will be used to continue providing you with information necessary both to your specific volunteer role and to your personal and professional development.

Evaluation
Just as in performance evaluations in your paying job, evaluating your volunteer job can be valuable for many reasons. Intentional reflection is an important part of learning so spending time thinking about what you’ve done well, what you could do better, what responsibilities you have enjoyed (or not) can help you grow as a professional. Receiving similar feedback from others you’ve worked with can help you gain useful insight as well. All of this information will also be helpful to the Association to use in future volunteer appointments and the slating process for elected positions.

The 2005 Professional Development Committee developed the evaluation process, which was piloted with several committees last fall and will be implemented with all volunteers in 2006. Over the summer, all volunteers will participate in an evaluation process that allows them to evaluate their own performance as well as that of their volunteer supervisors, any volunteers they supervise, and the Association’s overall volunteer management procedures. We want to hear from you about what is going well and what can be improved. By formalizing the process for gathering feedback, we hope to gain valuable insight that will help us continue to improve our volunteer effectiveness. Watch for more information in the late spring to learn how this evaluation process will occur.

Recognition
The last, but certainly not least important, component of our volunteer management plan is recognition. With over 200 AFA members contributing to the success of the Association and the betterment of the fraternal movement, our volunteers certainly deserve to be recognized for their accomplishments. Whether through formal recognition, such as the Volunteer of the Month or our annual Outstanding Volunteer Awards, or through informal thank you notes, there are many ways to let you know that your time and talent are making a positive difference. We hope that you are finding your volunteer experience meaningful and we want to make sure you know how valuable your efforts are to the betterment of the Association.

As the Volunteer Management Plan is implemented, we welcome your feedback. Please contact Anne Arseneau (757/221-3273, aharse@wm.edu) or Amanda Bureau (317/876-1632, amanda@fraternityadvisors.org) with any suggestions or comments you may have to help improve our volunteers’ experiences. We appreciate your involvement in this volunteer renaissance – it’s an exciting time for the Association and we welcome your active participation in creating the future.