Today’s post focuses on Creating Richer Volunteer Experiences to Develop In-Demand Skills. From the new vision posted to Future Ready 365:
“A fulfilled association-vision will depend heavily upon SLA’s volunteer-force—the network that gives the association its strength and relevance. What better incentive to become active in the association than the fact that it will benefit your career down the road? New skills picked up as volunteers in our chapters and divisions may just be the stepping stones to a promotion or achievement at work. Added focus will be placed on creating richer volunteer experiences in the areas of web development (search engine optimization, plug-in development and research), marketing (developing a marketing plan for local events and programs), program management (overseeing budgets, fundraising with local vendor communities), and more. SLA’s volunteers will be powerfully well-rounded in the years to come.“
According to SLA.org, there are a number of existing volunteer opportunities, including:
- Alignment Ambassadors;
- Archivist;
- Bulletin Editors;
- Chapter Presidents & Presidents-Elect;
- Committee Chairs;
- Consultation Chairs;
- Discussion List Owners;
- Division Chairs & Chairs-Elect;
- Ethics Ambassadors;
- Fundraising Chairs;
- Government Relations Chairs;
- Membership Chairs;
- Professional Development Chairs;
- Public Relations Chairs;
- Treasurers; and
- Webmasters.
What I’m hoping to accomplish with today’s post is to hear from you about what volunteer experiences SLA could create, repurpose, or nurture that are closely aligned to in-demand skills in today’s workplace. Using the comments below let’s start a dialog about what those skills might be or what experiences we might create together.
I’ve thought of four to kick things off:
- Community Managers: working to engage, grow and manage SLA’s online communities
- Plugin Developer: working to customize and develop plugins for WordPress, the main publishing platform for SLA unit websites
- Search Engine Optimization Manager: working to improve the visibility of a unit’s website through “organic” search results
- Knowledge Managers: working to influence SLA’s culture toward improved knowledge sharing, reuse, learning, collaboration and innovation, plus owning the unit’s presence on wiki.sla.org.
Some of you may say, “But we have those roles Daniel. They’re covered by such-and-such position.” Great! Let’s hear about that too. Perhaps it’s time to refresh the roles and responsibilities for those positions and figure out a way to cascade them through the organization. This is about a dialog, so what say you all?
(I wouldn’t be a good librarian unless I included a list of resources!)
LEADERSHIP RESOURCES
(Most are members only so get out your id/password)
- SLA’s Leadership Center
- Why Seek a Leadership Position in SLA?
- Chapter Idea Bank
- Division Idea Bank
- Model Chapter Governing Document
- Model Division Governing Document
- Recommended Practices – Chapters
- Recommended Practices – Divisions
- SLA Leadership Code of Responsibility
Today’s host:
Daniel P. Lee, MLIS.
SLA Director, 2009-2011
KPMG International, Toronto, Ontario.
Great list of opportunities! Another key volunteer activity is working on the unit strategic plans. Often this effort is led by a past chair or past president, but is not necessarily identified as an ongoing process or responsibility. Even though strategic plans are intended to bring the unit through a 3-4 year period, they also need ongoing review to be refreshed by the changing environment, and ensure that all the unit leaders are planning together toward a unified vision.
Being part of a strategic planning process on a volnteer basis for an SLA unit is a great way to gain context and skills that transfer directly to opportunities to have a voice in strategic initiatives on the job.
Excellent points Libby. Do you see “strategic planning” as a discrete volunteer position or more a skill that we need to somehow find a way of infusing more into existing positions? I can see some of the planning role within the Knowledge Manager role.
Excellent ideas as usual Daniel. Really like refreshing our volunteer assignments to better reflect what is needed. Plus those jobs sound more fun. Would be useful if all jobs were reviewed from the perspective you offer. Best susan
Thanks Susan!
One of the benefits of any type of volunteerism is that of providing a balance: often you gain skills or satisfaction in your volunteer activity that you don’t get at work. With SLA, you can target your activities to develop some skills you may not be able to develop at work. And sometimes it’s the ‘soft’ skills that aren’t usually mentioned.
Most of my ability to speak in public was developed through SLA. Working my way up from the chapter and division level, I delivered candidate speeches when running for the Board of Directors, and have recently culminated in my speech as SLA Treasurer at the General Business Meeting at the annual conference. I never thought I’d be using a teleprompter and speaking to a couple of thousand people, but now that I’ve done that, I have no fear of giving a presentation at my workplace.
What skill would you like to develop that you aren’t getting the opportunity at work right now? SLA can help. As Daniel points out, there are numerous opportunities to develop both hard and soft skills.
Excellent question Dan, so let’s highlight it again for our dear readers. Hopefully we’ll get some comments out of it.
What skill(s) would you like to develop that perhaps your current position won’t allow you to develop?
In keeping with keeping it fresh, the Minnesota Chapter created a Competitive Intelligence Chair. With this position we are able to keep up with what other units are planning so that we can have some future ideas in the midst of scrambling to plan current events. I too like the idea of reviewing current volunteer opportunities and updating them to reflect current needs. Thanks!
CI is a fantastic idea Deb and definitely falls in the “Knowledge Manager” role or as a discrete position on its own. Adding it to the list!
I’ve found that volunteering can make us more employable, broaden our network, and lead to new opportunities. At each stage of our life and career, we have to continue to grow professionally. In a keynote address at the 2011 Internet Librarian conference, John Seely Brown said: “The half-life of a given skill is now 5 years. Going back to school is not the solution. We’ll need to find new ways to constantly pick up new skills.”
Volunteering is a great way to do this. So what are you waiting for? Make SLA an even better organization by making your mark: you can start small — every bit helps.