Volunteer Committee Meeting 10/7/10

Committee: 
Volunteer
Date: 
Thu, 10/07/2010 - 13:00 to Thu, 10/07/2010 - 15:30
Agenda: 

 

Attendees: 
Dan Van Engel, Chris Connolly, Jane Daniels, Catherine Gemmell, Bob Jonas, Ken Malkin, Estelle Anderson. Guest: Georgette Weir
Status of Minutes: 
Draft
Minutes: 

Minutes – Volunteer Committee        October 7 2010

Present:  Dan Van Engel, Jane Daniels, Catherine Gemmell, Ken Malkin,
          Bob Jonas, Estelle Anderson, Chris Connolly, Ed Goodell

Guests:  Georgette Weir (Trail Walker), Megan Fraser, VP Communications & Marketing, The Valley Hospital and Maureen  Curran, in charge of Media Relations.  

 
Megan, with her position at The Valley Hospital, had many thoughts and ideas that could apply to the Trail Conference.  Most of which seem to apply to Georgette as she is our communications person as editor of the Trail Worker and also the E-walker.     I have shown their basic thoughts are below. They do things a bit differently as they have a large group of staff to draw on to develop committees and sub-committees.

Maureen:  Partner with community hospitals for health fairs.   This could be a good outreach event to acquire more volunteers.  

Contact schools for youth volunteers.
JD:  Some volunteers don’t work with youth because of length of time to complete a project.

RJ:  Worked with MEVO, Mahwah high school group.  Could with a teacher at high school; however transportation becomes an issue with youth.

EG:  Novices get experience, but not a lot of work gets done.

Megan:  secondary mission would be to encourage membership and donations.  

GW:  Events that could be advertised:  Hike on new trails, re-locations and refurbished trails.  Advertise as public hikes.  

JD:  We need logo goods that say “I am a member…..” which show support.

Maureen:  DSH can be used to interest a reporter in what we do, gives us free media coverage.

EG:  Maintain/create a list of all news outlets – we could get placed once a week in some paper, with press releases, or a reporter comes out.  Can also send photo and caption to a newspaper just to get mention of our work.  

Megan: we should be more pro-active with media articles.
She noted   HOTW doesn’t feature us prominently – we should definitely be an important part of the articles.  

Maureen:  suggestions:   send photo and caption of new trail work to local newspapers. The point is to raise awareness, to document that work is being done or is done.  Don’t need a reporter for every event.

JD:  need ‘how to’ notes for those doing projects, put a template on the web, so trail openings or work trips can be publicized.  All Chairs/Supervisors should be made aware of this to use the opportunity to promote Trail Conference.  

RJ:  Perhaps have a coupon as part of an insert or notice and give something away with membership:  map, book…

Megan: All awards/recognition/photos should also be a press release in a local paper.  Should just send to the paper, no concern for report contact.

KM:  Start small, use a template on the web.  Try to find a few people to do this at first.

Thanks to Maureen and Megan for attending and providing many valuable comments.


Next:  GW about something special in Trail Walker in March/April issue which would cover National Volunteer Week at the end of April.

RJ:  suggests a ‘roll call’ with listing volunteers and years of service.  Essay of various jobs, both on and off trail and some photos.  
Use space to thank all volunteers, report what volunteers are doing and use as a tool to recruit new volunteers.    Can mention how many hours volunteers contribute, and why hours are important.  

DVE:  List of names and years, even though it would be partial.   He will write an essay  “How You Can Help” to go with this.

If not an insert, than large headline on one page.

GW: said this is the issue with the Annual Report, so we have to discuss further as to what we want exactly, and review with her to determine what can be done.  She suggested a center spread in Mar/April issue.

GW:  in each issue, list of new volunteers.  

Here’s the gist of what we decided, but certainly needs to be defined and presented to GW.
    How You Can Help
    Photo’s and captions
    List of volunteers
    Letter of thanks to all volunteers.


    





CG:  discussion of Volunteer Committee objectives.
    Our three year goal was okayed by Board of Directors

    Vacancy rate should be 9.3% or lower for volunteer positions.  

    By end of April 2011 we should define minimum training requirements.
    One year review TM101, construction courses, etc.
    Trails should be a 3 year rotation on these requirements.

    By end of October should be tracking volunteer interest.  

RJ:  Bandana for trail crew has been okayed, has been shown to Trails Council.  Agreed that bandana should be handed to a crew member after
their second work trip.

With our budget money in good shape for 2011, we are able to purchase tote bags for the 5 year volunteers.   They will be mailed out with a thank you letter.   

We also can go ahead with fleece vests or jackets for 25 year volunteers
Some of which can be handed at a Delegates Meeting in Feb or June, or even at the Annual Meeting.  

EA will confirm current pricing of these items.

Our next meeting will be November 28, 2010 at 1 p.m.

By: Estelle Anderson 10/23/10