Suggestion for next BOD - a Volunteer Committee

WGA Member Joined: 2007-11-26 Posts: 3259

Ok, this forum isn't a perfect fit for this because it's not really a question, but a suggestion to the entire board of directors (BOD) as it will be constituted after the election. I could move this, or cross-post it to the General section if necessary, but it seems to fit best here.

The BOD is the official governing body of the WGA, but it isn't well positioned to respond to all local issues because they are naturally limited by distance and time. Local cachers are well positioned to act locally and have proven to be more than willing to volunteer in geocaching-related endeavors, but could use guidance and support. I think we could come up with a better way of matching resources to opportunities.

Therefore, I would suggest the new BOD, whoever it will be, set up a Volunteer Committee. As far as I know, none exists, or at least there's no Leadership Forum for it. So create one, make it “official” and give it a spot on the forums.

Then, when local issue or event comes up, when a parks person wants to know who to call, when a community organization wants to learn about geocaching--there is a designated, local volunteer to at least contact to get the ball rolling. The biggest problem in getting things started seems to be determining who is best positioned geographically to handle the request. This would solve that, I believe.

If this idea has merit and is implemented, I would be happy to be on such a committee as a "local representative."

Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2010 9:47 pm

I do agree with you, that this is a good Idea. In years past, the BOD had attempted this, and was meet with very little support from the General Membership. Hopefully with the sport maturing, this will change, and more would be willing to help. Thank you Mike for Stepping up, and offering to help.

Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2010 10:04 pm

Indeed a great idea. It would work very well with the idea I posted in your outreach thread.

Re-posting here for reference:
We could organize a forum thread specifically for those seeking help with local community events/projects/working with land managers etc to come for getting help.

Your proposed volunteer committee could be 'responsible' for monitoring this "call for help" message board and bridging the gap between those in need and those that may be able to help.

It would be worth exploring this further to see if there is interest in forming a volunteer committee.

Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2010 10:18 pm

I also see how this idea has merit and is worthy of deliberating on when the BOD meets. As the general membership continues to grow and finds out that getting involved with the WGA involves more that hiding and seeking caches, the more advocacy we will have. If those in the know can help reach the general public about the benefits of the organization and the sport itself, we find ourselves in a win-win situation. If the government offices need a Point of Contact, even if it is just to get the question or concern to the BOD, the more willing they may be to open dialogue.

There are a lot of people out there that have skills that would be beneficial for the WGA to utilize if those individuals will volunteer.

Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2010 10:32 pm

I could see where this is beneficial to geocaching in general. As long as the WGA would have materials available for these "outreach" members to help explain geocaching.

I know from experience that working with local governments can be overwhelming. A boost in the right direction can go along way

Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 9:22 am

A proposed goal or "mission statement" of a newly formed volunteer committee might be: To monitor requests for local volunteers and solicit other WGA members to help/volunteer in their part of the state to assist with requests for WGA member assistance at the local level.

This is of course just a draft and would require input from many to exactly identify the proposed resulting committee.

In addition to watching a proposed general "I need help organizing..." message board area, the volunteering member of the committee could watch their local regional area's forum as well because calls for help come in there as well.

Also, if there was an "official" committee, general members would know who to contact if they are asked for help (like forwarding to the "level 2 support" if you've ever called for technical support on anything) or need help with something they would like to organize, present, teach or whatever.

The picnic and camp-out (and other official WGA events) could still be managed by event-specific committee's and would not necessarily be something the volunteer committee would be concerned with. Certainly anyone would be welcome to volunteer for either or both committees! Very Happy

I wanted to post this just to propose how this new committee 'could' interact with the other committees and to continue to help foster the idea a little more. It's definitely an idea worth discussing both on the open WGA forums as well as at the next BOD meeting (hoping I can be a part of both!)

Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:33 pm

Even without the formation of a commitee, a list of contacts by region or area would be a great benifit. While -cheeto-'s suggestion of a "I need help organizing..." forum would work for WGA members, a non-member would have to jump through a few hoops to get in touch with someone.

I think a simple list including email addresses is a bad idea. I would think it should be possible for a non-member to click a link and send a message to a local volunteer (ala PMs) without exposing the volunteer's email address. I don't know all of the functionality if the software for the website, so perhaps Jeremy could say if this is even possible.

Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 10:23 pm

I think you are on the right track here. We currently have a Community Education Committee, which is charged with both handling these "come put on a geocaching demonstration" requests and also dealing with parks departments, police departments, etc. I think this structure is too much for one committee and should be split. Additionally, for both groups, I think we need to actively recruit members for each region and make certain we have folks available to do presentations, as needed. Of course, that is easy to say, but not so easy to accomplish.

WGA Member Joined: 2007-11-26 Posts: 3259

Looking back, this topic should probably be moved to the "suggestion box" area. It's not really a question. Could the admin do this?

Team Deejay wrote:

We currently have a Community Education Committee, which is charged with both handling these "come put on a geocaching demonstration" requests and also dealing with parks departments, police departments, etc. I think this structure is too much for one committee and should be split.

This jogged my memory and I recall that I was asked to be on this committee, and when I look at the list of motions passed by the BOD last April, I see I am actually on it! Shocked

I had forgotten about this and have never been contacted to do anything, perhaps because there has been no need in my area. Volunteers apparently also do not have access to the Community Education forum, or at least I can't get in there.

So I guess although I understand the mission I'm not really sure what this committee does or whether my suggestion might be redundant.

Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 8:16 am

Moved this topic to the Suggestion Box forum at the request of gotta_run.

At one time the Board considered both maintaining a list of volunteer presenters by region, as well as creating an online system for submitting and tracking requests for presenters. I think I still have the preliminary designs for these two things sitting around somewhere.

However, at the time (2007?) it was felt that we didn't get enough requests to justify creating these tools, and handling these requests informally (via asking for help in the forums) would be OK. But it appears in some cases that this informal handling has not worked well and things have slipped through the cracks...

Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 9:10 am

Thanks Jeremy for moving this over as I think this thread will benefit greatly from open member discussion and idea sharing.

I agree with Dave (Team Deejay) that these 2 items could be separated and they could coexist and work together.

I believe the volunteer committee idea is mostly about the initial contact for help and getting together and organizing the volunteer help needed. It could address requests for: helping with community events, cleanups, invasive plant removal gatherings, mapping trails, group presence at non-wga events, etc. Any types of requests that WGA members would be a good "fit" to volunteer for.

The community education committee could focus on preparing both "generic" and "targetted" educational materials and presenting them (if that is needed). So for instance the educational committee could be in charge of the “geocaching basics” course at the cache bash that was put on last year by Jeremy and some other volunteers.

I also want to acknowledge Brian's (Team Black Cat's) idea regarding an external contact method for non-members as it is an excellent idea. Very Happy

To expand on that, I think the scope of this proposed "contact page" could be to both request "education" as well as "volunteers". Perhaps also give some ideas about the types of general community requests and education we've helped with in the past.

The key (as pointed out by gotta run and Jeremy) is that with any idea, if voted through by the BOD, we as a group need to try our best to make it succeed. Perhaps it would also help to clearly identify an "executive sponsor" on the Board to assist with (and ultimately be responsible for) getting a particular new committee up and running. (perhaps this was done with the creation of past committee's but if not, it might help get things underway).

Not every committee idea succeeds, however based on gotta run's initial observation regarding community outreach (missed opportunities, perhaps) and the many responses from prospective board members, the need may still be there for a group dedicated to handling requests for volunteers (as well as the already created educational committee effort to be 're-kindled').

Whether these 2 efforts get combined or not, I would like to see more emphasis on gathering volunteers to help at the local community level.

Again, I look forward to what other WGA members think about this idea and whether there is a need for this or were barking up the entirely wrong tree here.

-cheeto-

WGA Member Joined: 2007-11-26 Posts: 3259

Jeremy wrote:

At one time the Board considered both maintaining a list of volunteer presenters by region, as well as creating an online system for submitting and tracking requests for presenters. I think I still have the preliminary designs for these two things sitting around somewhere.

I guess I am not thinking of anything overly complicated here because the incidence of requests is not that great. In fact, I am basically envisioning a "list of people," so that when a question gets posted to the forums requesting help in Anytown, WI, we have a designated person handling Anytown who can be assigned the request, rather than waiting for someone to pick it up off the forums. I guess there is a question about how a request would get made and some diligence needed to identify these requests or potential opportunities.

Perhaps this could simply be an extension of what the Community Education committee already does and there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Outside its general mission, I'm not quite sure what the committee does, because, as I mentioned, even though I've apparently been on it for nearly a year, I've haven't been contacted about any needs (which may itself point to a lack of need for this whole idea!), and I don't have access to the committee forum. In other words, perhaps the limited resources of the association should not be spent on this effort if there is little need and, therefore, little opportunity for benefit or return.

Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 4:15 pm

To help you with this mission, I'd like to see a separate "Volunteer Opportunities" Topic that would appear perhaps after the General and Announcement Topics. That way, they'd at least be in one spot.