Growing A Role: Volunteer Coordinator

February 15, 2024 0 Comments

Dian Kahn

What is more important for a volunteer organization than being the coordinator of all the volunteers? I still remember when Kathie O’Connor came to her very first CVRAN meeting at Trinity Church, and offered to take over this vital role at her very first meeting. Taking on this role meant building on the foundations that Dian Kahn, her predecessor, had established. There were policy issues such as how to deal with background checks, questionnaires about volunteer interests to streamline, and experiments in how to organize a database for all this vital information.

Kathie O’Connor

Luckily Kathie came on board at the same time as there was a major effort to automate the pass through of digitized information from the website. Kathie recruited Mairead Harris and Laura Barnes to help work on these issues, and also to join more of us on a website committee. Gradually there were improvements in how the treasurer got the information uploaded from the website, how the March Arts Marathon data was managed, and how the sign-up information for each volunteer could be put into a table. Ben Witte, our website programmer, was indispensable in this process, redesigning the website to a new standard. Perhaps you have tried it out; sign up to be a volunteer and see how sleek the system is.

These days, using that database, Kathie can quickly find who, for example, speaks French, who wants to work with children, who wants to tutor math. When a team leader needs to find a person for a particular task, Kathie can call a person from the list, or send out a message on the email list, “Looking for a ride…” Most of us know Kathie, as she has made a point of coming to any of our public meetings to get to know people, and she exchanges emails with everyone who signs up.

Liza Earle-Centers

After streamlining the work of volunteer coordinator, Kathie is ready to move on to other parts of our organization. With no volunteer stepping up to fill her big shoes, the board agreed to hire this task out. Liza Earle-Centers, our current Coordinator of Spanish-speaking Services, will take on several extra hours a week to cover this important role for awhile. Liza is very well-qualified for this position herself, having been a coordinator of volunteers in her previous job, and being very facile in technology. She is warm, appreciative, and good at connecting people.

Please welcome Liza to this new position. Her contact email will be cvran.volunteers@gmail.com. Contact her during normal work hours, but allow a little time for turn-around since Liza will only be doing this work for a few hours a week. And, as always, the website is the right place to go to sign up!

In the fall, we will be looking for another person to fill this position, either volunteer or paid. Might you be interested???