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Darke County Volunteer Network to Meet
March 31st
With additional budget cuts looming and more area residents needing
help from social service agencies, Darke County nonprofit organizations
are finding themselves relying more than ever on volunteers to help
make those services available. For a nonprofit organization that
has few, if any, paid staff members, managing the efforts of volunteers
can be a difficult task.
Because of this growing need, local nonprofit leaders have come
together to form the Darke County Volunteer Network. The group is
focused on providing professional development opportunities for
volunteer administrators. The first meeting of 2011 will be held
on March 31 from 12 to 1 p.m. at State of the Heart Hospice in
Greenville. Speaker Marty O’Dell, a resident of Laura, will share
ideas for increasing professionalism in the field of volunteer program
management. Marty earned her Certified Volunteer Administrator
accreditation and serves as volunteer program administrator for
Goodwill Easter Seals of the Miami Valley. She is also president
of the Miami Valley Association of Volunteer Administrators.
Anyone who manages volunteer efforts for an area nonprofit organization
is welcome to attend, and participation in the group is free of
charge. Attendees are also invited to bring their brown bag lunch
and eat during the meeting.
“More and more people want to volunteer their time with nonprofit
organizations in our area, but sometimes we have to be creative when we
are looking for a match between what our agency needs from volunteers
and what volunteers are offering to help us with,” says Sherry Baker,
HandsOn West Central Ohio Volunteer Coordinator for Council on Rural
Services. “This group will provide some great ideas for how we
can professionalize our work, and ultimately that will help us find
better ways to work hand-in-hand with volunteers to meet so many
community needs.”
Spearheading the Darke County Volunteer Network are leaders from Darke
County United Way, the Darke County Chapter of the American Red Cross,
HandsOn West Central Ohio and State of the Heart Hospice. To
learn more about this group or to reserve your space at the group’s
next meeting, contact Sherry Baker at (937) 548-8002, ext. 211, or sbaker@councilonruralservices.org.
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