Providing Guidelines for Inexperienced Volunteers
from The Corporation for National & Community Service
Some volunteers may have little experience in the professional world and giving them basic standards to follow increases the likelihood of successful volunteer service at their site. This effective practice, shared by by Jeff Woods, JUMP Coordinator, Sonoma State University in October 2002, offers guidelines that were developed by the City of Service Consortium Higher Education Service-Learning project and were originally distributed on the HE-SL (service-learning) e-mail discussion list hosted by the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse. More

Cultivation and Critique: Employee/Volunteer Relations
from A Roadmap to Volunteer Systems via Energize
Assume you have hired a great match to fill a position at your organization. What can you now do to ensure success? Many times, failure in both staff and volunteer management happens in the area of communication about expectations. What measurement programs do you have that speak to the growth and evaluation of employees and volunteers? What systems do you have to help understand current abilities in necessary competencies, and how can staff build on them? More

VSys One is loaded with features that will save you time. Consolidates all of your data in one tool. Quick and easy communication tools right from within VSys – even e-mail. Advanced scheduling: create the job, find the volunteer, send their schedule, all in one place. Web registration lets your volunteers sign up from anywhere. Click here to learn more.

Avoiding a Spam Complaint Meltdown
from The NonProfit Times
The current state of email deliverability is one of increasing complexity. Successfully delivering messages to supporters’ inboxes is no longer a simple matter of just pressing the “send” key. There are numerous factors that can trigger email delivery barriers and significantly diminish your organization’s efforts to effectively communicate with constituents. More

Greening Home Accents
from Gift Shop Magazine
It is a truth well known in retail: When form and function are married together well in a product, it sells well. When it comes to green products, there is even an added bonus: the feel-good factor of doing right by the environment. But not long ago, products made from recycled elements were somewhat lagging in the form department. More

10 Steps to Effective Copywriting
from Entrepreneur
Whether you're a small-business owner, a medium-size business owner, an eBay seller, or simply trying to break into the copywriting industry, understanding the fundamentals of writing sales-oriented copy and put you on a path to success. At its core, copywriting is another device in a business' marketing toolbox. Well-written copy can make or break an ad or marketing piece. With that in mind, copywriting can equate to either well-spent advertising investments or a waste of advertising dollars. More

Make Sure Your Employees Trust You – Or Else
from Forbes
How do you keep people trusting you at a time like this? Trust is essential in our lives, and it has been since the beginning of our country. Yet today trust is all but vanishing, especially trust in our business leaders, whose greed and short-term selfishness seem to have been a major cause of our economic crisis. With negativity running amok, it is no small wonder that trust within the organizational context is slipping. Yet that need not be the case. More

2009 AHVRP Annual Conference Distinguishing Our Profession, Discovering Our Spirit Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa Phoenix, AZ August 27-30, 2009 Website: www.todaysvolunteer.org

Seven Tips for Difficult Conversations
from Harvard Business Online via BusinessWeek
There are certain conversations all leaders dread: the ones in which we have to deliver bad news, discuss a sensitive or "political" subject, or talk about a project or meeting that's gone wrong. The mere thought of having these difficult conversations fills you with anxiety, and distracts you from other work. As tempting as it is, you don't want to just avoid the whole mess, either. You want to take charge and talk about it - effectively. But how? More