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Presented By:
George Kingman, DILR, Duke University
Lester Berkowitz, Academy for Lifelong Learning, Carnegie Mellon University
Anne Erfle, Renaissance, College of Notre Dame
Curt Spear, Lifelong Learning Society, Christopher Newport University
(Moderator)
How do you develop a good “working” member was the questions
participants dealt with in this workshop. They learned how to encourage
participation on committees to build interest in closer “belonging.”
They also looked at ways to encourage “mentors” to work with
new members.
Please contact presenters for more detailed information.
Lester Berkowitz, Academy for Lifelong Learning, Carnegie Mellon
University
The Academy for Lifelong Learning at Carnegie Mellon, A.L.L., was founded
eleven years ago. It now has almost 900 members and a waiting list of
about 600 individuals who want to become members of our organization.
It takes a lot of work to run an organization that large – to find
study leaders and develop curricula; prepare course catalogs; register
and assign members to study groups; establish and maintain our data bases;
find class rooms; lead study groups; plan and conduct special events;
publish our newsletter; mail course catalogs, registrations forms, newsletters
and special event flyers; deposit checks, pay our bills and keep our books;
and staff our reception desk.
A.L.L. does it all with volunteers, about 15-20 percent of our members.
We have only one paid employee, our administrative director, who can’t
do it all by himself, who manages our offices and classrooms and helps
our officers, committee chairs, board and volunteers in every way he can.
For us, finding and training volunteers is therefore critically important.
Without them, our membership dues and registration fees would have to
be much higher than they are.
We do many things to find volunteers. We let new members know, at orientation
meetings, of our need for volunteers. We publish announcements of specific
needs in our newsletter. We make requests for volunteers at special events
and meetings, and in our classrooms. And we include notes of needs in
our course catalogs. These approaches help and we will continue to use
them. But they are not the best way to find volunteers. We believe that
the best approach is the personal approach.
This approach involves giving our officers, board members, and committee
chairs the responsibility for getting to know our members, their interests
and abilities, letting them know how much personal satisfaction they can
get out of being a volunteer, letting them know that there are fellow
members who will help them lean how to do the work that has to be done,
and signing them up. In this approach, we regard our members as resources
to be developed, a farm system, and our officers, board members and committee
chairs as scouts and coaches. It works for us. Try it. You’ll like
it.
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September 7, 2008
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