The Meaning Behind the Passion:
About My Interest in Volunteer Leadership Development

Why I'm Interested

Volunteer leaders in the community are expected to have the tact of a career diplomat, the business sense of a CEO of a Fortune 500 corporation, and vision of a prophet.

Just one problem: we usually start the job with little or no experience. In fact, many of us take community leadership positions to build this type of experience.

But the community expects people to develop leadership skills by osmosis. Although some resources exist, few people know about them and even fewer take advantage. Worse, too many organizations do not see developing leadership skills as one of their responsibilities, even though volunteers spend far too much time in poorly run meetings, organizations waste too much money from inexperienced volunteers planning budgets.

When they do see the need, they often provide training for experienced leaders without making sure that participants have mastered basic skills, like managing meetings, budgeting, filing reports, and managing volunteers. Leaders of these programs say that participants would be insulted by this.

I've found the opposite: most eligible participants would appreciate these types of skills. I've led a variety of community organizations--religious, arts, civic, and professional. And I've participated in community leadership training programs. And I provide this website as a means of providing information about the skills that others would like to overlook.

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How I Hope to Make a Difference

• Publish a comprehensive training program that supports community members in the transition from an initial volunteer to community-wide leadership roles
• Create opportunities for volunteers at all levels of experience to develop their skills
• Create resources to train people in a variety of common volunteer positions, and to provide them with ongoing support in the job
• Connect volunteer leaders with other volunteer leaders, so they might share one anothers' experience
• Work with staff and executive volunteer leadership to increase training and support for volunteers

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What I've Accomplished Already

• Mentored prospective volunteer leaders
• Developed a comprehensive curriculum and additional support materials for a training program that supports community members in the transition from an initial volunteer to community-wide leadership roles (still looking for a sponsor and publisher).
• Developed a conference for OutFront Minnesota that trains and motivates community volunteers.
• Coordinated programs for a business leadership program in Atlanta.

Saul Carliner
Visit my website.
Contact me.

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