Announcing NEW Leaders With CVN

Below is our most recent email--please let us know any feedback. Also, if you aren't getting these in your inbox, sign up on the County site (be sure to check the box that you're interested in CVN and in receiving emails): http://tinyurl.com/CVN-register Dear CVN volunteer, The year is rapidly coming to a close and I am pleased to inform you that we have a dynamic group of new leaders that are eager to step up and take on new roles this coming year.  They each have unique experience which will be valuable to CVN and are enthusiastic to get started.  If you haven't met them yet, hopefully you will be able to attend the January Monthly Meetup on January 12th at Whitlows to hear what they have in mind for 2010. Before I announce the new leaders however, I want to make sure to thank each of our 2009 Leadership Team members individually.  Brendan O'Connor, who is staying on through April in his role of Chair, has given a phenomenal amount this year and done a great job taking ownership over the program and challenging us to do even more. Lisa Dorsey brought her organizing ability and energy to bear on the Program Chair role, organizing as many as four events a month!  Meredith Clayton helped us to transition from the 2008 team, and organized twelve Monthly Meetups all around Arlington.  Jon Bunger took on unique challenges this year such as the Logo contest and the new T-shirts in his role as Membership Chair, all while continuing the Cherrydale Health and Rehabilitation activity.  A big thank you to our 2009 CVN Leadership Team!  As well as a shout out to the Activity Leaders who made so many events possible this past year.  CVN has really grown and become more active than ever, thanks to each and every one of you and the dedication you bring to our group. And now... introducing our selections for new members of the Leadership Team for 2010: Kellen MacBeth, Monthly Volunteering Chair: Kellen is currently on an advisory board for the Arlington Partnership for Children, Youth, and Families.  He had a tremendous impact at his college, Marymount University, creating an organization called the Global Charity Project with a few friends.  He enjoys organizing and mobilizing committees.  He is already taking the lead on a volunteer project at the Ronald McDonald House at the end of the month.  We think his experience and enthusiasm will be very valuable. Meredith Meade, Recurring Volunteering Chair: Meredith has been very involved with CVN, a regular with the Cherrydale group, and present at our stakeholder meeting. Since Cherrydale is one of the two recurring volunteering events that we've done, her experience with that should really help us design what recurring volunteering will look like as we get it started.  She also has a background working with a nonprofit that did Community Development and experience coordinating people in various ways. Jourdan Clandening, Communications Chair: Jourdan is a familiar face with CVN, having helped us with the Summer Celebration and bringing in lots of great ideas for how we can improve our PR and marketing.  In Michigan Jourdan worked for the Housing authority and also served in a volunteer capacity with affordable housing issues.  She currently coaches Cheerleading munchkins.  Jourdan currently works in PR and marketing. Kelly Corbally, Social Chair: Kelly has been involved with CVN as an Activity Leader this year.  She is one of CVN's most active volunteers and is very committed to CVN.  She even attended the Stakeholder meeting after working all night the night before.  She currently volunteers with the Reading Connection and is involved in a choral group. Now that our new Chair positions are in place, we will begin to build the Lead positions and the committees.  If you expressed an interest in one of those positions you should be hearing from us before the new year. With these new leaders coming on board, you are sure to see more great ideas and new faces getting involved.  In January we will update the About CVN link on our website to include information about these new leaders and how to contact them.  In the meantime, if you have an idea for CVN, you can send it to cvn.admin@gmail.com.  Have a wonderful holiday, Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom Arlington County Liaison Community Volunteer Network (703) 228-1197 www.arlingtonva.us/cvn Follow me on Twitter Connect with Volunteer Arlington on Facebook

CVN Monthly Update, Aug. 2009: A New Look

Below is our most recent email--please let us know any feedback. Also, if you aren't getting these in your inbox, sign up on the County site (be sure to check the box that you're interested in CVN and in receiving emails): http://tinyurl.com/CVN-register Dear CVN volunteer, Before letting you know about some of what's coming up in the way of volunteering for August, we wanted to be sure to report back on Community Volunteer Network's new look... We unveiled the above during our Five-year Anniversary/Summer Celebration a few weeks ago (lots of good pictures from that here)--we're pretty excited about it. If you think it looks a bit like the past logo though, we'd forgive you, because it's actually just a change in colors. We went with it because the old logo got the most votes, by quite a bit, in our logo contest last month. Many thanks to everyone who submitted logo ideas though (we'll keep the slideshow up here for posterity), and to the over 125 people who voted as a part of the logo contest! Look for t-shirts soon... Thanks also to everyone that came out last month to volunteer events with Cherrydale Health and Rehabilitation, Arlington-Alexandria Coalition for the Homeless, and Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment--know you're helping make an impact in some important areas in the County (and send any volunteering pics to me by email). As we move into this last month of the Summer here though, we've got a few volunteer opportunities coming up, along with our monthly happy hour next week:

CVN Monthly Update, July 2009: CVN's Five-Year Anniversary / Summer Celebration

Below is our most recent email--please let us know any feedback. Also, if you aren't getting these in your inbox, sign up on the County site (be sure to check the box that you're interested in CVN and in receiving emails): http://tinyurl.com/CVN-register Dear CVN volunteer, We've been in touch several times over the last month, so we'll get right to the point here with some upcoming opportunities for July: CVN EVENTS: TimeSlips at Cherrydale - Sat, July 11th, 2-3 pm, Fri., July 24, 10:30-11:30 am, and on Sat, Aug 8, 2-3 pm:"TimeSlips" is a creative storytelling method that helps people with dementia connect with others. These volunteer events will recur at least a few more times.  Learn more and RSVP here. Round 2 at AACH - Wed., July 15, 6:30-8 pm: As a follow up to our spring visit to the Arlington Alexandria Coalition for the Homeless we will clean out and organize their storage sheds. Volunteers will go through AACH's two storage sheds weeding out broken or unusable goods and reorganizing all of the items that have accumulated since the beginning of the year.  Learn more and RSVP here. CVN's Five-Year Anniversary / Summer Celebration - Mon., July 20, 6:30-9:30 pm: We will be hosting our biggest event of the year at the Arlington Arts Center and we hope you will join us.  Scott Thuman of ABC/WJLA news will be our MC, Robert Egger, Founder and President of DC Central Kitchen will be speaking, and Arlington County Board Member and CVN Founder Walter Tejada will be recognizing five years of CVN.  The event is free, but we are asking instead for a food donation for the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC).  Also, Ireland's Four Courts is supplying a cash bar, with part of the proceeds going to AFAC. Please RSVP for the event on Facebook here, or via the Volunteer Arlington website here. ACE Pickup and Drinkup - Sat., July 25, 3-5 pm: CVN is partnering with Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment (ACE) for a Pickup and Drinkup. We'll start by cleaning up Four Mile Run and then travel a short distance to Shirlington around 5:00 pm to cool off with a few drinks. Learn more and RSVP here. OTHER INTERESTING OPPS:

A Look at CVN Logo Possibilities...

For any who weren't able to see all the great logo possibilities that were submitted and voted on in the Summer of '09, take a look:

CVN Monthly Update, Feb. 2009: The 2009 Leadership Team

Below is our most recent email--please let us know any feedback. Also, if you aren't getting these in your inbox, sign up on the County site (be sure to check the box that you're interested in CVN and in receiving emails): http://tinyurl.com/CVN-register Dear CVN volunteer, I'd like to extend a warm welcome into 2009 to all volunteers and potential volunteers from all of us on the new Leadership Team for the Community Volunteer Network (CVN), formerly Community Role Models. In our often transient age range, and in a fast-moving metro area like ours, it can be tough to learn about the history of your community, let alone the groups within it. CVN has grown from an idea for a mentoring program into a group so key that it was recognized nationally in 2008 for what it has now become: a civic-minded, social network of 20 and 30 somethings aimed at helping our community for the better through volunteering and civic engagement. As the new CVN Leadership Team, we hope to build upon the work of the team that came before us to lead and drive innovative efforts to actively engage Arlington young adults in their community. To this end, we need your help and encourage you to get more involved. Who knows, your own ideas for events or initiatives may just help us to further stretch the limits of volunteering and community engagement in Arlington.  So, with no further ado, allow me to introduce the new team: Meredith Clayton, Vice-Chair / Social Lead Jon Bunger, Membership Lead Lisa Acker Dorsey, Program Lead Tim Riley, Events Lead Brendan O'Connor, Chair We'd love to chat with you all in a non-electronic fashion, so we invite you to come out to the February Monthly Meetup in Ballston tomorrow at Pinzimini, from 7-9 pm (please note that this is a change from the original Union Jacks location, though we plan to head there in the next few months).

CVN Monthly Update, Dec. 2008: From CRM to CVN

Below is our most recent email--please let us know any feedback. Also, if you aren't getting these in your inbox, sign up on the County site (be sure to check the box that you're interested in CVN and in receiving emails): http://tinyurl.com/CVN-register

Dear CVN Volunteer, When our volunteer organization was first named Community Role Models back in 2005, we were still figuring out what exactly we wanted to be. Were we a mentoring organization? A volunteer organization? That year, we hosted just a handful of volunteer activities with only a few hundred people signed up. Today, we host dozens of volunteer projects and social events a year with over 1,600 people signed up. Thousands more get our updates through the What's Up Arlington newsletter. While we connect our members to mentoring organizations, we've evolved into a social network of young volunteers who get together for recurring activities, one-time events, and monthly meetups. So it's time for our name to evolve along with our organization. With the New Year, we'll have a new name – the Community Volunteer Network. We're just changing what we call ourselves, not what we do.  We look forward to more great events and opportunities from CVN in 2009! If you're heading home for the holidays, we wish you safe travels; if you're staying in town, here's a list of what's open and what's closed.  A few other quick Arlington updates: Watch Arlington County's 2008 in Review video There's a new smoke-free bar in Ballston The N. Quincy St recycling center is moving If you have any ideas for volunteer projects in 2009, please contact us! Looking forward to seeing you on January 6th at the Monthly Meetup at Busboys & Poets in Shirlington. Miles Grant Chair, Community Volunteer Network www.arlingtonva.us/cvn

AUGUST CRM UPDATE

Dear CRM volunteer,

Thanks again for completing the CRM online survey.  We are excited to be making some changes to Community Role Models this upcoming year.  First and foremost, we are planning a monthly update email (hence the name of this message).  Every month we will be sending out an email highlighting upcoming activities and events, as well as information on organizations and websites we think you will find interesting.

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CRM ACTIVITIES & EVENTS

We are taking a short breather right now, but starting in September we will be hosting monthly group volunteer activities, and every other month we will be hosting an informal speaker series at a local venue.  We do still need help with Outreach at the Buckingham Festival on Sunday, August 14^th.

 

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CRM VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

You can always visit the CRM Volunteer Opportunities page on the CRM website to see Arlington community volunteer opportunities that we think will peak your interest.  But a few to note in the coming weeks: 

Swing a Hammer for Fun and a Good Cause - Saturday, August 20th from 9-3

First Day Information Packet Night - Tuesday, September 6 from 6-9 PM

Lots of Great Opportunities with Arlington Public Schools

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GET IT DONE ONLINE

The Arlington County Volunteer Office recently launched a new component of its Online Volunteer Connection called Arlington BoardMatch.  This is a new way for folks to get involved in a leadership position with a local organization.  Boards are a big responsibility but a great way to truly influence a local organization.

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RANDOM NOTES

Arlington’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources has a new bi-weekly free email newsletter specifically for young adults (20s and 30s) called What’s Up Arlington? What’s Up Arlington highlights happenings in Arlington including great date ideas, sports, the arts, classes, fitness, petanque, badminton, disc golf, parks, and more…Arlington is full of interesting opportunities that perhaps you have missed because you don’t know what they are!   To subscribe, email elegg@arlingtonva.us, or call 703-228-1835.

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Dan Silverman, e-Update

CRM Steering Committee