| CVN Chair's Report
Though my term as Chairperson is coming to an end, it is with great pleasure that I announce CVN's new Leadership Team:
These ladies bring years of volunteer leadership and a deep commitment to community service to CVN. While I wish them the best of luck, I know they won't need it! As for me, I am excited to remain involved with CVN as our County Liaison. Though my role within our group will change, I am looking forward to helping CVN, its volunteers, and its leaders continue to thrive. As always, thank you for being a great group of volunteers! Tiffany P.S. Extra special thanks to Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom and Kellen MacBeth -- both are great role models and the best supporters one could hope for! |  |
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Saturday, March 26, 2011
Community Volunteer Network: New Leaders & Spring Events
Monday, January 17, 2011
Volunteer Leader Opportunity
Over the past year, I have had the pleasure to serve as CVN’s Monthly Volunteer Committee (MVC) Chair overseeing our one-time volunteer events. I would like to share my experience with you in the hope that you might decide to get involved with the Monthly Volunteering Committee as a Lead or as the new Monthly Volunteer Chair.
I came into this position hoping to learn more about Arlington County, gain real experience planning and executing volunteer events, and to meet lots of interesting and kind people. Luckily, I was able to do all of these things.
Learning about Arlington – As MVC, I was able to interact with dozens of non-profits serving the Arlington community. Each time I communicated with these non-profit leaders or attended a volunteer event, I was able to learn about the work that they do and how they address a particular need in Arlington. For instance, I started the position thinking that homelessness was a D.C. problem that didn’t really affect Arlington. Through working with the Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network (A-SPAN), I learned that there are many Arlingtonians in need of a home and was able to provide help: whether through direct service at the Emergency Winter Shelter or by helping raise money at A-SPAN’s annual fundraising gala. I also learned about gang prevention activities, enrichment activities for individuals with disabilities,
Volunteer event planning – Before serving as MVC, I had little experience planning volunteer events and my level of confidence in this area was shaky at best. However, with help from the rest of the CVN leadership team, I was able to quickly learn best practices for planning and executing volunteer events which eventually enabled me to help train other volunteer leaders. I feel very confident now in my ability to manage large groups of volunteers in sometimes challenging and stressful situations. CVN does a great job giving new leaders the support and help they need to rise to the occasion and help empower new leaders.
Meeting great people – Lastly, although I am stepping down from a leadership team position for the time being, I am very grateful to have met and worked with such a great cohort of individuals both on the leadership team and the Monthly Volunteering Committee. Additionally, I was able to meet and get to know so many kind and thoughtful people at meet-ups and volunteer events. CVN is made up of so many inspiring people who give up their time to make a difference and I am so glad I had the opportunity to work along side them.
If you have read this far, I really encourage you to consider getting involved in CVN’s monthly volunteer events as a leader; whether as the Monthly Volunteer Chair for 2011, a member of the Monthly Volunteering Committee, or as the leader for a volunteer event of interest to you. There are so many exciting possibilities within CVN to make a difference, learn about your community, gain real experience, and meet awesome people and I hope you will take advantage of them.
If you have any questions or would like to get more involved, please email cvn.m.volunteering@gmail.com or come to a meet-up and talk to a leadership team member.
Sincerely,
Kellen MacBeth
Former Monthly Volunteer Chair
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
CVN is Looking for New Leaders!
Around this time last year, we received an email from Brendan O'Connor, CVN's former Chair, talking about big changes in CVN's structure. At that time, committees were a new concept for CVN, but they were created with the belief that "many hands make light work." A year later, we can safely say that CVN is thriving and that each committee plays a vital role in our group's success.As Brendan did last year, I am now reaching out to all of you to consider serving as leaders for CVN. We are currently accepting applications for our Leadership Team (Social Chair, Communications Chair, and Monthly Volunteering Chair) and for each of our committees. Some of the positions are relatively small and require just a few hours of work per month. Others carry more responsibility and a greater time commitment. Details on the open positions are here: Leadership Team, Committee Leads.
If you have any questions about these roles with CVN, please let me know. I can be reached anytime at cvn.chair@gmail.com. You can also meet everyone on the current Leadership Team at our November meet-up to hear about their experiences.
Finally, even if you are not interested in serving as a leader with the group, we're delighted to have you as a volunteer. There are of lot of events coming up and we look forward to seeing everyone soon!
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Tiffany Kudravetz, CVN Chair
http://www.arlingtonva.us/cvn
