Community Volunteer Network: New Leaders & Spring Events

CVN Chair's Report It's been almost a year since I took over the role of Chairperson and it's been a truly great year. Working with a dedicated group of volunteers, meeting fellow community leaders, and inspiring others to take on greater leadership roles within CVN have strengthened my bond to Arlington and those we serve. Though my term as Chairperson is coming to an end, it is with great pleasure that I announce CVN's new Leadership Team: Meredith Meade, Chairperson Kim Lamon-Loperfido, Social Chair Macy Jenkins, Communications Chair Brynn Slate, Recurring Volunteering Chair 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!
	Find us on the web
	Community Calendar
	Community Story Swapping Event - Saturday, April 2nd, more details AFAC "Hunger is No Joke" Benefit - Saturday, April 2nd, more details Committee of 100 - Wednesday, April 13th, more details Greater DC Cares Servathon - Friday & Saturday, April 15th and 16th, more details Check out CVN's calendar or browse other volunteering opportunities in Arlington.
Upcoming CVN Events
"Stuff the Van, Score for AFAC" Food Drive - Saturday, April 2nd, 10:00 a.m. - noon; noon - 2 p.m. | CVN volunteers will be passing out information on AFAC and collecting donations at the Whole Foods in Clarendon. Find out more, RSVP: Food Drive Sign Up ATS Schoolyard Garden - Sunday, April 10th, 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. | Lend a hand with the monthly crew of CVN volunteers for our second season helping out in the garden at Arlington Traditional School. Find out more, RSVP: Garden Sign Up April Monthly Meetup @ Rock Bottom Brewery (Ballston) - Tuesday, April 12th, 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. | Join CVN at Rock Bottom Brewery to learn more about our upcoming events and meet fellow volunteers. Find out more, RSVP: CVN Facebook Invite Arlington Community Foundation Platinum Ball - Saturday, April 16th, 5:30 p.m. - 11:30 p.m. | CVN will assist by working the registration table, hosting the green room, selling raffle tickets and assisting with the live bidding, and with prize distribution. This event will require a lot of direct interaction with guests and volunteers should have an outgoing demeanor. Find out more, RSVP: ACF Gala Sign Up Plants & Pitchers -- Gulf Branch Nature Center Cleanup - Saturday, May 8th, 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. | CVN will be removing invasive plants from our adopted area at the Gulf Branch Nature Center. Our efforts will aid in the steady recovery and return of healthy trees, wildflowers, and wildlife to the area. Afterwards we will head to a restaurant for a happy hour. Find out more, RSVP: Gulf Branch Sign Up

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!

Click here to apply: Application form
Application deadline: November 30, 2010

--
Tiffany Kudravetz, CVN Chair
http://www.arlingtonva.us/cvn

Being a Community Leader

There are, no doubt, many different reasons why young adults decide to become involved with the Community Volunteer Network (CVN). Some may want to meet new people, develop new friendships, volunteer with a like-minded group, or just give something back. A central commonality, though, is a commitment, conscious or not, to serving one’s community. It’s this community service that drives CVN volunteers to give up their evenings after work and their precious weekend hours to make a difference in Arlington in a shared vision for a brighter tomorrow.

Part of CVN’s mission is to cultivate community leaders—individuals who understand the needs of their community and actively work to address them. Thus, the opportunity to work with volunteers to identify their talents and discover ways in which these can be used to improve the community, is essential to CVN’s continued community relevance.

On Tuesday, July 27 from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm, CVN is offering its volunteers an opportunity to discover the new ways in which they can positively impact their community. CVN’s Volunteer Leader Training will engage volunteers in a discussion about CVN’s current efforts within the community, how volunteers can take on new roles to support these efforts, and how these efforts can be expanded to better utilize the talented community leaders currently serving as CVN volunteers.

If you would like to take the next step toward becoming a community leader, come out to the Volunteer Leader Training. You can sign-up at http://bit.ly/2010CVNLeaders or email any questions to cvn.m.volunteering@gmail.com.

I hope to see you there!

Sincerely,

Kellen

__

Kellen MacBeth

Monthly Volunteer Chair

Announcing CVN's New Chair!

I am pleased to inform you that we have a new Chair for CVN, Tiffany Kudravetz, who will be taking over for Brendan O'Connor later this month. If you haven't met her yet, hopefully you will be able to attend the May Monthly Meetup on Tuesday, May 11th at Northside Social in Clarendon.

Before I tell you more about Tiffany, I would like to take a minute to acknowledge the great leadership that Brendan O'Connor has brought to CVN. Last month, Brendan was recognized with an Outstanding Volunteer Award by the Arlington County Board. He earned that honor through consistent dedication as well as visionary leadership. It was the day in / day out hard work that Brendan contributed which led to CVN's growth over the last 16 months. When Brendan moves to Tennessee this summer to pursue his graduate degree at Vanderbilt, Arlington will lose one of its most engaged citizens. When you see Brendan next (perhaps at the May Meetup), please share your best wishes.

And now... introducing our new Chair, Tiffany Kudravetz.

Tiffany has been involved with CVN for two years in several different capacities. She describes CVN as a "fun and meaningful" part of her life. As an activity leader, she led the OAR Wrapping Party, Family Ice Skate Night, and Spring Dance volunteer opportunities. She is currently a member of the Monthly Volunteering Committee as well as being on the Arlington County Fair Board. Anyone who has met Tiffany knows that she is enthusiastic about volunteering and has a positive influence on everyone around her. She has been volunteering for many different organizations and has taken on leadership roles in volunteer organizations at the University of Virginia and beyond. We think her experience and enthusiasm will be very valuable in furthering CVN's mission.

I hope you will welcome Tiffany on board. Currently Brendan and I are working with her to orient her to the Chair role so that she can be on board by May 16th. During this time of transition, if you have an idea for CVN, you can send it to cvn.admin@gmail.com.

Hope to see you out at an event soon!

Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom

Arlington County Liaison
Community Volunteer Network
(703) 228-1197
www.arlingtonva.us/cvn

CVN Chair Recruitment

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 basics: We're looking for a new Chair for the Community Volunteer Network (CVN). Brendan O'Connor will be finishing his time as Chair between May 1st and May 15th, though a new Chair could come on somewhat later if necessary.  Qualifications: We are looking for someone who buys into the larger goal behind CVN of building a community of civic-minded 20-30 somethings in Arlington that are engaged with the community through service and other means. Though all candidates will be considered, it could help your chances if you've been involved with CVN for a year or more and if you are interested in the current direction of CVN--this includes our recent expansion into a committee structure, our development of a Recurring Volunteering Committee and related set of events, our development of a Communications Committee and blog, and other recent initiatives. However, candidates should also have a strong work ethic, an innovative spirit, and a readiness to offer new ideas to develop initiatives and improve how CVN's goals are met. Experience in leadership roles and volunteering are important qualifications as well. More generally, take a look at this basic overview of leadership qualities to get a sense of some other important qualities we'll be looking for, including characteristics like integrity, assertiveness and a sense of humor.  Where is CVN headed and how does it work? The CVN Leadership Team (LT) meets once monthly and each of the four other members--Communications Chair, Monthly Volunteering Chair, Recurring Volunteering Chair, and Social Chair--oversee a committee of two to six additional volunteers. CVN hosts one to three one-time volunteer events a month, and we are in the process of growing from two recurring volunteer events to three or four. We also focus on creating a community around service, as noted above--this involves connecting folks socially through our monthly happy hours and other social initiatives, along with getting them involved in the larger Arlington community through community education and other opportunities, such as the Committee of 100.  Position details: The Chair position currently requires between 5-10 hours a week on average, though this may average closer to five as our new committee structure further develops and more folks get involved. In addition to the goals and duties below, this has involved overseeing, encouraging and collaborating with our four-person LT, as well as with Volunteer Arlington's County Liaison. The goals and duties below may change as our LT structure further solidifies, but the following constitute the primary thrust of the position:

CVN Monthly Update, Jan. 2010: New LT, New Year

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,  Hello, hello. I hope you're all well. The last month has been a full one for everyone, with holidays and the new year, and the same goes for CVN: We pulled in a new Leadership Team (LT) for CVN and kicked things off last weekend with our annual LT retreat. We've also started bringing on a crucial second layer of leaders we're calling "Committee Leads"--still looking for at least one more for our Recurring Volunteering Committee (contact Meredith if interested) and three more for our Monthly Volunteering Committee (contact Kellen if interested); There was a great event at the end of Dec. where CVNers served dinner at the Ronald McDonald House; At the beginning of the year, we brought old and new CVN leaders together, along with Walter Tejada, Judy Hadden and others who helped start CVN 5 years ago, for a CVN LT Transition Dinner;  And we just helped out with Kindergarten Information Night this week for parents thinking about putting their kids in Arlington schools.

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, Nov. 2009: More than 50 of You at Community Residences!

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, Happy almost-Thanksgiving! With Thanksgiving this week and the end of the year around the corner, and we just want to give everyone our quick monthly heads-up on upcoming events. Before doing that though, a few quick notes. First, many thanks to everyone who came to help out with our Race Against the Odds event, and to the big crowd that came out for our annual Community Residences event--50 of you came out to support us for that, making for out biggest event of the year! Check out some great pictures of it on Flicker here (and a special shout-out to Vin Menon for coming up with the most inventive way to collect leaves--take a look here, then here). Also, we have a number of folks who filled out our online form to show interest in leadership positions with CVN--if you weren't able to, we'll take names until the end of this week here.  If you did let us know you were interested: first, thanks, we appreciate the support; otherwise, we will plan to be in touch shortly if we haven't already. We won't be able to place everyone in the position they're interested in, but we will definitely get you involved in some way or another if interested! CVN EVENTS:

CVN Update and Leadership Transition Info.

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, With 2010 not far off, and some helpful survey results recently in, we, the volunteer leaders of Community Volunteer Network (CVN) have some news to share. First, we'd like to explain a few basic changes coming up for CVN. Second, we have some CVN leaders transitioning out, and want anyone reading this to consider getting involved--not just as a part of our Leadership Team, but also as a part of our newly-expanded committee structure (more details below). So, to take each of those in turn: To start with some upcoming changes, basically, we got some interesting survey results that said you guys are all for what we're doing now, but are interested in some new possibilities as well. Because we do want CVN to be an outgrowth of what, you, the larger group are interested in, we're going to try some new things as we start into 2010. The specifics of these new initiatives will be developed through collaboration with the new leaders we bring on, and we will provide more details as we go. The plans, generally speaking though, are to launch recurring volunteering, start a CVN blog (see possible types of posts here), involve more of you in leadership, and develop the social side of CVN a bit more. Over 50 of 87 respondents showed strong interest in each of the above ideas. Will they work though? We're not sure, there's no way of knowing. So, we are planning to approach these as experiments--ones that have significant potential, but nothing that we are wedded to; we're planning to solicit continued feedback on everything as we go too, so you can help keep us in check.   Now, for Leadership Team and committee information. It's basically become apparent, as noted above, that there's much that can be done with CVN, and as is said, many hands make light work. SO, do you think you can help? Take a look here at a Google Doc with our Leadership Team "Chair" position openings and role descriptions, and here for our likely "Committee Lead" position descriptions. After taking a look at the position openings and descriptions above, click here to fill out a quick form letting us know: a) which roles you're interested in; and b) what experience and/or interests you bring to the table--please be sure to reply by Nov. 20th at the latest. Many thanks to Meredith Clayton, outgoing Social Chair, and Lisa Dorsey, outgoing Program Chair, as they gave a lot of their time and energy to help make this last year happen with CVN! We look forward to seeing everyone as we work through these next few months, and hope you will get involved if you're not, and stay involved if you are already. The basic concept behind CVN, of a driven group of people gathering together to address issues in their community is an important one, and we hope to keep after it as we head into the new year. All the best, Brendan PS - Please feel free to contact any of our current Leadership Team if you have questions on what is involved: Lisa Dorsey (CVN.program@gmail.com), Meredith Clayton (CVN.social@gmail.com), Jon Bunger (CVN.membership@gmail.com), and Brendan O'Connor (CVN.chair@gmail.com). You can also contact our CVN County Liaison, Sharon Tewksbury-Bloom, at (CVN.admin@gmail.com). -- Brendan O'Connor Community Volunteer Network (CVN) Chair

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).