Association of Leaders in Volunteer Engagement
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Host Site Registration: Managing Risk: Balancing Aversion and Innovation Volunteer Manager's Hybrid Conference October 20 & 21, 2020
10/20/2020 - 10/21/2020

Event Description
AL!VE – Better Impact – VMPC present
The Volunteer Management Hybrid Conference
 
Given the uncertainty created by the current pandemic, we are already making backup plans. Obviously we are hopeful that this won’t be necessary in late October but we want you to know we will be prepared either way.
 
Your first option if the avoidance of group gatherings is still being recommended will be for a full refund. Your second option will be to participate in a version of this conference without the need to gather in a room together. You would however, get your own local virtual room where your booked attendees can gather together for group discussions across the whole room or individual “tables”.
 
Although the cost to us will be substantially higher to run it this way, your fee to AL!VE or VMPC will remain the same.


‘Managing Risk:  Balancing Aversion and Innovation’
Tuesday, October 20 –
9:30 AM - 3:30 PM Pacific 
9:30 - 4:30 PM Mountain Standard time zones
8:30-2:30 PM Mountain Daylight Time
Wednesday, October 21
10:30 AM - 4:30 PM Atlantic
9:30 AM - 3:30 PM , Eastern
8:30 AM -2:30 PM Central time zones
 
'Managing Risk:  Balancing Aversion and Innovation' is the volunteer management conference presented by AL!VE, Better Impact, and VMPC (Volunteer Management Professionals of Canada).  Now in its sixth year, this year's topic will explore how balancing aversion and innovation to risk impacts our volunteers, programs and agencies, now and in the near and far futures.  Our current streaming event will consist of four 20 minute presentations, followed by a moderated discussion with the other presenters (think Ted talk meets late night tv), including responding to questions from the audience.

The broadcast will be streamed live to more than 50 remote locations in the United States and Canada, with the likelihood of an audience of 1000 or more.  One of the goals of this event is to provide quality, high level professional development events in local areas where access and resources may be limited to local associations of volunteer engagement professionals, volunteer centers, or other entities with an interest in professional development for those who engage volunteers.

Our presentation team for this year: 

Faiza Venzant, CVA – Host and Moderator
 
From a very young age, Faiza Venzant’s parents instilled a strong sense of volunteerism in herself and her two older brothers. They, as immigrants to Canada from Uganda in the early 70s, made a successful transition into Canadian life with the help of many kind and generous volunteers. A volunteer herself from a very young age, Faiza has successfully managed volunteers at the Aga Khan Foundation Canada, Youth Employment Service, the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and Surrey Place Centre. She is currently General Manager, Volunteer Development at the YMCA of Greater Toronto.  Faiza holds her CVA and CVRM certifications in the field of volunteer engagement.

About Faiza
Faiza is also an active member and volunteer of the Toronto Association for Volunteer Administrators and Professional Association of Volunteer Leaders – Ontario (PAVR-O) where she has twice received the President’s Award (2010 and 2012) in recognition of her volunteer contributions and where she also received the Linda Buchanan Award for Volunteer Administration (2013). She is Board Member with the Council for Certification on Volunteer Administration and is a member of the Steering Committee for International Volunteer Manager’s Day:
In 2018, Faiza published her first children’s book entitled, My Mamma Wants to Eat Me Up!  As a mother of two young boys, she has not actually eaten any of her children up.
 


Lindsay Baker, CVA
Taking Smart Risks and Piloting Innovation
 
In our desire to manage risk, we sometimes hesitate to develop new programs, explore alternative ways of engagement, or adapt to trends in the field. But what might happen if we don’t risk innovation in our volunteer programs?  In this session, we will explore the delicate balance between risk and opportunity. Discover how to manage risk, test new ideas, and introduce fresh approaches through pilot projects designed to help you transform your program. Learn a proven step-by-step process to pitch your pilot, get staff on board, and evaluate its success. Find out how “failure” leads to success and why stepping outside of your comfort zone is always worth the risk.

About Lindsay:  
Lindsay Baker, CVA
Lindsay Baker is a leader, coach and trainer who is passionate about lifelong learning and always game to try something new. She has been leading volunteer teams for more than 20 years in a variety of settings. She is currently the Manager of Volunteer Services for the Ocean Wise Conservation Association at the Vancouver Aquarium.
Prior this role, she coordinated volunteers for 2010 Olympic-related events in Richmond and led Volunteer Richmond’s volunteer management training programs. Lindsay is President of the Volunteer Management Professionals of Canada (VMPC) and an instructor for the virtual Volunteer Management Certificate Program at Conestoga College.
Lindsay holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, a diploma in Public Relations and is certified in volunteer administration (CVA). Most recently, she completed Co-Active coach training and was the 2017 recipient of the Impact Award for Exemplary Leadership of Volunteers awarded by the Administrators of Volunteer Resources BC. 

 
Jennifer Bennett, CVA: 
Is Soft Risk Hiding in Your Volunteer Engagement Strategy?

This session is designed to help attendees identify soft risks in their organization and give them the tools to make the necessary changes to their organization's volunteer engagement process and their culture of volunteer engagement, and to mitigate these risks.

About Jennifer:
Jennifer joined VolunteerMatch to formalize and manage the organization's volunteer engagement program. With her breadth of experience, she is well qualified to help VolunteerMatch's community of nonprofits better recruit and engage volunteers. She shares her knowledge with volunteer managers through the webinars found on the Learning Center, in newsletters and blog entries, and in person at conferences around the country. 
She contributed The New Volunteer Manager's Toolkit chapter for Volunteer Engagement 2.0: Ideas and Insights that are Changing the World published by VolunteerMatch in 2015. And, she is the current Co-Editor and contributing author for the 4th Edition of Volunteer Administration: Professional Practice. She's a strong believer in the importance of engaging volunteers in meaningful work and was Certified in Volunteer Administration in 2009. She served on the Board for the Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration from 2012-2018, and was the Chair from 2015-2018. 
She currently volunteers with the Justice & Diversity Center and Project Homeless Connect in San Francisco. She holds a B.A. from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, VA. 

Lori Gotlieb
Safe and Sound: Volunteer Management Check Up For Your Volunteer Program

As an administrator of volunteers, one of your key responsibilities is to protect your clients and volunteers from harm, and your organization from liability. But how can you be really sure that you have the all the necessary risk management systems in place? Are your policies and practices sufficient? Are your interview questions getting you the information you really need? Are your screening procedures appropriate? We will present practical tools and strategies so you can be confident that you have minimized the inherent risks in your program.
You will learn how to:
  • build a best practice foundation to minimize risk including policies and procedures and position
  • descriptions
  • work with staff to avoid the grey zone
  • ask the right questions to screen potential volunteers and learn how to say no
  • develop a volunteer support system to minimize ongoing risk
About Lori:  Lori Gotlieb is the President of Lori Gotlieb Consulting as well as co-developer and faculty member for Humber College Volunteer Management Leadership Certificate and recently developed a leadership course for Humber College for their continuing education program. She is a volunteer management leadership expert who provides a unique concierge service to her clients as well as an internationally published author and workshop facilitator who has taught workshops to many diverse audiences, including grassroots local organizations, National Nonprofit organizations, Boards and Committees and Associations across North America. Lori is a contributing author the Volunteer Management Handbook, 2nd Edition as well has having numerous articles published in both print and online. Lori was a recipient of the Linda Buchanan Award for Excellence in Volunteer Management and has worked as a subject matter expert in Volunteer Management for more than 30 years. Lori is an Executive Board Member and content reviewer for the International Journal of Volunteer Administration, past president of the Toronto Association of Volunteer Administration, mentor for the Provincial Association of Volunteer Administrators in Ontario. Lori has mentored and coached administrators of volunteers across Canada, United States and Europe. Lori continues to push the boundaries of traditional volunteer management through her writing and teaching. 

Sarah Olivieri
Managing Risk through Program Design

Are you using a program design that’s left over from the industrial revolution? If so, you may find it hard to bring about meaningful progress when it comes to managing risk. In fact you probably struggle to innovate for your mission as well. Our program design determines what we can and can’t do well. If we want to supercharge our ability to innovate, change, and successfully manage risks then we need to change the model we use to imagine our organizations. In this workshop you will learn a new model for program & organizational design and leave with tools to help you implement it in your nonprofit.
 
About Sarah:
Sarah Olivieri is a nonprofit business strategist, #1 International Best Selling author, and former Executive Director. She has been featured on over 30 podcasts and is the creator of the Impact MethodTM - a framework that helps nonprofits simplify their operations, build aligned teams, and make a bigger impact without getting overwhelmed or burning out. Sarah received her BA from the University of Chicago with a focus on globalization and its effect on marginalized cultures, and holds a master's degree in Humanistic and Multicultural Education from SUNY New Paltz. Sarah has over 15 years of nonprofit leadership experience. She was the co-founder of the Open Center for Autism, the Executive Director of the Helping of War Foundation, and co-author of Lesson Plan ala Carte: Integrated Planning for Students with Special Needs.
As the founder and heart behind PivotGround, Sarah helps nonprofits make a big impact with relative ease.

How does it work?
Your local group pays a connection fee and arranges for a location (with a screen, speakers, and space for an audience), meals and a local facilitator to guide local discussion).  You can charge your local attendees whatever price you choose.  It could be a free event, or charge a fee you determine per person and make some profit for your local network.  The average charge is $50 per attendee, but you can set the price depending on your community.

Your local association provides:
  • suitable bandwidth, sound system and viewing screen  (guidelines here)
  • Meeting space
  • local facilitator
  • registrations
  • food & refreshments
We provide:
  • customizable marketing tools
  • special 'marketing your event' webinar
  • training for your local facilitators
  • ideas for icebreakers and additional content
  • certificates for CVA recertification tracking 
  • speakers (more than 5 hours of content)
  • conference handbook
  • support for managing the livestream event 
Would you like to host a local event?
Local Associations of Volunteer Engagement Professionals, AVAs, DOVIAs, Volunteer Centers or organizations with multiple volunteer management staff are all invited to participate.  International speakers are presenting to you, locally!

The basic requirements for hosting include:
  • Register on the AL!VE website and pay the conference hosting fee ($550 or $500 for AL!VE members)
  • Securing a venue that can support the audio/visual and internet requirements
  • Organizing refreshments an option for lunch (it can be brown bag if your venue allows it)
  • Running your own registration process (the fees you charge are your own)
  • Providing a facilitator for the day who will be trained in advance to interact with the local participants.  This can be more than one person.
Consider partnering with a nearby local association if you are close enough to do so to avoid local competition.

Note:  this registration link is for USA residents.  Please refer to the main conference web page for the Canadian registration.

Given the uncertainty created by the current pandemic, we are already making backup plans. Obviously we are hopeful that this won’t be necessary in late October but we want you to know we will be prepared either way.
 
Your first option if the avoidance of group gatherings is still being recommended will be for a full refund. Your second option will be to participate in a version of this conference without the need to gather in a room together. You would however, get your own local virtual room where your booked attendees can gather together for group discussions across the whole room or individual “tables”.
 
Although the cost to us will be substantially higher to run it this way, your fee to AL!VE or VMPC will remain the same.

Registration and payment policy
Payment for the hybrid conference is due within 30 days of registration, either by credit card or check. There are limited number of sites able to participate and a site’s spot is not secure until payment has been received in full. Once payment is processed, the site will be eligible to receive marketing materials, to have their site advertised as a conference host location on the promotional website, and to receive the pre-event planning package.

Cancellation and refund policy
In the event that a host site is unable to hold an in-person meeting, and does not want to participate in the completely virtual options available, cancellations prior to September 1, 2020 will receive a full refund, without penalty. If a site cancels between September 1- October 4, 2020 they will be eligible for a refund of 50% of their hosting fee. Cancellations received after October 4, 2020 will not be eligible for any refund

Remote Location Fees:
$550 for general public
$500 for AL!VE Local Association Members (not through an individual, but the Local Association Membership)
$50 early bird discount if registered by June 30, 2020