In my work with ACE Communities (www.acecommunities.ca) I had the pleasure last night of facilitating a workshop with volunteer experts – the people who showed up to learn about how to recruit and retain volunteers.
With ACE leaders at Leduc County, we designed an experience that brought out the experts in Thorsby and Warburg. Here is their work and what they concluded at the end of the gathering:
The value of the conversation and commitment:
Sharing it all, networking
We know more than we thought
We renew positive
Practice
Remembering why
With inspiration
To appreciate
Encouraging community
Still cares
We don’t let the nay-sayers get me down
We keep trudging along
Walking with more support
With people like me
Not alone
What wonderful work we do
As volunteers
We do all those things!
It’s nice to hear once and a while!
We will appreciate volunteers more
I will appreciate myself more
Good to hear what others are doing
Hearing from other volunteers
I have taken in a lot
I can’t say just one thing
We are out of the box
With 39/20 networking
When we need it
We are out there
We are impressed
So many with similar ideas
We know what works
We’re on to something
We will find more people
That don’t know the word no
Always the same faces
But there are lots of kinds
Of volunteers
Worker bees and people like us
Start saying no to no!
We have lots to take home
Actions to remind myself
Once and a while
Fanning connections
What everyone said is what I was thinking
Try harder
The Terry Fox run will be running
Playing off one another
Making the connections between us