The Centre's Volunteering Development Conference report
October 2009 | Jackie Hastings, The Centre for Volunteering
On 17–18 September 2009, over 120 volunteer coordinators and managers from the community sector converged on Novotel Darling Harbour Sydney for the Ignite Volunteering Development Conference, hosted by The Centre for Volunteering.
Over the two days, delegates participated in plenary sessions, panels and workshops presented by over 35 speakers from academic, political and non-profit backgrounds.
One delegate said of the conference, "it really was a wonderful opportunity and it inspired me to look differently at volunteering and particularly our volunteers."
Another delegate commented, "I felt really encouraged by the conference and return to work feeling very motivated about starting to implement some positive change in our volunteer programs."
Over 94% of delegates considered the conference to be useful for their ongoing professional development.
Many delegates surveyed found the networking opportunities to be invaluable, including the pre-dinner drinks, harbour cruise, and lunches. Keynote speakers including Hon. Graham West, MP, Minister for Volunteering, Associate Professor Melanie Oppenheimer, Dr Debbie Haski-Leventhal PhD, Martin J. Cowling, and Dr Bronwen Dalton also proved popular with delegates.
The workshops on Engaging the Next Generation, How to Sabotage Your Volunteer Program and Public Speaking were among the highlights nominated by delegates following the conference.
Thank you to all delegates and speakers for making the conference a success.
Upcoming conferences, seminars and workshops will be promoted in The Voice and on The Centre for Volunteering's website.
Post Conference Networking
Thank you for your participation in the Volunteering Development Conference, and thanks to many of you for providing feedback during and after the conference.
In providing this feedback, many of you stressed the importance of networking with conference delegates. In order to allow better networking within the industry, and to facilitate sharing of conference resources, we have set up a social networking site for conference delegates.
One of our conference sponsors, VolunteerTeam have kindly offered to assist, and have established an Ignite Post Conference Team site using the vTeam software. Over 70 delegates have already registered with the site (from those that had left their contact details with VolunteerTeam at the conference).
The Ignite Post Conference Team site now contains many of the documents and speech notes from the conference and will allow you to network with other like-minded people in similar roles in the community sector. The vTeam software has closed-user security (it is secured by user name and password), has SMS capability, and allows effective and efficient communication between teams.
The site will be administered by designated Team Leader, Kristin Romanis, Online Manager, The Centre for Volunteering. You may have attended Kristin's workshop on Online Marketing.
WHAT NEXT? Visit the VolunteerTeam website to make a request to join this Ignite Post Conference Team.
VolunteerTeam will then approve you as part of the team, and you will receive a username and password email. This will allow you to go to the TeamSpace, see it, consider it, opt in...or opt out. If you chose to not be part of the team, please email us and advise us. If you do decide to join the TeamSpace, we looking forward to meeting you there. Remember this is NOT a public system, but an entirely closed teamspace only available to conference delegates and organisers of the conference.
Should you have any problems logging in or wish to talk about the system contact: dave.abrahams@volunteerteam.org.au
Establish your own volunteer TeamSpace
The offer from VolunteerTeam to establish your own volunteer TeamSpace, is still available. Please let Dave Abrahams know if you are interested in a presentation to your organisation, if that is what is required in the first instance.
Thanks again to our conference sponsors:
- Bendigo - Community Sector Banking
- Enrich Australia
- Matrix on Board
- Office of Liquor Gaming & Racing, a division of Communities NSW
- Third Sector Consulting
- Volunteer Team - Social Networking for Teams