Wow. What a crazy few months.
Our first year of farming (and second year of looking after its yard) certainly shifted our focus away from ‘inside jobs’.
I am happy to report we managed to get a crop in, and get it off, successfully. We also planted, harvested and processed a pretty impressive garden.
It was a whirlwind, and now having had a few weeks to catch up, it is time to get back to focusing on my love of encouraging volunteers, volunteering and all things related to community building.
What did I think about while weeding the garden, mowing, operating a combine or volunteering in my own way? This adventure, of course, and how will I transfer my skills and enthusiasm to reach all of you?
Ignite the Engaged
I created Ignite the Engaged to do just that: ignite volunteers – aka engaged citizens – to help them through the heavy parts of holding meetings and operating often loosely knit organizations in a way that excites volunteers while covering the important business.
Sounds reasonable. Of course. But volunteers are special: they don’t like being herded or bossed around. After all, if the fun factor is not relatively high, what is the point?
Yes, fun. Volunteering is often a whole lot of fun, despite the workload.
The unavoidable truth is meetings, while necessary, are often associated with turning down the fun and turning off volunteers.
How do we fix that? How can those necessary but boring meetings generate excitement?
Stay Tuned
Stay tuned, as I bring you short videos on how my course helps to build fun and function into all kinds of what I call ‘community groups’.
Your group may be elected, appointed or a casual gathering of like-minded thinkers. Your group may be part of a national or regional structure, or singularly focused on a one-off project. Your group may be small or large.
No matter its size or scope, I expect you can imagine how your group might benefit from spending a bit of time with me (virtually, of course) as I coach you through the areas which typically trip groups up. Feel free to use the social share buttons below to share this with others.
Carry on. You are contributing to the world by simply being you!
Shauna 🙂