This morning I had to do some work for a huge event at my son's high school. In April the school is hosting its annual Fashion Show and Basket Auction. This event draws over 700 guests and makes a lot of money for the technology program within the school. Back when my son was a freshman (he’s now a senior), I volunteered to work on the Mother's Auction Committee. The goal of this group is to collect donations and using these, create stunning gift baskets for auction. Other than the fashion show, featuring the high school seniors, these baskets are the biggest draw of the day. So today I am entering all the donations that we have received to date into an Excel spreadsheet. This information is used for the event program and it also ensures that the donors receive a proper thank you.
I never used Excel prior to getting involved with the committee and I'm certainly not an expert. Still, I now consider it part of my skill set. Some of the other skills that I have polished as a result of the Fashion Show are:
1. Leadership. We have over 20 volunteers looking for direction on asking for donations and then creating the baskets.
2. Delegation: Dividing up the tasks and giving each volunteer the creative freedom he or she needs is part of the process.
3. Problem Solving: Handling last minute donations, working with other committees, broken donations... the list continues. The skill needed to decide what needs to be done and communicate it properly is used frequently.
4. Communication: Creating programs, working with other committees, working as a team are many of the components of this fund raiser.
5. Time Management: Ensuring the donations are requested and received on time, creating baskets within a limited time frame, displaying the baskets prior to the event.
6. Process Modeling: Designing a process model for future Program Chairs to follow.
These are just some of the skills needed for one outside or volunteer activity. These skills can be captured on a resume or discussed in an interview. Think about what you do as a volunteer. What skills do you use? What are the results of using these skills? Come up with measurable STAR (Specific, Task, Actions, Results) examples for each of the skills.
What can you come up with? What transferable skills do you have?
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2 comments:
Nancy, this is a great point. When I worked at United Way (as one of the very few paid staff) we had literally hundreds of volunteers on our committees, many of them from local corporations. AT&T in particular leveraged these volunteer opportunities as part of their leadership grooming plan, since quite often the volunteer positions exposed their employees to new situations-- for example, helping to develop a strategic plan, or working on the budget, or managing a large special event (project management...) or sales & marketing (via fund-raising).
When I give job search classes one of the first questions I ask is, "Who in here volunteers?" Only about 1/3 of any class volunteers. I hope that number increases after the training for exactly the reasons you mention. The networking opportunities alone are incredible! As you say, there are hundreds of opportunities to learn new skills or develop existing ones. Plus, it feels so good to give back!
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