Take your pick. The result is the same. The mission to which you are drawn, to which your heart is connected, is not being accomplished.

If you are or are willing to be a volunteer leader or encourage a volunteer leader, you can help your organization get its best results.

I believe there are three core problems which create these situations.

• Committee chairs serve on the Board.
• There is no management team.
• There is little or no volunteer recruitment, placement or training.

When committee chairs serve on the board there are three problems created.

• They are not expected to submit written reports since they are there to be asked.
• They should be results leaders while board members should be governance leaders.
• The board does not communicate in writing with them since they are there to be told.

When there is no management team there are three problems.

• Committee chairs don’t  know what other committees are doing.
• There is little or no coordination of committee efforts.
• The board receives little or no feed back until things don’t happen.

When there is no effective volunteer management there are three problems.

• Volunteers are placed in highest need not best fit positions.
• Volunteers burn out when asked to fill positions that don’t fit them.
• Volunteers discourage others from volunteering by speaking of their experience.

You can remove all three of these obstacles. When you do your heart will sing from the results.

Contact me with questions.

Photo Credit:Big Stink, originally uploaded by desben.

Wow! Yesterday, I watched Chris Brogan’s video seminar “Using Social Media to Find a Job“.

The other neat thing was to have Chris refer me to his free ebook Using the Social Web to Find Work.

I am a discoverer. A person who wants to know what’s around next corner. These were a couple of great resources to help me see ‘what’s around the next corner’ in social media. The opportunities to ‘discover’ are endless. I am especially interested in areas like social networking and nonprofits, organizing nonprofits, recruiting and training volunteers, solving organizational and operational problems for nonprofit, finding resources for nonprofits, etc.

So, the more I can learn from people like Chris Brogan and others the better I will be at helping volunteer leaders get the best results for their nonprofits.

photo credit: p373

Lazone Grays posted to the Non-Profit Tools Group an article by Jonathan Ortmans, President, The Public Forum Institute “Entrepreneurs: Engines for Job Creation and Innovation“.

I endorse Mr Ortmans’ belief that entrepreneurs create jobs from the new opportunities that they see.

When they turn their attention to nonprofits they will create new jobs and new sources of income for nonprofits also.

Entrepreneurs look for nonprofits that interest you. Use your ability to create new sources of income for them.

Photo Credit:Celebrating Social Entrepreneurs, originally uploaded by jurvetson.