A few days before the Great Ideas Conference in February, blogger buddy Elizabeth Weaver Engel tagged me in a volunteerism meme started by another blogger buddy Peggy Hoffman. The question we were charged to answer:

How can we create volunteer jobs that don’t require being on a committee, a long-term commitment or gobs of time? So, share five short-term, ad-hoc volunteer jobs you’d love to have and then tag five more bloggers.

I’m a little late to the party, but…

During my seventeen years in and around the association community, I’ve been fortunate enough to have served in just about every formal volunteer role you can imagine.  But throughout my career, it has been the informal contributions that have given me the more consistent sense of personal satisfaction.  Here are some of my favorites:

1.  Matchmaker–Putting people together for interesting conversations and connecting them with compelling opportunities for mutually beneficial collaboration.

2.  Sounding board–Being asked one-on-one to provide advice, guidance and insight on possible session topics, new speakers or the use of emerging technologies.

3.  Thinking partner–Participating in brainstorming sessions or other types of open and creative dialogue that drive genuine innovation.

4.  Behind-the-scenes orchestrator–Creating and coordinating the design of insanely cool and deeply meaningful learning experiences that feature and focus on others.

5.  Da Man–Capitalizing on my network of relationships to make something enormously important happen, such as the time I helped a national association secure a major keynote speaker for two separate conference appearence for one obscenely low honorarium.  You can bet that made me Da Man!

This post may be is late, but that’s still better than never.  And actually, that’s a pretty good principle of volunteering.  Even if you’re late to the volunteer engagement party, we can always use more cowbell, uh, I mean, welcome more people.  Why not come play with us?

BTW, if you’re an ASAE & The Center member, you still have time to complete the Call for Volunteers.  But be sure to act now…supplies are limited! :>)

Originally posted @ Principled Innovation LLC