When it comes to being a volunteer engagement leader I am rather new to the field. I’ve always been an active volunteer in my community, but having a degree in theater direction, volunteer management was never anything I ever thought I’d be involved in professionally. A year ago, my organization was looking to fill a need, and I stepped up into the role of Volunteer Coordinator. I began to search for any information on how to do this new portion of my job better and I found myself on the MAVA website. Looking to soak up all the information I could about this new world, I sent my boss the link to the 2017 National Summit and signed right up.
The National Summit was a very rewarding experience for me. Every session I attended, I walked away with more knowledge, more contacts, and the overall sense of pride because my volunteer program was headed in the right direction. I began to see how vast this field is and (more importantly) the issues we face as volunteer engagement leaders are universal. It doesn’t matter if you are work for a cultural institution, in health care, government, or religious organization (to name a few); we all deal with the same issues daily. Attending the conference helped me understand this enormous picture. It also gave me a network to reach out to, not only for trainings and best practices, but more importantly I was able to find support and a wealth of knowledge about this wonderful growing professional field.
I am looking forward to the 2018 MAVA Conference, and am excited to take the Next Steps to further grow my network and knowledge in this field. Join us June 6th through the 8th for this year’s MAVA Conference, Volunteer Engagement Leadership: Next Steps and Beyond.
Early Bird registration is now open. For more information visit
mavanetwork.org/2018conference.
Kasey Jean Tunell
Guest Services Staff & Volunteer Coordinator
Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, St. Paul, MN