3 Things to Consider When Creating a Grassroots Network

When it comes to creating a grassroots network, it’s important to keep your members involved, while having fun and know that they are making a difference for your organization.

How do you do that?

I’d suggest the following three things:

• Communication
• Activation
• Share your work/results

Communication

It’s imperative that you communicate on a regular basis with your grassroots army even when you may not have an issue that is hot.

Activation

Make sure you have an easy way to activate those grassroots participants that will go to bat on any specific issue.  Remember, you should be able to segment by issue so you’re getting the right message to the right people and that will show in their response to your call to action in a timely manner.

Share your work/results

Keep everyone apprised of the work that your grassroots army is doing on behalf of your membership and community at large.  Give them credit in your social media outlets, document that fly-in program with pictures and stories.  And celebrate the successes you’ve made.

In the advocacy business there are three elements to an effective program.  You can find that previous blog post HERE.

Create a Job Description for the Volunteer to Set Expectations

Creating a job description is one of the easiest things you can do that will have a lasting impact for your chamber.

If you’re like me, you hate uncertainty, well if your volunteers don’t have any expectations of what is expected of them, their in the same boat you are.

What should be in that job description?

Explain to any potential volunteer what their responsibility is as a board member.  Legally, in a nutshell, we all know it’s:

• Duty of Care - competence to make good decisions on behalf of the organization;
• Duty of Loyalty - act in the best interest of the organization and not their self-interest; and
• Duty of Obedience - follow the mission.

In addition, the three things I always want to make clear in any volunteer job description are the following:

• You want their intellect;
• You want their passion; and
• You want their financial support (money).

Other things that could be spelled out in the job description could include, but not limited to:

• Attendance requirements;
• Recruitment responsibilities; and
• Advocacy participation.

That's a recipe for success for all involved!

3 Tips for Enhancing the Volunteer Experience

One of the challenges I hear all the time from chamber execs is the non commitment or lack of participation from the volunteers.

I attended a recent program by Lowell Aplebaum, CAE on this very subject although his session title was a little different.

The three things he focused on to elevate a volunteers experience in your program of work, and by the way, it also gives you a chance to see who might be a potential great volunteer in the future for your chamber, were:

Micro volunteering is a great way to get the younger generations involved in your program of work - use them as content specialists - write a blog, etc.

Create a quick volunteer role at an existing program - volunteer behind the registration desk, then recognize them and ask them to do more.

Micro opportunities to participate in your organization - What can they do?  Photograph your next event if they love photography.

The other thing he mentioned that I thought worth noting here is to make it personal, allow your volunteers to share their professional, personal, and family stories with each other and staff.

If you’ve had a chance to read a previous blog post of mine HERE, you’ll know I’m a fan of creating a job description for each level of your governance structure:

• Board
• Standing Committee
• Task Force

And in that job description you want to make it crystal clear that you expect their:

• Intellect
• Passion
• Money

In return, they’re getting recognition for serving on the chambers board, standing committee or a task force.

Always make sure you are thanking your volunteers publicly and often through your website, social media outlets and printed publications.

Your intended goal should be to have a list of potential board, committee, and task force members lined up to serve for years to come.

Make it meaningful and make it fun!

Defining a Customer Service Vision for your Organization

Let’s face it, we’re in the relationship business.

Never forget that!

Stated another way, it’s all about customer service.

Think about the last time you had a bad customer service experience with a retailer. I bet you shared that experience with your circle of friends.

Guess what folks, your members are paying you, “the retailer,” in this case, and buying your product/s every year.

Let’s not give them a reason not to rejoin!

Make every touch point they have with your chamber a great experience from a phone conversation to attending your monthly breakfast, luncheon or annual meeting.

Build a culture of customer service, make your members feel wanted, and they’ll return that back to your organization, in their participation, in your program of work.

For more information on customer service or the experience economy go HERE and HERE.

3 Tips for Building a Solid Governance Structure

Don’t get overwhelmed with your governance structures.  Keep them simple.

Here's three that most have:

• Board of Directors;
• Standing Committees (i.e. finance, membership, government affairs, education); and
• A Task Force for anything else since Task Force’s expire after their work is done.

And use these three different entities to showcase your volunteers and it’s a great proving ground for leadership in your governance structure moving forward.

What do I mean by that?

• A rock star on a Task Force might be invited to join a Standing Committee in the future;
• A Standing Committee rock star may be asked to join the Board;
• A rock star Board member may be asked to chair a Standing Committee; and
• And those Standing Committee chairs might rise to the leadership positions on the Board (i.e., vice chair, incoming chair and eventually chair).

Just a thought!  But at least you’ll have a track record of their leadership skills over a period of time.

That’s a recipe for success in any governance structure.

For more resources on governance from the Free Management Library go HERE.

And don't forget to create a scorecard for your board.  You can go HERE to find a blog post on that subject!

Public Speaking: Less is More

There’s nothing worse than listening to a speaker who repeats the “ums,” “so,” or “like” every sentence.

The fact of the matter is that it’s just a nervous tick the presenter needs to become aware of and it can be easily fixed.

Always remember, “silence is golden.”

Use a pause in your speech instead of the dreaded; "um," "so" or "like."

By remaining silent, it gives you a chance to gather your thoughts and your audience will be on the edge of their seat waiting for your next comment.

Don’t be critical of your public speaking.  We all started out with the dreaded "um," "so" or "like" as fillers to our spoken word.

Take a deep breath, focus on your story, and when you feel the urge to fill space with one of those words, don’t!

You’ll become the better speaker for it, your audience will enjoy your talks more and listen to what you have to say.

For more resources on public speaking from Toastmasters International go HERE.

For a post I did last year titled Public Speaking 101: 3 Tips to Remember go HERE.

Identifying Common Initiatives and Roles of Chambers in Workforce Development

A strong workforce equals a growing community.  That's been true for many years. 

That's nothing new!

What's new is what does your community have that is attracting that strong workforce?

I think we can all agree on what attracts businesses to your community:

• Infrastructure;
• An educated workforce; and
• A sense of community.

There are all kinds of jobs that need to be filled, not just lawyers and doctors but welders, plumbers, electricians and carpenters.

Does your community have a strong relationship between the high school, vocational school, junior college and the business community?

It’s essential that the three are tied together for success.

We need to get to a place where we do not stigmatize high school graduates, vocational school, or junior college graduates.

At the end of the day, it's the electricians, plumbers, and construction workers who work with the architects, engineers, and the financial industry to build the infrastructure of the 21st Century within our growing communities.

We need all levels of education to fill these key jobs to move our communities forward.

And let's not forget that many electritions and plumbers are making more money than the college graduate, without any college debt!