Volunteers can be worth their weight in gold for your organization, or your biggest dilemma–the outcome is up to you.  We have all heard the adage: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”; working with volunteers is no different.  The planning you put in before taking on new volunteers will pay dividends in saving time, energy, and frustration if things don’t work out.  This workshop will give you tips and tools to make the best use of your resources as well as your volunteers’ time.  Topics to be covered will include creating volunteer job descriptions, screening volunteers, and supervising volunteers.

Click here for more information and registration. The workshop will be held in the Human Services Building. Advanced registration is required.

Selection of database software to manage information about the people important to your organization requires an understanding of your current and future uses of that information. Participants will explore the nature of the problem of managing these data as well as the range of potential software solutions to consider:

• What is a database?
• Why is a database useful?
• When is it time to go beyond scraps of paper or 3×5 cards to using database software?
• How do you go about analyzing your information needs (present and future), and then selecting an effective piece of software to satisfy those needs?
• Where should the software reside, on your own computer or in the cloud?
• Who must participate in the selection and design of your database, and in using and maintaining it?

Nonprofit organizations are often in a position to impact policies and practices that negatively affect the populations they serve. Participants in this workshop will learn about:

-          The 5 types of community organizing

-          Organizers & Relationships

-          Identifying issues

-          Using strategy charts for tactical planning in direct-action organizing

-          Policy issue case studies and tactical approaches to winning

-          Advocacy, education and lobbying: what non-profits and government agencies can do

-          Voter registration and voter suppression bills

Click here for more information and registration. The workshop will be from 2:00-4:30 in the Human Services Building. Advanced registration is required.

Marketing and branding a nonprofit in today’s business world can be a daunting task. This workshop will serve to define, enhance and broaden attendees’ understanding of strategy and policy for nonprofit organizations utilizing social media.  Interactive group work will facilitate the development of comprehensive campaigns tailored to accomplish specific organizational goals for attendees. General guidelines for policy development and content creation will help to direct specific online initiatives which incorporate sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Click here for more information and registration. The workshop will be from 2:00 to 4:00 at the MHSAA building in East Lansing. Advanced registration is required.

     Conventional approaches to strategic planning do not work well to meet the complex challenges we face today. The reason is simple; strategic planning does not work in open networks. Traditional strategy practices emerged from large hierarchical, “command and control” corporations. A small group of people at the top of the organization did the thinking, while the rest of the people did the doing.

     In our civic spaces, there are no hierarchies. Yet, we still need to do strategic thinking and now, more than ever, we need to act strategically. So, how do we focus our limited resources where they are likely to have the largest positive impacts?

     This workshop, facilitated by Bob Brown, will give you the tools and methods to answer that question. Strategic doing provides a new discipline for developing and implementing strategy within the loose networks that characterize our communities and regions. Strategic doing is fast, iterative, and inexpensive – whereas strategic planning is slow, linear, and costly. Strategic doing is catching on because people can understand it, apply it, and have fun, as they move their ideas into action.

Click here for the registration flyer. The workshop will be held from 1:00pm-4:00pm at HSB, Door 3, 2nd Floor, Conference Room A at 5303 S Cedar St, Lansing, MI.

To learn more, click here for the registration flyer; early registration is encouraged. The workshop will be held from 2:00pm-4:00pm at HSB, Door 3, 2nd Floor, Conference Room A at 5303 S Cedar St, Lansing, MI.

Ingham County Land Bank – Garden Program

South Lansing Community Development Association – AmeriCorps Farmers Market and S.L.U.G Volunteer Coordinator

Fenner Nature Center – AmeriCorps Stewardship Coordinator

Summer-term AmeriCorps members will be required to complete 450 service hours from June 6 through August 26. They must also attend a mandatory AmeriCorps orientation at the Ingham County Health Department on June 6, 8, and 9.

Compensation: Members will be provided extensive training (on and off site), a $3,125 living allowance, a $1,415 educational award at the successful completion of the service term, and loan forbearance for qualified student loans.

For more information about AmeriCorps, visit www.americorps.gov. Contact Katie Ellero, AmeriCorps Program Coordinator, to apply. (kt.ellero@gmail.com, 517-887-4596)

After completing the workshop, each participant will have a clearer understanding of how to recruit, organize, and build mission (critical for fund-raising) at the board level.

Click here for the registration flyer; early registration is encouraged. The workshop will be held from 1:00pm-4:00pm at HSB, Door 3, 2nd Floor, Conference Room A at 5303 S Cedar St, Lansing, MI.

Presented by Michelle M. Lantz, MA, APR, of Lantz Communications, Inc.

Click here for the registration flyer; early registration is encouraged. The workshop will be held from 1:00pm-3:00pm at HSB, Door 3, 2nd Floor, Conference Room A at 5303 S Cedar St, Lansing, MI.