Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
>> Welcome today to our session
on Planning Your Professional Development.
This session will be a starter guide to you
as you're starting VISTA, what resources are available
that can help you navigate your year.
We'll look at how you can create a plan to make sure
that you're getting the most out of your VISTA service
and really using this as a year for professional development.
VISTA offers a lot of resources both on the campus
and through webinars like this and so we'll be guiding you
through some of those resources available, highlighting some
of them that are particularly important during your VISTA year
and directing you to where you can go when you have questions.
So joining us today is Andy King,
the training specialist of AmeriCorps VISTA.
I am here as well, I am with Campaign Consultation
and I am joined by teammate Suzanne Knizner
who will be handling our technical assistance today.
And Shannon McGarry who you will see popping up through the chat
and will be there to help you answer questions
and keep the conversation flowing.
Suzanne?
>> Hi everyone, thank you for joining us
for today's presentation.
We're so excited that you are with us today
and we look forward to going through the material
and answering any questions you have a little bit later during
the presentation.
Before we get started, I do want to talk
about submitting your questions to the presenter
at any time using the Q&A feature.
You can share tips, resources and ideas
with other attendees using the chat feature
and that the phone line will be open later in the presentation
for questions and answers.
Please note that this event is being recorded
and it will be available in two weeks on the VISTA Campus
and we look forward to hearing your questions later
on in the presentation.
>> Thank you, Suzanne.
So today, we're going to look at first, you know,
what's your VAD, what's in it and how do you get the skills
and knowledge that you need
to be successful during your VISTA year.
To do that, we'll be looking
at creating an individual development plan
that will help you identify what areas you want
to build expertise in during your VISTA year and how
to use resources so that you can build that knowledge.
We'll be taking a tour at the VISTA Campus and looking at some
of the resources there.
We'll talk about-- we'll have a brief segment where we'll talk
about the way VISTA have used the campus during their
service year.
And we'll end with the VISTA top ten which will be kind
of your top ten things that you should be doing during your kind
of first three months to help you set
up for success during your entire VISTA year.
And we'll end with some questions
so as you have questions about life as a VISTA, the work or how
to connect with the VISTA program,
it will be a perfect opportunity for you to ask those.
And of course, as Suzanne has said,
if you have questions throughout the presentation, just ask them
in the Q&A and we can address them.
So at this point, I'll turn it over to Andy King.
>> All right, thank you Robyn
and thanks everyone for joining us.
We're going to start by talking about what's in your VAD.
Your responsibilities as a VISTA as you know are outlined
in what's called the VISTA Assignment Description or a VAD.
And back at PSO whether it was last week or a couple
of weeks ago, you had a couple of opportunities to look
at your VAD in some detail.
And to begin to understand what's in it and start to think
about what it is it's going to take for you
to accomplish those outcomes.
You also had a chance at PSO to start identifying some
of the knowledge and skills that you're going to need in order
to be effective in your role.
Whether your VAD includes fundraising
or volunteer recruitment,
whether it's community engagement or event management,
it's likely that you're going to be asked to do things
that you haven't done before.
So you're going to need a plan
for learning how to do those things.
Now, let's start by reflecting back a little bit
to what's in your VAD.
So in that session of you if you can remember back
to that session that you-- where you spent time looking
at your VAD at PSO, you looked at some
of the specific objectives that are outlined for you
to accomplish during your VISTA year.
And for each one of those objectives,
there were some specific activities
that have already been identified.
So you and your supervisor as you sit down this week
and in the coming weeks to review your onset orientation
and training, and then also to look at what you're going
to be doing, you are likely to come
up with some additional activities that are going
to support the accomplishment of those objectives
and that will really capitalize on the unique strengths
that you bring to this.
Because each individual VISTA member is different,
you bring your own strength and we want to make sure
that you have the opportunity to put those to best use
so your VAD may involve a little bit in the coming weeks.
But as I said, you-- at PSO you started to identify some
of the knowledge and skills that you'll need to succeed
and you started capturing those
on the individual development plan.
And if you have that handy, if you have that--
your workbook from PSO, you might want to pull that out now.
If you don't have one handy, we provided you with a blank copy
when we send out the meeting notice and the reminder.
Our ideas behind that is that you can flesh
that out more fully in electronic format
than you could, you know, just jotting notes in the workbook
so that's why we give it to you electronically.
So how does that individual development plan actually
help you?
Well, we've kind of outlined here on the slide a few things
that you can do to get you started on that path.
So first is to reflect on those learning goals,
what are the knowledge and what are the skills that you're going
to need to be successful.
And you can see at the top of the chart on the left
that here is an example of where you--
your VAD might outline for you that you are to contribute
to the development of fundraising campaigns,
events and public relation initiatives.
And after unpacking that a little bit, you'll understand
that you need to learn about fundraising,
you need to broaden your understanding
of the communications and you need some volunteer
management skills.
So those are some of the learning goals
that you are going to have
in those particular three areas you are going to need
to develop your skills and knowledge.
So the next step is to identify some
of the professional development resources that are available
that can help you learn those things.
So in the example here on the left, that is the campus
of course is a great place to start.
There's also a website we'll talk about a little bit,
the National Service Knowledge Network.
Another nonprofit organization called Volunteer Match,
they have webinars and other learning resources
on their website.
For fundraising, you might set up a meeting over coffee
with the development director at your sponsoring organization,
understand what their strategies are around fundraising
and how you can dovetail
into what's already happening there at the organization.
And as another example, you might look at United Way
as a source of classroom based training.
So once you identified some of the resources, then you're going
to need to outline a plan.
You can't do everything at once so you'll need to make some time
in your schedule each week or, you know, every other week
to take these courses, to go online,
to do that kind of thing.
So that's a quick look
at how you can use the individual development plan
to start setting out a plan
for your learning throughout the year.
I do want to pause here for a second
and just mention if you didn't notice.
Over the right hand bottom column is a poll, we--
early when we started the session, we opened a poll
but it turns out it was the wrong one
so we just have a few questions here to give us a chance
when we start looking at specific resources
to know what it is you're interested in.
So if you could answer those three questions,
you've got about a few minutes--
no, maybe not, maybe it's done, so.
Anyway, so I'll go ahead and move on and we're going to talk
about your VISTA year and some of the resources available
to you on the VISTA Campus.
So we know you've all been to the campus,
you had to do some of your pre-learning.
Before you went to PSO, you took courses
like civil rights responsibilities, terms,
conditions and benefits, education award,
but you may not have had a chance to look much beyond that.
So we want to make sure you understand the structure
and then some of the resource that are available there.
So we'll be looking first at the framework
and then individual resources.
So the area for VISTA is divided into three main sections.
One is called Life as a VISTA,
the other one is called The Work,
and the third one is Connect or Connect with VISTA.
Each one of these is designed to support a different dimension
of your VISTA experience, your VISTA service.
Some of it is more personal, some of it is more professional.
But we know that if we don't address all of those,
that your experience won't be as fulfilling
and you may not be able to focus on getting things done.
So we're going to take a look now at the first one--
the first area which is Life as a VISTA.
So this section outlines on the campus things related
to your personal life, your-- things like the living allowance
that you receive, some of the other benefits you receive
as a VISTA member, where to find help.
And then some of the information about just managing your life
and understanding what the life cycle
of a VISTA member typically is.
So we're going to now leave the slideshow
and I'm going to share my desktop.
In just a second, you'll see the VISTA Campus come up.
So when you-- when you start on the campus
and you click this section for VISTA, you land here.
And again, you can see the three sections that I mentioned.
We're going to talk about Life as a VISTA.
You've already been to the starting VISTA section
which is right here at the top.
That's where you took all those pre PSO courses.
And then I do want to point out on--
in a couple of places how you navigate.
So we've got this navigation bar on the left here
that shows all the different sections and then
in the main area of the page.
We have them represented graphically
with the little mouse over so you get a little bit more detail
about what's in each section.
Sort of front and center, right at the foundation,
in the center bottom cubicle of this little--
of this bookshelf is Finding Help.
So if you're not sure where to get an answer,
if you've got a question about benefits or anything,
the Finding Help section is the place to go.
There are a couple other ways to get to it, of course,
with that navigation bar and it's number one
on our Quicklinks list which shows up on every page.
So even if you're not in this section,
you should see the Finding Help pretty much at all times.
Now, once you get in to Finding Help, you'll see things
like the Resource Board.
Again, this is one of the things that you looked
at before you came to PSO, right?
And you know that each one of these flyers has a lot
of great information on a whole range of topics
from student loans to your health care, child care,
income tax, finding a place to live, all that stuff.
One thing we haven't probably talked with you much about
yet is the VISTA Member Handbook.
And this is an eBook here that's on the VISTA Campus,
fourteen chapters plus an appendix.
And this has all of the rules, the regulations, the guidelines,
the expectations of you as a VISTA member.
It talks also about the support that's available
to you, benefits.
If you can see here the chapters down the left hand side,
it talks about training, financial support, education,
travel, health care, and then things like even close
of service and some of the special terms and conditions
that apply in different types of VISTA projects.
So the member handbook is probably one of the first places
that you'll go if you have a question about, you know,
am I supposed to do this, am I allowed to do that
or who do I contact around something.
The Member Handbook.
You'll also notice that on most pages on the left,
you'll see a link to the member handbook.
Just below the handbook is a link to the Health Benefits Plan
which is administered by seven quarters.
So you heard a little bit about this at PSO and again,
we just want to make sure that you know how
to access information about that.
So here is the website for the AmeriCorps health benefit plan.
And then if you want to get the actual manual,
you can download the PDF right here on the left,
the Member Health Care Guide.
So-- and also the doctor, networks, the directory
of pharmacy, all of that stuff is right here on that page
and you'll find that in the Finding Help section.
There's more resources here about the My AmeriCorps portal,
the national service hotline, and then as I mentioned earlier,
the National Service Knowledge Network.
So this is broader than just VISTA,
it applies to all the national service programs,
AmeriCorps State National,
AmeriCorps NCCC, VISTA Senior Corps.
So it's designed as an online learning center for all types
of national service programs so that resources are much broader.
But many of them do apply to VISTA
and so you can do a topic specific search here at the top.
You can look for particular types of resources
like online course or libraries, there are discussion groups.
Communities have practiced that convene through here
or you can browse by topic.
So, lots of different ways to find information
about national service in general
and outside of the VISTA Campus.
All right, so I'm going to navigate back up a little bit
and show you some of the other things
that are here in Life as a VISTA.
So there's background about VISTA History & Mission.
There is information about living on the living allowance.
We know that when VISTAs are first getting started,
it may be a big adjustment to budgeting and such.
So we have a Flash-based course here called Living
on the Living Allowance and it gives you an opportunity
to understand some of the strategies for getting
by on the living allowance and plug you into some resources
that you might not know about,
so that course is available here.
Here is a calendar and you looked at this at PSO.
If you want to know when pay dates are coming up,
you can find that here.
And then we also have a video on--
that's actually a recorded webinar session
like the one we're on now called Making It Work:
Living on the Living Allowance.
So lots of resources there related to getting by
and taking care of the financial side of things.
And just checking my notes here, I think that that's most
of what I wanted to highlight here.
So let's pause for a second and see what questions have come
in over the Q&A if there are any so far.
>> Thank you.
We will now begin our question and answer session.
To ask a question, press star one on your touch tone phone.
Record your name clearly when prompted.
Your name will be--
>> Hey, Katie.
Hi Katie, this is Suzanne.
Thank you for those instructions.
However, we're actually going to utilize the Q&A section
through WebEx and we're going to ask Shannon
to let us know what questions have come to there.
So we're not going to take questions on the line right now
but we will later on in the presentation.
>> Oh, I'm so sorry, my apologies.
>> No worries.
It's a confusing thing we have going on over here.
So thank you and, Shannon, any questions?
>> Hi, Suzanne.
No, no questions at this time.
>> Okay. Well, I'm sure that there will be some questions
that come up later on so we'll continue with the presentation.
>> Great, thank you Suzanne and Shannon.
And I should mention too that if you're not familiar
with the WebEx tool, since I'm sharing my desktop, the chat
and Q&A boxes in the right hand side have disappeared.
At the top of the screen, you'll notice a little green tab
and it might say Andy King's desktop or something like that.
If you move your cursor up there, a little tray will drop
down and you'll see different options there.
And then all the way to the right is a little down arrow
and if you click that, you'll see an option for the Q&A
and that's where we ask you to submit your questions.
All right, so back here, we're going to move on and we're going
to talk about the next section which is really the foundation
of the campus and it's called The Work.
So obviously, this refers to those resources that relate
to your life or the work that you're doing as a VISTA member.
And here on the campus, we have nine major categories of content
so you can see them here.
Some of the most commonly used ones particularly
as VISTA members are getting started are right there
on the top, Working with Volunteers, Fundraising,
and Communications and Marketing.
So those three areas are ones that we like to highlight
so that you know that they are available.
This is the Working with Volunteers area
and the content is further divided into four areas,
planning, recruiting, managing, and then the fourth area talks
about an online course that we offer
in which you can earn college credit
on volunteer mobilization.
So, just quickly click into the recruiting area,
you can see there is a long list of resources here,
everything from civic engagement and students and under--
approaching unfamiliar communities to do recruitment.
So lots of different types of resources that you can use
that all relate back to planning
and managing a volunteer program.
In the fundraising section, we have in fact some new tools
that we are introducing here and we--
again, four different areas.
We've divided up into raising funds from individuals,
grants and proposal writing, event planning and then again,
we have an online course for college credit.
So let's see here the grants
and proposals 'cause many VISTA members are asked to do that.
So we have a relatively new course here
on researching grants and it gives you first an overview
and walks you through what that process looks like
and points you to some very specific resources,
many of them online, where you can go
to conduct your grants research.
Find out what kinds of grants are available,
what the requirements are, the submission deadlines,
all that sort of information you can find.
So you can see some examples of what's included in this course.
And back in this section, we've got a bunch of other things.
Here is one building your case for support, producing proposals
that work, so this is actually writing the grant proposal
and then a second one on the writing that goes into it.
So you can drill down pretty deep and again,
these courses are relatively short but you do need
to schedule some time to make sure
that these things actually get done.
So we encourage you to set aside, you know,
maybe an hour a week and in your individual development plan
as you're jotting these things down, just put a date next
to each one and then go into your Outlook calendar
and just schedule an hour sometime during the week
when you can go and actually work
through some of these courses.
Let me go back here and so you can see there's many other areas
that you can explore here in the work section.
Some other ones that I want to point out here are related
to poverty in America.
The building on what you did at PSO,
there's a course here called Poverty in Your Community:
Developing a Community Profile.
Well, it's an interactive course and it gives you a template
that you can use to understand first how you would research the
poverty statistics in your own city, town, community, county,
and then how to build a profile from that.
And then the next course here helps you understand how the
data that you find stack up against the national data.
So this takes a long view and it looks at poverty data
since the 1960s when these types
of statistics have first been collected.
So they're relatively current and very interesting.
We also have a series of three recorded conversations with one
of the country's well-known poverty researchers
Stephen Pimpare.
He's written a book and many, many articles about poverty
and in fact, next month,
he's going to be doing a webinar called Alternative Lenses
and we're going to plug that at the end of the session.
But if you want to see what he's done for VISTA before,
over the last year, he's done three sessions for us
and we've got them here
in a recorded session what we call A Webinar on Demand.
So you can-- you can just view any of these videos and sort
of get caught up to speed on what's going on with poverty.
All right, so I'm going to go back now just
to the main VISTA page here and point out another resource
that we haven't yet looked at.
And so on the left here, you see the calendar of VISTA events,
so the things that are listed here are general types of events
that apply to pretty much any VISTA.
So back at the beginning of February, we had a webinar
that we call Social Media Monday,
this was on Flickr using photos to share your story of service.
Now, off of that, it won't go away and as I mentioned next--
well, I didn't mention this one.
Next Wednesday on February 20th, we have a webinar coming
up on VISTA Performance Measures:
Benchmarks for Awesomeness.
So how do you measure all the great things that you're doing
and what is VISTA doing just at the overall program to collect
that information and tell the story.
So that's just coming up next week.
Right below the calendar is a link for ongoing learning.
So in this section here, you'll find a section for what we used
to call Campus Tours, that's the session that we're in right now
on planning your professional development.
We've got a section here for our monthly webinars
and you'll see we've got on the left the upcoming schedule
so these are some of the ones that I've talked about.
And as we get in the period approaching each one,
the registration links go up so
that you can register just like you did today.
And then on the right hand section here,
we have all of our social media webinars, they're on a page
of their own and then our recordings are here.
So if you want to watch one on demand, you can see we've got,
I don't know, six or eight or ten of them already in there
so the list gets longer each month.
So I just want to point that out, again,
it's from the main VISTA page,
it's right under the calendar called Ongoing Learning.
Well, that's it for The Work
and then the third section here is called Connect with VISTAs
and as you might guess, this has some of our interactive features
and list of our social media comes in.
So it's a page that's packed with a lot of stuff going on.
So this is really the communication center
for the VISTA Campus.
Top left is Announcements and Alerts.
These are things that come from VISTA Headquarters.
They're not that frequent,
maybe once a month we'll send something
out that we think is important enough
that we want every VISTA to see.
Though like back in January in conjunct with MLK Day,
there was the annual count of the homeless,
it's called the National Point-in-Time Count
of the Homeless.
And so we had information about that
and how VISTA projects could pair up with it.
Top right are the VISTA forums.
So these are the conversation areas.
These are the discussion forums
and we've got half a dozen different ones.
There's one called the V Cafe which is just kind
of like open topic, no matter what you have can be there
in the V Cafe.
We've got one on saving money so recipes,
housing and the dollar store.
For new VISTAs, it's called from lost to found,
that one focused on the work.
Stories of V which is really more the inspirational thing
where VISTA members can talk about what VISTA means to them,
what their experience has taught them, the kinds of things
that they've seen and done and learned.
And typically, these are expressed
in pretty creative ways, through Instagram, photos,
Flickr or Pinterest boards, videos.
We've got a ton of stuff on our YouTube channel.
So Stories of V. If you're having a day
where you're like, "Why am I doing this?
What is this all about?
What does it mean?
Am I making a difference?"
Click here and so you'll see
in this forum some conversation and discussion.
But then, you can also--
down below in our "V is for" campaign, you can get some more
of the creative stuff.
Then we also have a job board because we know
that your VISTA year is finite and you're going to be looking
for opportunities once you finish
and so that's a resource available for you as well.
Just below those two widgets is the VISTA Map
and I think the VISTA Map is one of the coolest things
that we've got here on the campus.
It allows you to find other VISTA members using any
different number of criteria.
So you could say, zoom way in and look for people who are
in your neighborhood, or I zoomed right
in the mountain range where Toby lives.
So here, you can see we're in Omaha, Nebraska.
And as we go in closer and closer,
we start to see individual pins.
And I'm clicking-- as you can see,
here's Robert Moore in Omaha.
He's serving this year, from last year into this year
at the Neighborhood Center.
You can visit his organization's website.
He posted a picture of himself there in his profile.
And if I click here, I could send him a message to the camp.
It won't tell me his email address but through the campus,
I can send him an individual message.
And we want everybody to appear here on the map.
But if you have any privacy concerns, there's a button,
a checkbox actually in the profile where you can uncheck it
so that you don't appear on the map.
A pin will still be there representing you.
It just won't indicate your name,
but it'll still show the organization
where you're serving and when you're going to be there.
It just won't reveal your name or your photo.
So the map shows VISTA members, VISTA leaders,
VISTA alumni, and resources.
And you can--
we've pre-populated the map with a number of resources
but you can-- if you find something that's poverty-related
in your area, you can post it there
and other VISTA members will be able to find it.
We also have a timeline and we're doing a process right now
of trying to recruit VISTA alumni to come to the campus,
create accounts, and put-- drop a pin on the map to show us
where they served and when.
And then tell us where they are now
so that VISTA alumni can find each other
but that currently serving VISTA members can find alumni.
So this little slide bar here allows you to go back in time.
Let me-- it works better if I zoom out.
So you can sort of go back to any point in time and see
where VISTAs were serving at that particular time.
So let me go back to 2005.
And you can see the numbers changed.
And now they've gone from being active VISTAs to being,
you know, to showing where the people who are now alumni were,
and the numbers sort of shift over time.
So it's kind of a cool thing.
It's also animated.
You can have it-- It won't show well on a WebEx,
but if you click the Play Animation button,
it will show you year by year how the numbers
and distribution of VISTAs changed.
You can also do a search down here.
So if you want to say, I want to find VISTA members
who are working on technology and I don't really care
when they served, and just do a search.
And then you can see here, you get a listing of them by name
and it shows you again, a snapshot of where they are
and where they're serving.
It also then appears on the map.
So, you can see the distribution
of technology-related VISTA members who've pinned themselves
on the map.
You can see where they are.
So that is the map feature.
Again, make sure your profile is complete
because if your profile isn't, then the map won't really work.
And it's a great way for VISTAs to find other people
that are doing something similar to them.
So I mentioned just a few other things here on the connect page.
If you're interested in getting groups of VISTAs
or VISTA leaders or others together,
you can use this site called Meetup to create your event
and post it and let other people know about it.
As I mentioned, we have this "V is for" campaign.
It's kind of inspirational piece.
And you can submit a story, a video, a photo, an Instagram,
any kind of creative stuff that you can develop.
Submit it and we select them and you can win a shirt
as the prize for doing that.
We also use social media in a variety of ways.
You can find connections to our Facebook pages and Twitter feed,
our YouTube channel, and our Flickr account are right there.
So that is, I think, it for the Connect with VISTAs section.
I do want to mention here one other option.
If you have looked through the campus and you saw something
at one time but now you don't know where it is,
you can use the Campus Catalog
which is essentially the site index to either find something
by the index or do a search
so that you can find those resources that you need.
So that's it.
So let me pause here and ask Shannon if we have any questions
that have come in over the Q&A.
>> We actually do, Andy, yes.
This one is from-- Christian
and Caroline are asking similar questions.
They are looking to recruit volunteers.
They've been asked to help to recruit volunteers and get them
to prioritize the projects that there or actually,
I guess there's two questions.
So the first one, you know, how can you recruit volunteers
within your organization to prioritize the projects
that a VISTA is working on if the volunteers
that are currently working
for that organization are already stretched pretty soon?
Are there thoughts and suggestions to help do that?
>> So I hear a couple of things in there.
One is that the sponsor organization has existing
community volunteers, but that they're already doing a lot
or maybe too much.
And it seems like now that the VISTA is going
to be introducing new activities,
and we'll probably need volunteer involvement
with that as well.
Does it sound like I have that right from what you're seeing?
>> Yes.
>> Okay. So, obviously, I think our recruitment campaign would
make sense.
And you might think about it in a couple of different ways,
both internal and external recruitments.
You may want to recruit from the volunteers
that are already connected with the organization
because they might jump at the chance to do something new.
And then the other would be obviously an external campaign
to bring in new members of the community
to support the organization.
So here in the working with volunteers section,
there is this area on recruiting.
So there are a few resources here.
But I also want to point you to the planning section
because within here is Volunteer Mobilization
and Program Development Course.
This is a pretty extensive soup to nuts piece about planning
and implementing a volunteer program,
and there's a whole section in here on recruiting.
And within, there are four different resources
that you might look at here.
So that's what's on the campus.
We also have-- you'll recall back
on the ongoing learning area, we had some recorded sessions.
There's one here on volunteer recognition
which is not really recruitment but does relate to volunteers.
We'll be adding some new volunteer management related
sessions in the coming months so keep your eye out for those.
And one other piece I was going to say--
oh, so then looking beyond the campus, there are a couple
of places, particularly around volunteer recruitment.
One is VolunteerMatch, VolunteerMatch.org,
the other is Idealist, Idealist.org.
Both of them have pretty well-developed resources
available for volunteer program managers who are looking
to develop their skill in any particular area.
So they have these free self-directed, you know,
learning materials that are available there.
The VolunteerMatch from time to time offers webinars
that will give you an overview.
And one of their things, of course,
they're an online volunteer matching service, so it's,
you know, a fee-based thing.
So there may be a sales element to some of their presentations.
And they are focused on online recruitment.
So using the web to reach out and get people to sign
on to your organization.
And that strategy may work for some
of the volunteers you are looking to recruit.
But keep in mind that online recruitment may limit you
to a certain type of person who's likely to be online,
who's likely to see your notice, who's likely to respond
to that type of invitation.
So you'll probably need more than one strategy, you know,
to diversify beyond the online recruitment.
But Idealist.org also has a number of really great resources
that are available for free.
[ Pause ]
>> Great. And it looks like there's another question
in the chat from Moira [phonetic].
Robyn, do you-- can you see that question?
I can't seem to see it.
>> We're get-- retrieving that question in a moment.
Could-- the other question we had, Andy,
is the VISTA Blend courses.
Do you know when the next courses will be available?
>> The next courses, well, there currently are two courses
on offer, the one on fundraising and development,
and the one on volunteer mobilization.
So the fundraising and grant writing one has already started,
and that one will go through the end of March.
The fundraising-- I mean the volunteer mobilization one is
just about to start and it will go through the middle of May.
So we won't offer these again until after those are finished.
There will be some time in the summer.
And these courses are a part
of the blended learning opportunity.
They build on the learning that you started at PSO,
so that the PSO was the face-to-face part of it.
And the rest of it is done online remotely.
But there are a lot of self-guided
and what we call asynchronous elements to it.
You can study whenever you want at your own schedule.
But then, there are some synchronous pieces.
There are some webinars.
Sometimes when the class comes together,
you get to meet your facilitator.
They're, you know, some mini lecture kinds of things.
And it does take a significant amount of time.
So, you know, anywhere from maybe four to six hours a week.
So, you know, think about it
if you were taking an evening course in college,
you'd have readings to do and assignments
and that kind of stuff.
So we asked that VISTA members not try
to do this right away right when they're just getting settled
into their VISTA role and understanding that.
But after a few months, then we think it's a lot easier
for VISTA members to participate, because they sort
of have the VISTA service piece
under their belt that's going smoothly.
Then they have some additional capacity
to do the blended courses.
So anyway, that was a long way of answering but summer is
when the next round will be, so keep your eyes open.
>> Great. Andy, one of the questions, sort of in follow
up to that question, is there any way given
that the registration for the course that starts
on the 25th has closed at this point.
Do they do or accept any late applications or registration?
>> They don't because it's a pretty competitive process.
We've been getting way more applications
than we can actually accommodate in the course.
So we have a vetting process and the pool gets narrowed down.
But then in the end, if we still have more people,
then there's a lottery to determine
who actually can get in.
We've added more seats and we've more than doubled the size
of the classes that we're able to do.
We've added sections, you know, and additional facilitators.
But at this point, we won't be taking anymore applications
for volunteer mobilization, unfortunately.
>> Thank you.
Additional questions, do you anticipate
that there will be any courses that are offered in Spanish?
>> Probably not.
We do have-- this session that we're
on now, we offer in Spanish.
But these other courses, probably not.
If somebody has, you know,
particular need we can help research, you know,
other courses and materials
that are available in other languages.
And you can certainly send your questions to us here.
And that email address is vistawebinars@cns.gov.
And we'll show that at the end of the session as well.
>> Great. This question comes from Caroline.
She is wondering if it's okay to do things that are listed
in the VAD plus more so, to go above and beyond.
>> It is. Certainly, we want to make sure that, obviously,
your VAD is being accomplished.
And if you find that that doesn't take all of your time,
certainly, and we encourage you to do this in conjunction
with your supervisors so that they, you know,
understand what your plan is and can help
and support you in that.
But certainly, we do encourage VISTA to see what else needs
to be done because needs change and sometimes
when the VADs were first written, maybe at the start
of a three-year project, there was one, you know, one plan
and then maybe the first year VISTA,
things came together more quickly than anticipated.
So then, year 2, that frees up some time for that VISTA
to do some additional things.
>> Great. So I think we've got a couple of other questions
that we'll pause right now.
We will make sure that all questions are answered.
But we're going to continue
on with the rest of our presentation.
So don't worry, we'll answer your questions,
but we're just going to take a slight pause on that.
And we will get to them.
Thank you.
Keep them coming as you have them.
>> All right, so we're going
to stop looking at the campus itself.
And now, we're going to move ahead.
And I'm going to introduce you back to Robyn Stegman
who not only is now working with us here at VISTA
through her role at campaign consultation,
but she herself served as a VISTA member, and she's going
to talk a little bit about her experience
and how professional development fit into her overall VISTA year.
>> Great. Thank you, Andy.
I'm just going to briefly give you kind of my personal story.
But to give you examples of ways
that you can use the VISTA Campus during your year.
I noticed that there were a lot of questions
about volunteer management.
And that's particularly for me, one of the ways
that the VISTA Campus was exceedingly helpful which is
that when I entered, I was tasked to recruit volunteers
to basically take over a bunch of programs
that had been started and were kind of failing.
So the volunteer resource, volunteer mobilization resources
on the campus were really great.
And one in particular, I'm going to just quickly share my desktop
to show one of these great resources
which is there's a great resource
on a campus called volunteer champions.
And the thing with the VISTA is that oftentimes,
we're doing a hundred different things.
And so if we try to do everything by ourselves,
we can get burnt out really quickly.
So I found this resource
on using volunteer champions particularly great.
And utilizing volunteers as project leaders
because what it allowed me
to do was I use the volunteer resources on the VISTA Campus
to basically create a training program
that would train volunteers who were particularly devoted
to the project to go out and recruit other volunteers.
So it wasn't just me who was out there
in the community telling the story of my organization
and why you should come work for us.
But I had this kind of army of people
who were doing the same thing.
There's also-- I know that somebody was talking
about how you get to prioritize your project, how do you talk
to volunteers in a way that they're like,
"Oh, I want to do that?"
And in the recruiting section,
there's actually some great volunteer in this mobilization.
They actually have some great tips for how you craft a message
that shows volunteers that it not only benefits them,
but it benefits other people.
And also understanding volunteer motivations
which is really helpful to me, which is that, you know,
volunteers come for different reasons.
So for me, I'm an achievement-oriented volunteer.
You give me a task and I want to complete that task
and like I get a lot of pride out of saying
like I built this website or, you know,
I completed this program or I helped build this house.
But other people are affiliation-motivated
volunteers.
They want to volunteer to, you know, meet new people.
And some people are-- want to do it because it gives them kind
of prominence in the community and they get to kind
of have some control over how their community changes.
So I just-- to kind
of reemphasize how you can use your professional development,
really, taking some time to look
through these resources can really help you better
understand the community.
And had I not used the VISTA Campus, you know,
sometimes you can just-- I wouldn't have, you know,
seen some new ideas around how you craft messages
or how you use your volunteer champion.
So just to reinforce that, you know, as you're going
through your VISTA, yes, you have tons of work
to do in the community.
But sometimes, taking even an hour
to explore different resources
and best practices can help you do it more effectively.
And really help to kind of take some load off of you
because you're not, you know,
spending all this time by yourself.
And the other thing is that, you know, these webinars
that we're doing is a great time to connect with other VISTAs.
And so, you know, Andy pointed out the forms.
You know, sometimes it's really good
to see what other VISTAs are doing and to get those examples.
So I really encourage you not to need to use the forms.
But hop on some of these webinars especially on things
that interest you because there's always a chat going on.
There's always a Q and A. And so you can ask for other examples
of ways that they have, you know, done similar things
like fund raising or volunteer management.
So I'm going to pass this back over to Andy and we're going
to talk about the VISTA Top 10.
>> Great. Thank you for sharing that Robyn.
And we just want to quickly give you some top 10 suggestions
for ways that you can continue your learning
and to maximize your VISTA service.
So first up is number 1, know your benefits.
We talked about some of this at PSO,
but there's a lot to understand.
Use the resource board if there are things that you can't figure
out or you don't find the answer
on the campus or in the handbook.
Call your state office because they could be a great resource
for you.
>> Number 2 is budget on the living allowance.
This is always the really tough thing to do
because you're on limited resources.
That's why taking the Living on the Living Allowance course
that Andy pointed out is particularly important,
because it will give you tips on how to live cheaply.
But also, you know, ask VISTAs and other people
in your community for tips and connections.
I know when I entered the VISTA, there was shopkeeper who used
to give me a discount on groceries
because he was also an AmeriCorps--
he was also AmeriCorps member.
So trying to get some, you know, tips on resources
that you can do that will help you kind
of get through your year.
And then also we'll have a Living
on a Living Allowance webinar
which can give you additional tips.
>> Number 3, know the need that you are trying to address.
So first of all, understand what the big picture is.
So learn about poverty in America
through those resources I pointed
out that are on the campus.
The next month, we've got a webinar in the topic.
But you also want to look locally.
And we have some courses to help you do that.
And probably, your sponsoring organization will have some
research and understanding.
But also other community leaders
out there we'll be talking about, we'll be looking at,
we'll be understanding where the needs are
and how they're changing overtime.
And so, you may want to reach out to them
by scheduling meetings, setting up phone calls
or webinars or conference calls.
And really, staying plugged in to others in the community
who are working on the same thing.
>> Number 4, get to know your organization.
So, you know, there are several things you can do to help,
you know, get to know.
One is just to set regular meetings with your supervisor
who can help you move in.
But also, you know, take a look what documents are stirring
your organization.
I know when I was a VISTA, I had the mission statement
up in my office where I could see it,
because that what really define the work we did.
So take a look to see if there's strategic plan,
if there's a mission statement
that helps guide the work you're doing and how you fit with that.
You know, meet with people in various departments to see
about their role on how you can help each other out.
And, you know, also ask to see
if you can attend a board meeting or look at recent,
you know, minutes from board meetings.
And then of course, quarterly reports
that other VISTAs have done if you're out of sight
with your a second or third VISTA,
can really help you see what VISTAs before you have done
in the community.
>> And number 5, it's kind of an extension of number 3.
This is Dive in into the Community.
So once you've done the research and you understand
where the needs are then you want to really get involved
with your stakeholders, you know, who is it who stands
to benefit from the work that you're doing
and who may be could be a potential, partner, supporter,
who could help you out.
So set up stakeholder meetings.
Go to networking events.
Talk to others at your organization, your supervisor
and coworkers to find out other places
where you could plug-in in the community.
And then look for some of the more social and fun things
because those also give you insights
into what's happening in the community.
So festivals, meetings, you know, schools are often doing,
you know, plays and other activities
that give you insights into what's happening there.
And look out for potential partners as well.
>> Number 6.
So numbers 3, 4, and 5 really kind of are the points
that will launch into number 6.
So once you've done your research in the community
and you've kind of know the need
and know what your organization is, then it's time
to take a look and turn your VAD into actions.
So one of the easiest things you can do is just have your VAD
somewhere in your office where you can easily find it and work
with your-- and then, you know, your next step is work
with your supervisors to figure out what the goals
and objectives are for your year.
And, you know, research.
If there are terms or activities
like how do you do volunteer management, do some research
around how you can complete your VAD.
And then use all of that to create a project plan
that really outlines what you're going to do from here on out.
>> And number 7 is also about planning,
and this is take time to grow.
So it's focusing on your own professional developments.
So complete that individual development plan template.
Sign up for webinars.
Attend the webinars and make some time each week
to do some kind of learning, whether it's on the campus
or anywhere else or even just researching.
But don't leave it up to chance.
Make a plan and put it on your calendar.
>> Number 8 is document your success.
So as you're planning and implementing your VAD,
make sure that you're taking time to track your successes.
This is not only important for your quarterly report,
but it helps at the end of the year if you have this list
of everything you've done.
It's a great thing to use as your crafting resume or taking
about VISTA or just personally to see the effect
that you're having during your year of service.
To make sure you're creating a system to record your work
and also, you know, make that you're always thinking
about how you not only pass this on to the next system,
but since VISTA's work is capacity building how at the end
of everything that you're doing that you're really able
to pass this on to the community
and it's something the community can sustain beyond your year
of service.
>> Number 9 is communicate about VISTA.
Tell your story.
Create and practice a minute message or an elevator speech.
Put the VISTA logo on the stuff that you're creating
and make sure your business cards
and your e-mail signature include all of that.
And talk about, you know,
in getting on the website of your organization.
And make sure that all your coworkers know you're a VISTA
by what you have in your own personal workspace.
So-- And I mentioned the V is For Campaign on the campus.
Please submit.
>> And lastly, we have get connected.
Obviously, one of the most valuable parts
about the VISTA program is really being able
to connect with fellow VISTAs.
And you can do that in person by arranging a meet up,
or you could that virtually.
So by following Facebook and-- VISTA on Facebook and Twitter,
so you can connect with VISTAs across the country on that way
by finding alumni members in your area and across the country
who are working on similar things
to what you are using the VISTA map or by asking for advice
or responding to questions on the VISTA form.
>> So that was a quick look at our top 10 things to do.
And I just want to mention one more time, if you are looking
for help, if you have questions or need to get some support,
look through the campus.
Use the resource board that's there.
It has all of those quick links to get attached or connected
to different organizations.
And if you've been through there
and you can't find what you're looking for
and your supervisor doesn't know,
then your state office would be the next place to go.
You can also ask your peers by way of the campus forums
if you don't have any VISTAs
that you're working with there locally.
But if you have a need, if you have a question, please do ask.
>> Thanks, Andy.
>> And now-- yup?
>> I'm sorry, go ahead.
Please go ahead.
>> Yup, I was just going
to say I know we've hit the top of the hour.
But if folks are able to stay on, we're happy to stay here
and see what questions you may have.
So I'll turn it back to you, Suzanne.
>> Great. Thank you.
I'm sorry to interrupt right there.
What we're going to do is go ahead
and open the evaluation right now so that anyone who needs
to jump off can please do that before they do.
But we will be sticking around to answer any questions.
We know there're several of them and we're happy to stay as long
as necessary and answer them.
Shannon, do you want to get some questions ready?
And the operator, if you don't mind, giving us the dial
in instructions so that we can ask questions verbally.
>> Yes.
>> I'm sorry.
Go ahead.
>> No, no go ahead.
>> Katie, go ahead.
You can give us instructions and Shannon will hear
from you in just a minute.
>> All right.
If you would like to ask a question, press star one
on your touch tone phone
and record your name clearly when prompted.
Your name is required to introduce your question.
Again, press star one to ask a question.
>> Great. So while we're waiting,
we do actually have some questions in the chat and Q&A.
So, I'm going to start with the question from Caroline.
And actually, I'm sorry, from Christine.
She is looking for advice regarding elementary school
education models specifically for drug, alcohol,
and tobacco prevention.
Her question is whether there are tools on the VISTA Campus
that can help stir her in the right direction.
>> There are a few.
And in the section on the work in the bottom row
of that bookcase, you'll see a section.
I think it's called focus areas or VISTA project areas.
And it has things like earned income tax credit
and disaster recovery.
One of the examples in there, one of the areas is
around education reform.
And so we're partnering with the Department of Education.
It's a project called, "Together for Tomorrow."
And it-- so it's looking at how school plan
and education can play a role in helping
to break the cycle of poverty.
And we have seven or eight different demonstration sites
around the country.
They've been producing and posting resources there.
We also have a link to the US Department of Education website
that has other related--
many more related resources around education.
So, it's-- so it may not be specific to what you're looking
for but there'll be some related resources.
You might also look at the National Institute of Drug Abuse
or the National Institute of Mental Health.
There's some other federal agencies that have created lots
of resources around, you know, a drug dependency,
and that sort of things.
So there may be some overlap there.
>> Great, wonderful.
The next question comes from Natasha,
and she's wondering whether or not there are funds allocated
from VISTA to the worksites--
to their worksites so that VISTAs could have t-shirts,
caps, bags or other swag.
>> No. It's a short answer, but no.
If sponsors have their own resources to make available
for that, that's terrific.
And thus, the members, you know, have limited personal resources.
So-- And a lot of that is out of reach,
but nationalservicesecure.org is the place to get them
if you've got the means.
>> Katie, do we have any questions?
>> Yes, our first question comes from Kayla Byers.
Kayla, your line is open.
>> Oh, actually, interconnectivity is you
and I got to figure out, so.
>> Okay.
>> That's all I have.
I'm sorry.
>> Try to work out.
>> Thank you.
And our next question comes from Natasha Park.
Natasha, your line is open.
>> Okay, hello.
>> Hi there.
>> Hi, I have a question.
>> I think we lost you.
You're breaking in and out.
>> Okay, can you hear me now?
>> We can.
>> Yes.
>> Okay, my [inaudible] and so, I'm just wondering.
I do have my own vehicle.
And part of my role is collecting in-kind donations
for the organization.
Meaning, I send out letters and I meet with people
in the community, business people, et cetera.
And so, majority of my work,
is wanting to be [inaudible] relationship committee
and the businesses are not going to come to the nonprofit.
I have to go out to these different businesses.
So as far as me driving my own car and using my own mileage
for that, how does that work?
Because, you know, of course, I know we're not
on the best salary but at least we get as high [inaudible]
and that's tight in-- with the budget.
It's not included, the mileage or the one in around
that is a part of state.
I am not sure.
If not in my bed, but it's kind of in my bed,
if you know what I'm saying,
as far establishing relationship to other businesses.
>> Sure, yeah.
And so, what we call service related transportation.
So the kind of thing you describe where in order to carry
out your service, you need to be, you know,
traveling through the community whether it's
through your own car or public transit.
And so the way that works is your sponsoring organization
would need to verify that, in fact,
it is part of your expected duties and responsibilities
to either use your car, use public transit for that purpose.
And then there's a form
on the My AmeriCorp portal that you fill out.
It's called service-related transportation
or public transit.
And the number V-81 is the name of the form.
You would fill it out.
>> I'm sorry, what's the name of that form?
You said dash what?
>> It's V-81.
So V like VISTA, 8-1.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah. So its form number is V-81.
So you would fill that out in your account on My AmeriCorp.
And then your supervisor would approve that and send it on.
And essentially, that sets up a relationship between you
and your sponsoring organization where then they are responsible
for reimbursing you for your mileage.
Each organization has slightly different procedure
but typically, there is some kind of a log.
It's a form, a piece of paper, a data base, a spreadsheet
where you're logging each trip
and how many miles the date, what the purpose was.
And then according to your organization's travel policy,
they will reimburse you at the rate
that they've established for, you know,
staff members at your organization.
So it's between you and your sponsor.
If not, something that the VISTA program does direct
reimbursement for.
>> Okay. And so can the form be completed retroactively,
or before travel, or has to be done after travel?
>> Well, the form, the V-81 form should be done at the start
of your service terms.
So if you haven't filled one out yet,
talk to your supervisor immediately about doing one.
I don't know that they could--
there maybe a way for them to reimburse you retroactively
but again, your supervisor would know the details
about how they would do that.
>> Okay. But what happens
if they have no policy in placed for that?
>> So if they don't reimburse any other staff members
at the organization, then they're required
to reimburse you at the IRS rate.
>> Okay.
>> And this is all laid out in the terms
of the VISTA Memorandum of Agreement
that your organization signed with AmeriCorp VISTA.
>> Gotcha.
Okay, that looks perfect.
>> Okay.
>>You answered my question.
>> Great.
>> Thank you.
>> You're welcome.
>> No questions at this time.
>> Okay, we do--
>> All right.
Thank you, Katie.
>> Thank you, Katie.
We do have some questions in the Q
and A. This one is from Catherine.
Do you send out notifications for new courses
so that people are aware of the deadline or applications?
>> We do. And so we'll notify you in a couple of ways.
We'll send e-mail notices out about the webinars
that are coming up each month,
also when the VISTA Blend courses.
When those enrollment periods open,
we will send e-mail notices about those.
We also post announcement in that announcements window
on the connect page of the VISTA Campus.
>> Great. Thank you.
And it's look like the last question,
I know there's a couple of them but they're all about sort
of what counts as work hours and whether
or not this is our expected to work sort of the traditional 95,
40-hour work week or really
if it's something that's a little bit nontraditional
and doesn't have as many lines.
>> Yeah. VISTA service is absolutely not a 95 job,
because we know that a lot of the work that you're going
to be doing is work in the community.
And in order to reach community members,
that might mean attending community meetings
in the evening or working with volunteer programs.
It happened after the work day.
Fundraising events might be done on a weekend.
So, it's definitely not a 95 job.
It is a full-time job, full-time service opportunity.
I shouldn't say job.
So it is full-time service.
So whatever full-time is that you're sponsoring organizations,
some places it's 40 hours a week; some places,
it might be 37 and a half hours a weeks.
But generally, VISTA should be putting in the same number
of hours that a full-time employee does
at that organization.
And to set up with the supervisor,
what your regular hours are going to be so that, you know,
people know when they can reach you at the office.
So you need to have some kind of a regular schedule.
But also, understand that a lot of things are going
to happen outside of that schedule and you'll need
to use the, you know, flexible scheduling
or whatever the policy is called at your site that allows you
to balance your hours.
So if you're going to work three extra hours this evening
because you're facilitating community meeting,
maybe you come in three hours late tomorrow.
So, you work a longer day today and a shorter day tomorrow,
or you shift your hours later.
So, you know, I'm going to work from, you know,
noon until 8 p.m. instead of, you know,
9 to 5 something like that.
>> Great. Thank you.
It looks like that is--
those are all the questions that we have in the chat and the Q&A.
Katie, did we have anything else on the line?
Questions?
[ Pause ]
Katie, I didn't catch.
I think-- I feel like I thought I heard you,
but I didn't actually catch you.
>> My apologies.
We are showing no more questions at this time.
>> Okay, great.
>> Wonderful.
Thank you everyone for joining us today.
And we are really happy to have some great participation
in chat here.
We will be sending you a couple of e-mail
with some of the questions.
You can have reinversion of some of the questions
and conversations that happens today.
So thank you for joining us.
And we hope to see you soon on other VISTA webinar.
>> Thank you everyone.
>> That does conclude the question
and answer session of today's call.
You may disconnect at this time.
[ Silence ]