Contributing Volunteers (and Organizations) who work outside our immediate circles in the wider community and the world.
Volunteers Positions to Choose From
Below are just some of the volunteer opportunities, plus brief descriptions about the volunteer work needed in each of these areas:
Core (Staff) Volunteers
- Project Leaders
- Project Assistants
- Volunteer Managers
- Volunteer Managing Assistants
- Event Organizers and Assistants
- Project Advisory -- Instructors
- Program Planners
Task-Oriented Volunteers
- Project Assistance
- Office Assistance
- Event Assistance (set-up, take down, reception, hosting, etc.)
Contributing Volunteers
- Project Advisory -- Pacific Northwest and the world
- Researchers: ideas, news and program design / support
- Writers: for articles and reports
- Other Alternative Media Folk
- PR / Project Marketing
- Art, Graphics, Website and Production Assistance
Core (Staff) Volunteers
Project Leaders
Project Leaders will take green and growing projects, all 160 of them, one at a time, many from scratch or from plans in early working group development and, together with the whole family of volunteers, compile the components of a comprehensive plan for each Project or program area. With the available assistance, brainstorming and knowledge of the Resource Team as guidance, Project Leaders will experience a true development process at the 'really grassroots' level.
We will empower, learn, teach and build tools together for owning community change. Then we will, again, learn to use these tools to create a world and society that each of us longs to see in the future.
Project Assistants
Many Project Assistants will be needed to help the programs and projects develop. These able-bodied individuals can choose to affiliate with one project and / or assist Leaders in different project areas (or, if they prefer, they may also create their own heart-felt contributions or new projects). Community Involvement principles stipulate a focus on freeing up the gifts that each person or volunteer brings intuitively to our joint work. We acknowledge and respect each person's gifts as the optimum energy and creative flow that could possibly be brought together to cause 'sustainability' in our world.
We develop, further and further, upon the work that each person wishes to contribute. Rather that 'making people' do all of the many things that are obviously needed, we welcome the choice of contributions from each person and then look for other people with complementary energy, who might be drawn to the missing elements. No one will be encouraged to work on anything for any longer than necessary, if it does not 'give them energy', although co-operation and communication are keys to our successful fun and synergy.
Volunteer Managers
Volunteer Managers will assist in the overall process, by being there to provide guiding support to Leaders and new volunteers that are considering a particular position or options for their future career or life-path opportunities. Managers will act to oversee the intake process, supporting Managing Assistants in answering questions and explaining to people the needs of the Community Involvement Project and each of its component pieces and the likely opportunities for career education that could be gained by each assignment. They work with many agencies in the community to integrate CIP programs in the bigger picture and amass great resources that can then be relayed to the overall group through future update meetings.
Volunteer Managing Assistants
Managing Assistants will liaise with the Managers and relay the needs of program development to new people applying to be considered for Project Leader Training, Volunteer Task Orientation or many other specific areas of project help. They will interview, hire, train, complete passions assessments where needed, unite aboriginal, immigrant and minority issues with poverty-reversal, self-sufficiency and health strategies, open doors for students, the elderly, low-income / high-wage earners, eager individuals, new entrepreneurs -- all potential candidates for social change. Managing Assistants are Welcoming Agents. They are career and life-path motivators, facilitators, troubleshooters and the friends of our collaboration. They are the Den Mothers, the glue that holds us all together in the trenches, when we need a little coaching, encouragement or a helping hand.
Event Organizers & Assistants
Event Assistants build the bridge between our work and the wider community. They focus the momentum and the effort of all the behind-the-scenes sustainability work and place it out in front, where the community can see it. In terms of overall time commitment, the demand may be much less on these volunteers than others, and the rewards are still plenty. Terrific, whirlwind, often fun and exhilarating, educational learning experiences present themselves all the time during event set-up, management and take-down.
Event Assistants maintain their own Rotation Roster of 'on-call' shift-worker volunteers for event help. This roster sees to it that there are "many hands making light work" at community events supported by the Community Involvement Project, through the provision of a list of interested CIP supporter volunteers.
Project Advisory -- Instructors & Pacific Northwest Consulting Advisors
The Project Advisory is a flexible, arranged group of professional sustainability, university and community educators, as well as specially chosen experienced CIP Planning staff, Project Leaders and Assistants. Some individuals have a knack for project management or brainstorming solutions, idea after idea and some bring tremendous resources or specialized knowledge. All members will endeavor to meet their own and others' expectations in an advisory capacity that works for the good of sustainability and the Project, while keeping its supporting partners, funders and all other stakeholders involved in community progress.
Program Planners (& Community Liaison)
Program Planners work, often quietly behind the scenes, making it possible for all the community work to move along. They brainstorm, consult, research, map and plan. They write reports, sketch out projects, action plans and play an extremely important role on the Project Advisory. They remove obstacles and see that tools are available. Their most critical input is to make sure that the integrity and original intention of each project is maintained or improved, without getting bogged down in bureaucratic red tape.
To do this they must often also play a highly creative, strong Community Liasion role sharing, negotiating and maximizing of resources, while at the same time making sure that projects remain "on the ground", offering open access to diverse people, at many varied points throughout the community. This is a highly motivated and flexible group, offering visionary input and ethical insight into the creation of our new shared and positive future.
Task-Oriented Volunteers
Task-oriented volunteers simply desire a 'job to do'. They wish to be given a containable task with a beginning and an end, in a pleasant surrounding, where they can enjoy contributing in a meaningful way to the community, without any of the worries of a leadership position. They bring skills and learn new ones and are the backbone of the day-to-day happenings. The following positions are common roles that would be taken on by "task-oriented" volunteers, some wishing for short-term assignments, others remaining longer-term and working much more with core staff. They might choose jobs from the Job Box they wish to do in any of the following areas:
- Project Assistance
- Office Assistance
- Event Assistance
Contributing Volunteers and Organizations
Project Advisory -- Pacific Northwest and the World
The Project Advisory has been described briefly in the Core (Staff) Volunteers section. See earlier in this same Part Two of the manual. Contributing Project Advisory members act remotely as consultants, more after than as instructors in the way core local Project Advisory would.
Researchers & Writers
It is untold how many researchers have given thousands and thousands of hours that have helped put this Project together. Research needs will continue to be an ongoing and growing, crucial work area. Researchers are needed in every part of the program design for this "world saving" opportunity. We are creative and invite you to play an important part in this process, from wherever you are living in the world.
While designing your own tools and vision for saving the world, doing your career or school assignments a service, you also have the chance to help us achieve another important component of the mission -- providing the world with valuable research in successful "global governance for sustainability."
We want to create a feedback loop from this research and its collection of success stories to reinforce common knowledge about, What Global Governance for Sustainability Looks Like--Research from all contributing students and volunteers working in areas of self-sufficiency, environmental management, social leadership, pro-active change, solutions-based policy research and design, and many areas such as these, will be the inevitable roots from which a radically-improved future will emerge.
We need:
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