For me, the highlight of this the Volunteer Managers' Roundtable at the Volunteer Center of Sonoma County was suggesting to Hope Bohanec, Executive Director at Compassionate Living, that to reach the 18-25 demographic about veganism her organization could partner with a fitness company. I've noticed that many students at Sonoma State University are really into fitness. It was in this moment that I felt like a professional because I was giving a suggestion to another professional that could possibly be helpful in the future.
The Volunteer Managers' Roundtable takes place on the first Wednesday of every month. The purpose of the Roundtable is to share ideas and experiences with other nonprofit professionals. The topic for this particular meeting was Electronic Communication/Social Media/E-newsletters.
As a Communications Major and aspiring Social Media Manager, I was very excited to attend this meeting. I was looking forward to hearing the experiences nonprofit professionals have with social media to give me an idea of what it would be like to work with social media in a professional setting.
There were about 20 nonprofit professionals who attended the meeting. Donata Mikulik, Retired and Senior Volunteer Program Manager, started by giving background on the various workshops the Volunteer Center hosts. Next Mikulik introduced my supervisor from the Center for Community Engagement, Merith Weisman, and the roundtable began with a game of Social Jeopardy. The first question was "You're going on vacation for three months. What do you do with your organization's Facebook page?" and one professional responded with "Delete it!" Everyone laughed and it got the game rolling.
The group continued to play Social Jeopardy, but eventually it turned into a big discussion of the nonprofit professionals asking questions and giving each other advice on the best way to handle a certain task on social media. The most interesting part of this discussion was about how to thank donors. Most of the professionals weren't sure if thanking individual donors on Facebook was necessary or if it intruded on the individual's privacy. Before an answer was given, I thought to myself that thanking an individual donor every once in awhile wouldn't be so bad as long as it's okay with the donor.
Shannon Carr from Forgotten Felines of Sonoma County gave a wonderful response. She told the group that she usually thanks organizations on Facebook with a picture of what was donated and simple thank-you note. When dealing with individual donors, she'll send them a physical thank-you note as well as a gift to thank them for their donation. She finished her answer by telling her peers it's a good idea to thank organizations on Facebook because it creates publicity for them that could possibly result in future donations for the organization.
After the roundtable ended, I was able to introduce myself to a couple of the professionals and spoke about my plans with my Communications degree in the future. The nonprofit professionals I talked to were very willing to share their expertise with me when it came to my plans after college. One professional told me that I should always try to keep learning new techniques when it comes to social media. Another professional suggested that I start my career working with local nonprofits and then move my way up. All the wonderful advice and recommendations I received were very helpful in getting me to think about what my first step should be when starting my career. I look forward to learning more about social media and the nonprofit sector at the next Volunteer Managers' Roundtable.