Position versus Purpose Support
The other day a coworker and I had a discussion on who the customers are for association professionals. We determined that ultimately, our customers are our members’ customers, since they benefit from the education and networking opportunities we provide to the association members.
This led us to the realization that, as component relations focused professionals, our approach of preparing volunteers for their specific roles as volunteer leaders and their specific positions in our volunteer structure may inhibit our ability to best meet our customers’ needs. At times we become too focused in the details and this hinders our message to the volunteers on their (and our) purpose – to train members to increase the level of service to their customers. In this case, those customers are the members of the chapter that volunteer leader represents.
What’s the difference between position and purpose driven support? Position driven support includes providing agenda templates, budgets creation and financial monitoring training and leadership development programming. The goal is to prepare volunteers for the operational and administrative functions that will allow them to be successful throughout the year. Examples of purpose driven support is recommendations on how to understand member needs and training on how to use current technology to create training to meet member needs (such as webinars). These prepare volunteers to provide opportunities for members to mature in their professional career.
At times, purpose and position driven support are the same thing, such as provided training on how to do strategic planning. Oftentimes, especially in the mid to late volunteer year, the two diverge and association professionals tend to focus on position driven support. After all, our day-to-day job is to manage volunteers; stepping back to provide purpose-driven programming requires additional effort. Both approaches are needed to be successful component relations professional.
What do you think the divide should be between position and purpose driven support? 50/50? Perhaps 80% position and 20% purpose at the beginning of the volunteer year and vice-versa in the latter half?
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Comments
Interesting question to pose. And I think there's not one answer as variables such as chapter staff can make a difference. More importantly as we see in the Decision to Volunteer the volunteer model is changing so the needs - and our job focus - will too.
If we agree that we [read national-chapter staff and chapter volunteer leaders] all have a common customer - the member - then we all should have specific roles in serving the customer. I don't think this means that the CRP is serving the member directly but that our role (as well as chapter staff but perhaps in a different way) is in supporting the chapter so it can deliver to the customer. Why have chapters if we don't see them as service deliverers. So this naturally means a combination of what you refer to as position and purpose driven support.
So then we're back to your question of what's the ratio. And this is where the DTV research comes into play. We need to find ways to speed the training process, trim away what impedes volunteers from creating success, and make all the critical admn and risk mgmt aspects of their roles as simple and fail-safe as possible. Embedded expertise is a key part of this solution. Think anti-lock brakes and Turbo Tax. As a volunteer manager I see my job as employing embedded expertise in as many situations as possible - this will have the effect of reducing the time spent in position driven support. So, the focus can continue to grow on what you refer to as purpose driven support. Although I would suggest that what we need to focus on is the larger picture of developing a volunteer community.
What the Component Relations Council found in their research on volunteer training is that associations which approach volunteer training as a member program (think as part of your overall professional development training offerings) in fact reduce training load on CRPs so they can focus on what can be called building community rather training. Read more at Associapedia http://tinyurl.com/5zar6s
Love to hear how others are using embedded expertise and who's taking training out of "one department" to make it a member-wide experience.
Posted by: Peggy Hoffman | September 5, 2008 9:31 AM
I can see the question boiling down to are you playing for short term or long term impact? And how do you create the space beyond the current day challenges/time restraints/etc. alluded to by Peggy to be able to delve in to actually teach our volunteer leaders how to succeed in our chapters and beyond?
Another challenge is the diverse skill sets that leaders come embedded with. A one-size fits all approach isn't as impactful as it may have been in the past.
The volunteer leaders who collaborated with me to creat the Chapter Leaders Playground were very vocal about their frustrations in their leadership roles. Many had never been exposed to strategic decision making, planning, etc through their work - and yet are expected to crank out plans for their chapters. Some were fine with it.
Similar complaints about a lack of marketing skills. Volunteer leaders are expected to promote membership, programming, causes, etc. yet many had little or no exposure to marketing training - unless they were in a related profession.
With career tracks so muddled now and huge differences in backgrounds showing up in previously fairly homogeneous chapters, the mix of development needed can be greater.
When combined with a much lower tolerance for wasted time (What's in it for me?), it's challenging. Customized development opportunities may meet their needs better.
Turn key tools? Memberwide training? Customized leadership development? What's the right mix?
Lots of food for thought.
Posted by: Cynthia D'Amour | September 5, 2008 12:50 PM