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Conference Streams The Asia Pacific Volunteer Leadership Conference: Inspiring Journeys to Service is pleased to offer attendees the option of following one to four conference streams, or topic concentrations. These four tracks will enhance your learning in one specific knowledge base. These streams are:
Descriptions and details of each stream are provided below. We hope such offerings will make this conference an even better investment for you and your team.
All of these factors lead to a greater importance and emphasis being placed on the role of those who have a responsibility to lead, coordinate or manage volunteer groups. The Volunteer Management stream is excited to be bringing together some of the world’s leading volunteer management specialists to discuss these and other issues relating to the leadership of volunteers. In particular, we will consider how we can learn from one another as we gather from all across the Asia Pacific region. The wealth of experience from our successes and failures in our processes and practices will enrich and encourage us in our position as leaders. Participants will have a choice of many enriching workshops to choose from that that examine both trends in the field and how the cultures of the Asia Pacific region are dealing with them.
As many boomers enter their retirement years, time and resources are plenty. This invaluable resource is what every community needs—it’s the priceless wisdom and experience collected over the course of a lifetime. But how do volunteer programs best tap into this generation and motivate them to active service? The information and workshops of this conference stream will help you answer that question for your volunteer program! The Opportunities for the Aging stream is a joint offering from the Volunteer Resource Center of Hawai`i and the Hawai`i Pacific Gerontological Society (HPGS). In conjunction with the APVLC, the HPGS is hosting its 15th biennial conference—this year’s theme is Leaving a Legacy: Re-creating Our Work and Life. The HPGS conference begins September 15, and then joins the APVLC on September 16 as part of the Opportunities for the Aging stream. Through these two venues, HPGS and VRCH will help volunteer leaders equip their older adult teams for fruitful service and assist older adults in developing a vision for the legacy they would like to leave for generations to come. The opportunities for service and impact are as diverse as the baby boomers themselves. But a common thread among boomers is that many are in the desirable position to re-create their own place in society by taking control of how they live, how they work, how they retire, how they spend their money, how they receive care, and even how they die. This purposeful, focused approach is just the fuel that our volunteer programs need! Among other topics, this stream will examine how older adults can:
Participants will have a choice of many enriching workshops to choose from that will examine opportunities for the older adults. Workshop options will soon be available.
In situations of natural or man-made disasters, two things are imminent: (1) there will be chaos, and (2) there will be volunteers ready to provide help. It is critical for volunteer managers to effectively handle the impact of an evolving disaster-related situation or the confusing and well-meaning—but poorly prepared—volunteers, both of which can have disastrous outcomes. The Disaster Readiness and Recovery stream will explore the emergence of a sustainable volunteer response in real-life situations, such as with the Kobe Earthquake and the September 11 events. Dr. Shigeo Tatsuki, from the Department of Sociology at Dohisha University in Japan, will provide lessons learned from a local community’s response, and Ms. Lisa Orloff will share how the efforts of unaffiliated volunteers were organized to make a difference at Ground Zero in New York City in 2001. The stream will also host workshops that address the emotional and spiritual needs of volunteers responding to a disaster. Workshops on psychological first aid and spiritual healing will engage participants in learning positive ways to support themselves and the volunteers they lead. Finally, the stream will examine partnerships between nonprofit and faith-based organizations that create the network for disaster readiness, response, and recovery in America. Built on a volunteer base, these organizations face constant pressure to recruit, train, and manage new volunteers to keep their organizations viable and ready to respond. Successes, difficulties, and best practices will be shared. Participants will have a choice of many enriching workshops to choose from that will develop the pursuit of pathways to peace. Workshop options will soon be available. Participants will have a choice of many enriching workshops to choose from that will focus on leading volunteers during times of disaster. Workshop options will soon be available.
This stream will present a different way of viewing service to others: building strength and purpose as volunteer managers themselves grow as persons of conviction. This growth will result in transforming thoughts of how to address change and promote peace and harmony through voluntary actions. The Six Billion Paths to Peace stream solidifies the power of volunteerism as a “giving, growing, and transforming” process toward a more harmonious world. Imagine how, just as a pebble can cause a ripple to traverse the water, individual acts of service can reverberate outward and eventually touch us all. Such is the potential of a single act of kindness. And with more than 6 billion people on this earth, that gives us an unending source from which to pursue peace. The Six Billion Paths to Peace stream will start with an interactive session with Dr. Art Ong Jumsai from Thailand; Dr. Haru Inouye, Shinnyo-en Foundation, San Francisco; and Nainoa Thompson, master navigator of the Hokulea. This session will present the context for the ensuing workshop sessions. The choices are varied but all will put volunteers and peace concepts into action models using various techniques. And the international audience will also contribute to the discovery process. Ultimately, it is our individual paths to peace that will build the foundation for greater compassion and harmony in building caring and peaceful communities. It is our individual commitments that will bear fruit in the well-being of those around us.. Participants will have a choice of many enriching workshops to choose from that will develop the pursuit of pathways to peace. Workshop options will soon be available.
Asia Pacific Volunteer Leadership Conference |
Volunteer
Management
The
leadership of volunteers is highly challenging in many ways, but none
more so than in the constant fluctuation of volunteer service participation
and motivation. Volunteer leaders must have a constant read on their people—and
people are often difficult to read! Younger generations are volunteering
in different ways and at different rates as compared to previous generations,
forcing us to reassess and adapt our past experience and practices in
volunteer management. And baby boomers are a potential growing resource
for the volunteer field—as this generation enters older adulthood,
they are striving to live longer and more fulfilling lives, which often
includes giving back to their communities. And the ongoing challenges
of educating executives about volunteerism, building relationships with
all-volunteer groups, and strengthening the profession of volunteer management
remain with us. There is much for volunteer managers to learn and grasp
in this evolving field.
More
than any other generation, the baby boomers have the ability and resources
to make their older-adult years some of the most remarkable in history.
With more than 91 million people soon to be over age 60 in the United
States alone, this generation boasts impressive numbers and extreme diversity,
presenting them with many exciting opportunities for leaving a lasting
impact on the world around them.
There
are three major themes for the Disaster Readiness and Recovery stream.
In
today’s world of unprecedented violence, rage, hatred, and deceit,
the opportunity to make a difference through peaceful acts of service
is gaining attention. It parallels the attention given to slowing the
impact of global warming, which is making us aware of our actions that
trigger climate change.