Wanted

This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s April volunteer Newsletter edition.

You might know that before coming onto WWA’s staff three months ago, I did a lot of volunteer work.  I know why I volunteer, but I’ve recently begun thinking about why others might volunteer.  In part, because it’s clear that WWA does not function without volunteers, so (duh) one of my goals is to keep our volunteer effort strong.

Google helped me—there are lots of articles on this topic—and there seem to be about 10-12 reasons why people volunteer.  These range from social connections (it’s fun to be with other like-minded individuals), to the well-documented health benefits of volunteering.

Let’s focus on two commonly given reasons to volunteer:  (1) Expand professional experiences to be more competitive for future jobs, and (2) Make a difference using a unique skillset.

But first, here’s an update on how WWA’s volunteer Board of Directors is moving forward to be more impactful for WWA.  In general, WWA Directors focus on how to improve the state-level effectiveness in delivering programs, while making sure the overall WWA is moving in a healthy direction.  So they are now forming service-focused committees for:

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  Volunteers work on the Jackson Marsh Wildlife Area this past spring

  Field Operations: We want to increase our well-respected habitat restoration work to overcome the increasing threat to wetlands by: expanding our formal wetland project work in quantity, and across areas of the state where we are under-represented; providing greater Adopt a Wildlife Area (AWA) support; Re-creating the Abrams property model in other locations; Growing our wild rice restoration activities; and in general, nesting structure/banding programs (duck boxes and tubes, etc) and finding creative ways to enhance more wetland properties around the state.

• Education: We will be paying it forward, by growing the connectivity between our communities and wetlands through youth and adult learn-to-hunts; implementing mentored hunting programs; developing other wetlands or waterfowl-related educational programming.
• Advocacy: Since WI Waterfowlers give far more back to our state’s natural environment and to our communities than the resources we consume, we want to expand our influence on legislative and regulatory policies to ensure they respect WI Waterfowlers as responsible users of state natural resources.
• Development: Expanding our chapter grassroots fundraising successes throughout the state, which will allow WWA to attract new members, and develop the funding needed to expand our initiatives. Even more so, the future challenges facing WWA require we develop additional funding streams, such as through larger philanthropic foundations, and that we seek grant opportunities beyond our traditional field project grants.
• Membership and Communications:  Increasing the effectiveness of our external and internal communications will grow our “voice” and provide more resources to accomplish WWA’s mission:  We must better connect to ALL of Wisconsin’s 80,000 waterfowlers. By better marketing our promise and our successes we will be better able to resource the programs described above, and better represent the WI Watefowlers in our advocacy role.

Good stuff, I think.  But how does it relate to the reasons why people volunteer that started this column?  Maybe it becomes more clear how this restructuring provides people with new opportunities to volunteer when I share that:

You don’t need to be a member of our Board of Directors to be on a Committee. If you want to advance to a Directorship, this would be a good avenue to take, but that’s not necessary.  If you have a particular talent or passion that aligns with the needs of a committee, you can be part of making a WWA state-wide impact – we are actively seeking such people.   Maybe you enjoy developing youth education programs, or think there is value to sharing chapter best practices to other chapters around the state; or think you’d like to organize more grassroots advocacy for wetlands; or…  there are lots of opportunities!

You don’t need to be a duck hunter to be on a Committee.  It might be that your non-hunting significant other is good with Facebook, and might enjoy using those talents to develop a FB-based membership engagement campaign (for example). Or maybe a neighbor wants to hone their database management skill sets to be able to improve their employability for their next advancement at work. Or maybe a college-aged friend working towards a degree in geospatial mapping would be willing to review GIS data for good restoration candidate properties as part of a school project. Or….

So, please consider this article to be a job posting for such volunteers – and ask yourself if you can help network someone into such a non-traditional, state-level volunteer role with WWA.

As always, I’m available at  bruceross@wi.rr.com or 262.224.4949.