APPENDIX L - Musquodoboit Valley Planning Accomplishments – February 2104

APPENDIX L - Musquodoboit Valley Planning Accomplishments – February 2104

Musquodoboit Valley Micro-Volunteering Plan 2013

The Musquodoboit Valley Planning Committee, a subcommittee of the Middle Musquodoboit Agricultural Society, has been actively working to develop “A community that embraces co-operation and collaboration to make efficient use of the available resources and skills within our community to create a strong, vibrant, healthy, rural community that we are all proud to call home.” One of the key initiatives of the committee is focused the issues of volunteer shortage and burnout and has decided to initiate a micro-volunteering plan for the community.

The concept of micro-volunteering is still evolving and there are numerous approaches and definitions being used to describe micro-volunteering.

Some of these approaches include;

1) Home based volunteering actions -- Small, quick, low commitment actions that benefit a worthy cause. The actions might be a task that could be accomplished as a whole unit from start to finish by one person or it might be an action that could be broken down into its component parts where an individual is just one of many people performing the same task to achieve an end result.

2) Professional skills volunteering actions – Volunteering by a professional, tasks are broken into small pieces, so that they can complete a task in the time that they have available - typically (but not necessarily) via an internet connected device such as a mobile phone or personal computer. In practice, to achieve this level of convenience, there is often no training or vetting necessary.

3) Network of micro-volunteers - The non-profit that needs help asks a large group for assistance. Microvolunteers who have the time, interest, and skills (ideally), and who may be previously unknown to the non -profit, do the work. The time demands of the manager (e.g. a nonprofit staffer) are reduced by distributing as much of the project management and quality review as possible to the network of micro-volunteers. This work management method differs from a top-down model of project management.

Source: http://www.helpfromhome.org/faqs.htm

4) Day-to-day microvolunteerism is the act of voluntary participating in small day-to-day situations that occupy a brief amount of time. This could be anything from helping stack chairs, to guiding someone with impaired seeing, to signing a petition, to helping someone who's down on their luck.

The Musquodoboit Valley has over 50 non-profit groups, numerous volunteers that provide vital community services to the communities. We have a pool of limited volunteers who continue to support these non-profits even as the average age of these volunteers increases, available resources become more limited, families are busier, people don’t want to commit to long term actions, non-profits are expected to do more to provide valuable community services, the availability of donations from residents has decreased and non-profits must compete for the smaller portion of funds. We ask; who will take over these valuable positions when the current volunteers are no longer able to volunteer?

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  Educate community groups on the value and process of micro-volunteering;
  
  • 
    send groups a newsletter (online and offline) and information package about micro-volunteering and offer to speak at their meetings about the topic
    
  • 
    provide information on our website
    
  • 
    provide information at the volunteer kitchen party
    
  • 
    offer mini training sessions on how to develop micro-volunteering opportunities
    
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  Gather micro-volunteering opportunities from community groups;
  

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  develop a template for groups to develop their own volunteer opportunities
  
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  host mini education session for groups on volunteering (help from HRM Volunteer services)
  
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  train organizations to develop micro volunteer actions
  
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  connect with target groups to show them how easy it is
  

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  get groups signed onto GoodNS
  
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  gather information from groups and post opportunities for them
  
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  Educate residents and past-residents about micro-volunteering
  
  • 
    mail out newsletter about micro-volunteering and direct them to the next steps
    
  • 
    provide information on our website about the opportunities
    
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    attend other local events to promote the concept
    
  • 
    make a presentation at the high school in conjunction with the Youth Health Centre
    
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  Promote micro-volunteering opportunities to residents and past residents
  

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  post opportunities on GoodNS site
  
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  Post the GoodNS widget on our website
  
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  post opportunities on bulletin boards
  
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  look for outdoor signs (ours or others) to post the opportunities
  
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  use social media to spread the word
  
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  promote the concept at the high school
  

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  Can be completed in under 30 minutes.
  
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  Visible feedback: Volunteers like to see how they have contributed and who else is participating. Could be achieved via photos of other people participating in the same actions.
  
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  Non discriminatory: Should be able to be completed by people with disabilities.
  
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  No training: Provide an action that has little or no training required.
  
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  Simple instructions: Ideally a volunteer should understand how to participate in easy steps.
  
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  No vetting interviews: If set up correctly within a self contained, do-it-by-the-book system, there would be no need to vet someone.
  
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  No registration: If it’s participation levels that are required, then an action without registration is the way to go.
  
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  Free to participate: 'Free' has strong pulling power – enough said!
  
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  Communication: Provide a means to communicate with other participants or support team.
  
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  Incentives: Provide something for the ‘what’s in it for me’ attitude as in peer recognition or something more materialistic.
  
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  No commitment: Think about a volunteer being able to ‘dip-in, dip-out’.
  
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  No age restriction: So long as a person is web savvy, then that is normally all that is required.
  

In order to show the effectiveness of the micro-volunteering plan it will be important to track statistics such as;

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  # of opportunities/Gigs posted
  
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  # of opportunities/Gigs filled
  
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  # of first time volunteers (to the group or to volunteering in general)
  

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  pictures of people volunteering
  
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  hours of volunteering that results from micro-volunteering
  

What to do to make the volunteers feel appreciated and acknowledged?

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  provide students with hours of volunteering to account for a credit
  
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  provide reference to students and adults for job positions
  
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  redeem hours for something?????? such as food donated to food bank on your behalf/certificates (like air miles points/ gas cards)
  

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  a notice sent out thanking people for their time
  
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  name entered for a monthly prize
  

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  ushers needed for Bicentennial Theatre events
  
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  staff for pub nights (MVBT)
  
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  servers, cooks and cleaners for church suppers
  
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  meals to wheels volunteers (free meal)
  
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  home and school committee-sac, book fair, events, breakfast
  
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  garden project
  
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  beaver leaders
  
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  tourism – website help, calling people, developing histories
  
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  bake sale bakers
  
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  cleaners for playground in upper
  
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  roadside cleanup
  
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  volunteers at Braeside and hospital
  
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  church committees
  
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  lions club committees
  
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  agricultural society – maintenance jobs, winter rink staff
  
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  MVPC – newsletters, database, promotion
  
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  Hfx County Exhibition anniversary pictures
  
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  community marketing
  
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  Moose River museum artifact research
  

Musquodoboit Valley Coalition Proposal - December 2013

The Musquodoboit Valley Planning Committee, currently a sub-committee of the Middle Musquodoboit Agricultural Society, is proposing the development of a community coalition. This coalition would start off as an informal organization made up of Musq Valley Community groups that meet to communicate, network, collaborate and work on common issues.

The Coalition would operate as follows;

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  Act as an umbrella group of community groups
  
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  All community groups are automatically members
  
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  Membership is free, groups are the members
  
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  Groups send representatives to the meetings (does not have to be the same member each time)
  
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  Bi-annual strategic meetings (to set forth the issues of importance for the next six months)
  
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  Bi-annual communication meetings (groups meet to share and committees can report on their projects)
  
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  Other monthly/periodic meetings are topic specific to allow groups to participate if they wish to
  
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  Called the Musq Valley Planning Group
  
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  Will not register as a society yet, informal until groups decide if they require status. Less formal meeting format.
  

The Coalition’s Vision would be;

“A community that embraces co-operation and collaboration to make efficient use of the available resources and skills within our community to create a strong, vibrant, healthy, rural community that we are all proud to call home.”

The Coalition’s key areas are; (as determined by the community through the Community Consultation process held in 2011)

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  Tourism Destination Development
  
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  Buy Local and local Food Program
  
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  Community Coordination and Promotion
  
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  Building a strong Volunteer system
  
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  Youth
  
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  Small Business
  
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  Forestry
  
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  Seniors
  

The Coalition’s 2013/2014 priorities are; (as identified by current work being done by the committee)

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  Marketing of community events, businesses and non-profits
  
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  Community Transportation
  
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  Micro-volunteering
  
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  Community Communication
  

The Coalition’s current committees include;

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  Community Marketing
  
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  Youth
  
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  Local Food (not yet a committee)
  
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  Volunteerism
  
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  Forestry
  
• 
  Seniors
  

1^ See GHP Demographic Analysis

Directory: site -> media
site -> North Carolina Inclusion Initiative Mapping Where Children with ieps are Being Served Purpose
site -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations
site -> Physical custody of 1033 program property accountibility form statement of Physical Custody: By signing for the below 1033 property I am a Law Enforcement Officer of the aforementioned Law Enforcement Agency
site -> Nstructions for Acquiring Excess Equipment online, through the 1033 Program
site -> Memorandum of agreement
media -> Goal: This links to a page with the three paragraphs that are already used on the home page
media -> Places of Worship, Prayer and Practice At or near the Mount Peace Room Evaristus C410
media -> Msvu career Services

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