VIBHASCOPE JUNE 2006

The Second Annual Vibha Volunteer Conference was held successfully in Washington DC during the first weekend of June. The conference was held at the George Mason University Campus in Arlington on 3 & 4 June 2006. The conference brought volunteers from many of our Action Centers and Teams together to discuss opportunities for GROWTH in our projects, fundraising, programs, branding & volunteering efforts.

Our guest speakers included Venkatesh Raghavendra Director, Global Partnerships for Asia at Ashoka, James Minter, Project Monitoring Point of Contact for Asha DC and Dr. Sunitha Krishnan, Ashoka Fellow and Founder of Prajwala. These speakers' insightful talks resulted in productive discussions on ways to scale the scope and breadth of the projects that we support as well as helped outline and shape the next steps towards achieving our vision. Our informal discussions focused on Vibha's place, 10 years from now in terms of projects as well as volunteers. The next Annual Volunteer Conference is scheduled for June 2007 in Dallas. So mark your calendars!

As part of our renewed branding efforts, we also previewed the new Vibha website for our volunteers. The new website has since been launched. CHECK OUT THE NEW LOOK HERE

We are also excited to announce the setting up of Vibha Houston in this edition. In addition read about Board openings and volunteer opportunities available.

VibhaSCOPE is one-stop source for all our volunteers needs. We ask from our volunteers to continue to provide us with ideas, suggestions and comments on how we are doing and how we can improve our Newsletter. If you are interested in publishing and writing content for the newsletter, please email the Volunteer Relations Team.

LATEST NEWS
 In this edition we review the presentations and key elements from the Volunteer Conference.
Select a topic to view more details 

PICTURES FROM THE VOLUNTEER CONFERENCE

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UPDATE FROM THE COO AT THE VOLUNTEER CONFERENCE

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Dear Fellow Volunteers and Patrons,


Thanks to the joint efforts and contribution from all participants, the Second Vibha Volunteer Conference held on June 2-3 was a huge success. The conference was hosted by our Washington D.C. Action Center at the George Mason University Campus.

 

The theme of this year' conference was GROWTH. Board members, Directors and volunteers from each functional area such as projects, fund raising, volunteer strength etc. talked about what growth means to Vibha in these areas.

 

The conference was kicked off with an update on various fronts such as, action items from last conference and how the team worked on these action items, update on Vibha financials.

 

We had several Guest speakers who added great value to the conference. Venkatesh Raghavendra from Ashoka Foundation talked about Ashoka Fellow Program; James Minster from Asha spoke about project monitoring and evaluation. We also had Dr.Sunitha Krishnan, an Ashoka Fellow and founder of the organization Prajwala, talk about Child trafficking and prostitution.
 
Two informal sessions on Friday and Saturday evening concentrated on Project Scaling and Project Selection. During the daily sessions, Vibha branding and setting up of Vibha India were also discussed. Some of the key decisions arrived towards the end of the conference are:

 

1. An expedited process for project selection by having core of the selection done by site visits in India by project monitors or evaluators and final decision made by the project selection team in US. Once this new process is implemented, all projects will require prior site visit as a part of the evaluation process.

 

2. Vibha India needs to be set up immediately and a core team will start working on this.

 

3. Adding a member having expertise with NPO Projects to the Board.

 

I would like to express special thanks to D.C. volunteers for an excellent job organizing this conference. D.C. Volunteers provided accommodation and transportation for the participants, even picking up volunteers from the airport past midnight.

 

I truly appreciate the participants’ willingness to share their experiences, and the information provided at this conference has been extremely valuable. 
 

Rajesh Haridas,

COO, Vibha

 
KEY DISCUSSION POINTS Top

Introduction to the Conference and Discussion of Updates from Last Year

  • Changes made to Vibha infrastructure
  • Vivek Sharma hired as full time employee of Vibha in US
  • Purchased Donor management software
  • Audit processes have improved, takes 2 weeks to provide receipts to patrons
  • Single point of contacts and emails, centralized control of information
  • No more voicemails, Vibha Phone is now active and answered during business hours
  • Improved documentation for Vibha
  • IT infrastructure has improved with introduction of Share point for all Vibha data access

Why and How to Scale Projects, Areas of Growth
 

  • Selection process of projects has improved with less redundancy of processes

  • Monitoring of projects

  • Documentation & Marketing

  • Discussion about how to reduce redundancy in selection process

  • Discussion on how to achieve growth in number of projects i.e. scalability of projects

  • Proposal for a template to start funding for a project

  • How action centers are supposed to propose a project to be funded

  • Scalability of projects

  • Growth of Vibha projects and where Vibha stands 10 yrs from now

Action Center Best Practices Discussion

  • Vibha DC Booth and Informational Kiosk

  • Vibha Bay Area Awareness Month Discussion

Fundraising Best Practices and Events Risk Management

  • Role of Action Centers

  • Expansion of criteria to qualify what an Action center is.

  • Discussion on what qualifies as an Event

  • Risk Management in Financial, Volunteer and Legal Areas associated with event planning and implementation

  • Discussion of Budget Models to be for Events

Marketing and Branding Efforts

  • Perception of Vibha among internal and external stakeholders

  • Comparative Discussion of Vibha's Brand Image

  • Discussion of the Launch of Website

  • Available Marketing Collaterals for all Action Centers

Volunteer Growth and Awareness Efforts

  • Ownership ideas and audit metrics for volunteer groups at Vibha

  • Mentorship Programs, Orientation and Welcome kit Discussion

  • Focus on Growth vs. volunteer Retention Discussion

If you would like more information on any of the topics above, please contact your team Directors info@vibha.org. Internal documentation on all presentations is available in the Volunteer Relations share. Please note this is for Vibha volunteers only.
ACTION ITEMS FROM THE CONFERENCE Top

Projects:

  • Clean up the projects queue
  • Come up with screening questions for filtering projects
  • Document the new project selection policy

Marketing:

  • Vibha Branding: What is Vibha ?
  • Marketing tools should connect with projects as much as possible
  • Press release of the conference
  • Presentation slides to all volunteers
  • Write up about conference

Volunteer Relations:

  • Listing volunteer opportunity on Vibha web site
  • Listing volunteer opportunity on volunteer match and similar web sites
  • Coming up with an infrastructure and policy for listing volunteer opportunity and communicating it to Action Centers
  • Reinstate Volunteer Newsletter
  • Organize regular ACC conference call
  • Execs visiting smaller action centers for information session
  • Parallel sessions for next year Conference - Program updates and Problem solving

Fund Raising:

  • Plan 2006 Financial figures from Action Centers to be in place

Programs:

  • Combine booth with HTG
  • HTG drive plan for the year
  • Vibha India: Form a focus group and start working on this

Look out for updates to the Action Items in VibhaScope as well as in communication from the National Team.
GUEST SPEAKER NOTES Top

About Guest Speakers

Venkatesh Raghavendra, Director, Global Partnerships for Asia, Ashoka 

About Venkatesh: Venkatesh is a part of Ashoka's global training team and also leading a social marketing initiative of Ashoka's in Asia. He is focusing on building relationships with the business sector, the Diaspora population and other key investors of Ashoka. Since 2000, Venkatesh has managed Ashoka's Asia program, bridging it with the global activities of Ashoka. Prior to that, he was the Ashoka Representative for South India.  

You can view his profile here

Venkatesh spoke to Vibha volunteers about the Ashoka model of influencing social entrepreneurs as well as their impact on projects through their Fellowship program. He talked about the criteria of becoming an Ashoka fellow as well various areas of support that Ashoka provides to the inductees. He also provided input on influence that Ashoka Fellows have had in their government, areas of expertise and the social change that has been brought about by their efforts. He also introduced Dr. Sunitha Krishnan, an Ashoka fellow and founder of Prajwala which provides rehabilitative and protective services to those exploited by human trafficking in India. Dr. Krishnan also spoke about her organization and her efforts to curb human trafficking and the policy and fundraising issues her organization faces.

James Minter, Asha Washington Projects Monitoring Team

About James Minter: 52 old industrial chemist in the field of helping countries print currency, visas, passports. Spent 24 years traveling to India after his marriage in Indore, M.P. Spends 4 month each year traveling to Asha current and proposed projects for on site auditing. Currently a member of Asha For Education, Washington Chapter.

James spoke to Vibha volunteers about Asha DC's decentralized model of supporting and monitoring projects. He spoke in detail about the key check points every grant organization should evaluate.

Guest Speaker Presentations are available to Vibha Volunteers by sending a request to volunteer@vibha.org
VIBHA HOUSTON Top

We are excited to announce that Vibha Houston has been set up under the stewardship of Vivienne Victor. If you are intersted in volunteering and being part of the Houston mailing list please email volunteer@houston.vibha.org. You can also visit their website at http://houston.vibha.org
VIBHA'S NEW LOOK Top

After many months of planning and hard work of a great group of volunteers, the new look for Vibha was launched in mid June.

Let us know what you think at volunteer@vibha.org

VIBHA BOARD MEMBER VACANCY UPDATE Top
There are currently 2 openings in Vibha's Board. We invite nominations to fill these openings. Please read how to nominate, who to nominate and other specifics of the Board positions.

Who can nominate?

An action center can nominate an individual they think is an ideal member for the board.Anyone from Executive committee can nominate an individual for the board member. Existing board members can nominate

Who makes the decision?

A nomination does not guarantees a position on the board even if number of nomination received is equal or less than the vacant positions available.  The current board member votes and and makes a decision for adding each new board members. 

Who is an ideal board member?

A trustee/Board Member shall be eighteen years or older.  A board member will be sympathetic to the plight of Indian Children.  A board member will have demonstrated prior experience, expertise and desire towards social causes and welfare preferably in the children's sector.  A board member shall commit to performing duties of the office of the board of trustees and shall commit the requisite time and effort required towards enabling Vibha's vision and mission.  Board members will have demonstrated their ability to lead and set directions and strategic plans for organizations through their professional careers coupled with their ability to leverage a network of influential people for the same.

Duration of position?

3 years

Hours of commitment?

A board member is expected to commit at least 2 to 4 hours a week for Vibha activities.  A board member should attend monthly board meetings and should not miss more than 3 meetings in an year and 2 consecutive meetings at any time.  A board member should attend the Vibha conference every year he/she is a member of the board.

Before you nominate...

Please talk to the individual about the nomination before you nominate anyone.  Please bring up all the above points to a board member if he/she is already not aware of these.

Please email Rajesh Haridas  with your nominations

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES

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VOLUNTEER CONTENT COORDINATOR

Number of Volunteers Required: 2

Tasks:

  • Set theme and agenda for the monthly volunteer newsletter: VibhaScope
  • Compile content for VibhaScope from various sources
  • Support publication

Hours:

  • This is a monthly task requiring commitment of 2-3 hours per week during content gathering phase.

Contact: Volunteer Relations

VOLUNTEER CONTENT JOURNALIST

Number of Volunteers Required: 5

Tasks:

  • Follow up content for VibhaScope from different Action Centers and Teams
  • Compile graphics and supporting documentation
  • Document and archive content
  • Support publication

Hours:

  • This is a monthly task requiring commitment of 2-3 hours per week during content gathering phase.

Contact:  Volunteer Relations

VOLUNTEER FIRST-CONTACT COORDINATOR

Number of Volunteers Required: 2

Tasks:

  • Respond to volunteer-specific queries via the various Vibha mailing systems
  • Re-directing queries to appropriate Points of Contact
  • Surveying New Volunteers for feedback
  • Maintain Database of new volunteers and Point of Contact for various Vibha Teams

Hours:

  • This is a daily task but the process is standardized and requires prompt and quick response.

Contact: Volunteer Relations

The Vibha Newsletter is maintained by the Vibha Volunteer Relations Team. In case of questions, comments and suggestions please email: volunteer@vibha.org
VIBHA INTERNAL NEWSLETTER : JUNE 2006
 

 

 

 

CONTACT INFORMATION

General Email:  info@vibha.org

Volunteer Relations Team:

volunteer@vibha.org

ARCHIVES OF THE NEWSLETTER