Managing the OneTeamGov Global Volunteers
Despite being a busy mom, with a super cool job as one of Canada’s Free Agents working in the ESDC innovation lab, Colleen has managed to carve out time to help turn the OneTeamGov global dream into a reality.
Colleen is in charge of managing the many volunteers it takes to make an event of this size run smoothly, with the help of a couple keen team members, Mary and Sasha. Organizing a free work force comes with it’s own set of challenges including availability, time commitments, and buy-in from people’s workplace. Colleen however, handles this with grace and compassion, noting that “we are all trying to do less with more and it’s no different with volunteers. It is difficult to fit extra work in when it is already on the side of your desk.”
Organizing our many volunteers could be a full time job between getting people up to speed on what has been done, identifying how they can help with the event and making sure there are enough committed volunteers for the day-of. Colleen and her team do this on top of their regular work. “I am proud of my team and of myself,” Colleen says of their working arrangement and what they have accomplished in their roles.
“When the call came out for the next OneTeamGov global, I thought ‘this is going to be wild’ but I was along for the ride.”
Her role in managing volunteers started with connecting with volunteers and helping to create the planning team. Now, her role is focus on scheduling the volunteers for the day of the unconference. Colleen asks them what their preference is for their shift. Can they take on the morning shift from 7:30 to 12:30, or do they prefer the afternoon shift from 12:30 to 5:30? Are they an experienced facilitator that can help with a breakout session? “Once they have been issued a conference ticket and identified on the form that they are interested in volunteering, we connect with them to see what shift they would like to take.”
Before her involvement with OneTeamGov, Colleen had worked on cross-cutting initiatives multiple times in her career that were meant to work across the traditional boundaries of departments and agencies to solve common problems. So, when OneTeamGov was being started in the UK, the initiative felt like a natural extension of her previous work. She decided she wanted to be involved from the start.
“What drives me towards OTG is that if each of us did our part to connect and share our work, think of the efficiencies we could realize and the silos we could break down. Why wouldn’t we be creating time for these connections and networking?”
For her, this meant helping where she could, and using her skills to help other people who want to be involved, reach their full potential. “I want to make sure the volunteers have what they need to have a great experience, but mostly I want all the volunteers to have fun and feel appreciated. We are grateful to them and we hope that through engagement and outreach we can inspire new volunteers to sign on.”
Lastly, I asked Colleen, that if the volunteers could only take away one thing from this event, what would she want it to be? Her response:
“I hope they feel that they were a part of history. This is a global movement and at the end of the day, the volunteers will be a vital part of it.”
Do you want to volunteer to help with the global event taking place on May 21st, 2019? The more the merrier! We are still recruiting people to volunteer during the unconference to facilitate, greet, direct people and work at stations. You can apply for the unconference and show your interest in being a volunteer through our form. You can also find pre-written business cases to help gain support from your organization for you to attend. You can find blogs and other information about the unconference on our OneTeamGov Global Unconference website.
Want more information on the unconference? You can check out my other blogs on the subject here, on Medium.
Already packing your bags and excited for the unconference? You can use our travel guide to plan everything you’ll need during your trip.
