“Leadership 2000”
Volunteer training buzzes
with new ideas, new energy

In the session chaired by Valerie Falk, a kind of controlled chaos is taking place. Clearly a woman who has spent time in front of the classroom, Falk encourages the roomful of UMass volunteers to come up with ways that the group, mostly alumni, can help UMass. Falk is a whirlwind of activity, clapping her hands, energizing the group, a facilitating virtuoso. One volunteer pretends to wipe the sweat from his brow: “This is intellectual heavy lifting,” he jokes. “I thought I was here to rah-rah.”

     Joking aside, the volunteers are eager to brainstorm. These are leaders culled from the three largest volunteer groups: the Alumni Admissions Council, whose members work at college fairs, open houses, and the like; the alumni clubs with their social events and fundraisers; and the Ambassadors Network, whose volunteers advocate on the behalf of UMass to the state legislature. One weekend this September, sixty of the leaders came back to campus for “Leadership 2000,” a first-of-its-kind volunteer training.

     Volunteer training is hardly new to UMass. What’s new is that this is the first year volunteers from all three programs have come together. “Leadership 2000” was the capstone event for a process that’s been four years in the making – a process that involves getting UMass advocates invested in what Lynne Wanamaker calls the “short list of priorities.” Those priorities are to know the state budget process, to understand the admissions process and the new admissions standards, to be able to speak about fundraising and Campaign UMass, and to enhance the image of UMass.

     Although the “short list” focuses mostly on understanding the priorities, that understanding often leads to action. Now, instead of having the types of volunteering so clearly delineated, it’s becoming more common for volunteers to get involved in multiple ways.

How did such an idea for “cross-pollination,” as it’s been dubbed, come about? Enter four key players: Lynne Wanamaker and Cheryl Dukes from the Advocacy Program, David Hautanen from undergraduate admissions, and Falk from alumni relations. True to the nature of combined volunteering, the four pass along the praise for the “cross-pollinating” idea. When asked, Hautanen muses that someone must have made the first phone calls, but “who knows, exactly?” Wanamaker says “things were afoot” already when she started working for UMass two and a half years ago. Regardless of whose idea it was, the four have taken on the mammoth project with gusto. “Everyone involved is a believer,” Hautanen says.

     And it is a mammoth project, rife with potential conflict. Imagine the concept of giving up absolute control of your volunteers, of leading them from very focused service to a pan-campus idea of advocacy; imagine the task of taking your volunteer leaders, cross-training them, and asking them to spread the word to their fellow volunteers.

     But the potential conflict has never surfaced. None of the four key players is at all worried about blurring the boundaries: “It’s the exact opposite,” says Falk. “In all kinds of situations, people get very territorial – these are MY volunteers, this is MY program. Instead, what we’re seeing is when we pool our resources, we’re more productive.”

     “We’re not competing,” Dukes says. “We’re working toward the same end – it’s not my people/your people, it’s our people.”

     More importantly, Dukes says, the cross-pollination gives the volunteers more ways of contributing to the university. “If you give people opportunities, they’ll surprise you with what they’ll try,” Dukes says, adding slyly: “We have volunteers who eat this stuff up once they realize how easy it is.”

In the hallways of the Campus Center, during the workshop breaks, the volunteers, without prompting, continue their discussions on contributing to UMass. Every fifth word, in fact, seems to be UMass. If another topic comes up – the incredible just-fall weather, for instance – it’s soon tied into how gorgeous UMass looks with the mountains as a backdrop.

     So much effort has gone into the workshops that the three programs blend seamlessly. The volunteers see the blending as a natural progression and aren’t worried that the university is asking too much of them. “You just do what you can do,” says Kathy Garganta ’75, a member of all three groups. “I like having lots of choices.”

     “It gives you an opportunity to do what you’re best at,” says Kristian Greene ’92, a Washington D.C., club member. “We have common goals.”

     Rather than understanding just one area of advocacy, the volunteers are gaining a holistic knowledge of the university and how they can help. “This is what some of us have been asking for for a long time,” says Kathy Garganta’s husband Kevin ’75.

     “Really, you can’t picture not doing them all together,” Kathy says. “From a volunteer’s point of view, it’s easy. They feed off of each other.”

     “And,” Kevin adds, smiling, “this is energizing.”

     It certainly helps that Hautanen, Falk, Dukes, and Wanamaker have, as Falk declares, “canned the territoriality.” “I’m not afraid that I will lose a club leader because Lynne [Wanamaker] gains an ambassador. On the contrary – we’ll get a better club leader and a better ambassador, and that person will be more committed to the university as a whole.”

     The sixty leaders in attendance at “Leadership 2000” are certainly committed to the institution and to seeing the cross-pollination work. “This is what the big, good schools do,” says Benjamin Happ ’98, now a graduate student at Berkeley and the leader of the alumni club in San Francisco. “I’m glad to see there are serious attempts being made to bolster connections – it fosters a culture of giving.”

     Charles Hadley ’64 – who, although he lives in New Orleans, manages to be a part of all three groups plus the alumni board – agrees with Happ. Giving to the university “is a matter of being asked,” he says. “If I weren’t interested in the University, I wouldn’t waste my time doing this.”

     It’s quite the group. “They’re very committed,” Wanamaker says. “People really appreciate their experience at UMass. It’s nice to work with people who have such genuine feelings.”

As far as the volunteers are concerned, this is just the beginning. “All the schools were asking: What direction are we going in? This is the first step,” says Robert Nestor ’63 (Dartmouth), the treasurer of the board of directors for the Alumni Association. “Eventually this will strengthen all the groups.”

     That strength, Wanamaker says, will come from the focused sense of mission. With the advent of – what else could they call it? – The Volunteer, a newsletter slated to debut in the next month, the university’s 3,000 clubs leaders, ambassadors, and admissions council members will be kept up to date. “It also gives us the opportunity to steward and recognize our volunteers – to say thank you,” Wanamaker says.

     The one truly vital part of this volunteer collaboration that has yet to be ironed out is a name. Perhaps the “Advocacy Programs, Admissions, and Alumni Relations Collaboration?” It’s a bit clumsy, Dukes admits. For now, “we call it ‘3-A.’” She sighs. “We’re looking for a snazzy name.”

— Karen Skolfield

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