This week, I spent a majority of my time creating a contact list of volunteers. This list was beneficial for finding emails and phone numbers for all of out volunteers. I emailed most of our volunteers, as well as calling them to get feedback. We have received more responses for the feedback survey I sent out, and I presented this feedback to Speak! this week. The survey confirmed next steps I should take to help Speak! reach their goals. We have talked a lot about what we think needed to be improved and what we thought was working well. The survey confirmed that we need to be focused volunteer appreciation, how we communicate volunteer opportunities, and lastly new trainings across Speak!. My goal is to help Speak! improve in these specified areas within the time remaining in the fellowship.

Volunteer Appreciation is my top priority moving forward in the fellowship. I am still reaching out to volunteers, but I am working with members from the board to get a Volunteer Bash on our calendar. This is something that Speak! used to do before COVID, so it is very exciting to bring this tradition back to Speak!. I am excited to finally meet some of these volunteers, but also excited to be planning the event. I will also hopefully meet some volunteers at the Paint and Sip event they are having next week!

As for the training videos, once the Volunteer Appreciation event has been planned, training are my next priority! I feel that the training videos will really make an impact on future volunteers for Speak!. The overall goal is to have the volunteers feel more prepared and ready to participate and maybe even lead! We would like to have trainings for the individual roles in Speak! but also an orientation that introduces the core members of Speak! right as a volunteer starts their journey with us. This should hopefully ease the transition for new volunteers. There is a lot to do and only a few weeks left to get it done! Looking forward to all of the things planned in those few weeks, and I cannot wait to see the final outcome!