May 19,2000 UNT Inhouse publication: Program teaches volunteer management

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Program teaches volunteer management

When Tena Burley decided to return to college after 13 years as a stay-at-home mom, she wasn't sure what she should study — until she heard about UNT's Volunteer and Community Resource Management Certification Program.

"I had done a lot of volunteering, mostly with the PTA, church and with theater guilds. It felt like a natural progression to learn how to manage volunteers," Burley says. "The motivation for paid employees to work is often for the money, but volunteers have a huge range of reasons why they are volunteering. Managing them is very different from managing employees."

Started in January, the certification program provides specialized training in leadership theory and practice, program planning, community asset mapping and other skills needed in volunteer management.

The program is similar to UNT's American Humanics Certificate Program in Youth and Human Service Nonprofit Management, which began in September 1998.

The Educational Consortium for Volunteerism in the School of Community Service administers both programs.

However, the Volunteer and Community Resource Management Certification Program is specifically designed for nontraditional students and current volunteer managers who are working full time, says Pamela Sybert, director of the consortium. Its five courses are taught entirely on the Internet, allowing students to complete class assignments around their schedules.

"None of the courses require students to be online at a certain time during the day," Sybert says. "A busy professional can log on to the computer at midnight to read the week's lecture."

American Humanics students must be currently completing a UNT degree, and they cannot receive their certificates unless they have bachelor's or graduate degrees. However, the Volunteer and Community Resource Management Certification Program is open to anyone who wants to be certified in volunteer management, Sybert says.

She explains that focus groups of current volunteer managers helped to determine the content of the courses in the certificate program.

"As the federal government cuts back human service programs, community-based volunteer programs must fill the need. And to do this efficiently, those who head the programs must be efficiently trained," Sybert says. "No college degree program teaches the special skills that are needed in volunteer management."

The Volunteer and Community Resource Management Certificate Program provides three types of certificates: a specialty certificate for those who do not have a college degree, a post-baccalaureate certificate for those who have bachelor's degrees and a graduate certificate for those who have or are earning graduate degrees.

A student must complete four of the five courses, or 12 semester hours, to receive a certificate. Students in all three levels take the same courses, though those in the graduate certification program must complete an extra class project or paper, Sybert says.

While American Humanics students must complete 300 hours in an internship, no internship is required in the Volunteer and Community Resource Management Certification Program.

Burley says taking the program's courses on the Internet has been an advantage for her.

"The courses have a lot of professionals with volunteer agencies as guest speakers. They post their lectures online, and you can read them and post questions to them, which they will answer," she says. "In regular classes, you may not have these guest speakers because of their busy schedules."

Past guest speakers have included Judy Drotman, director of the Volunteer Center of Collin County; Monna Loftis, director of management resources for Dallas' Center for Nonprofit Management; Helen Lowery of the Corporation for National Service in Washington, D.C.; and Tammie White, volunteer manager for VITAS hospice agency in Dallas.

Phyllis Newman, former senior executive officer of the Metropolitan Dallas YWCA, is teaching two Internet courses — The Social Evolution of Contemporary Volunteerism and Community Resource Mapping and Collaboration. She says she is delighted about how the students have responded to the Internet format.

"Each week I ask questions about the readings and topics, and they post their answers to the forum for the week. From the first week, their postings have been well written, thoughtful, responsive, creative and even interactive," she says. "Since they read each others' postings and all of my answers, the students have started to comment on each others' postings. So the written postings have worked as if they were having a conversation in a classroom."

Newman says that although one of her students lives in another state, most live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

"A few of them have said that they really appreciate not having to spend the money on gas and the time on travel to campus," she says. "They are all busy people and wanted to be able to work from home instead of commuting to school."

However, Burley says that it's still challenging for her to schedule course time during the week because she isn't required to be online at a certain time.

"The instructors do set some weekly deadlines, such as posting questions to the speaker by 6 p.m. on Tuesday, and that motivates me," she says.

David Comeau says the volunteer management certificate program "has opened up a whole new world for me."

"We have so many choices and opportunities to learn and help others," says Comeau, who at age 49 is earning a specialty certificate while pursuing a bachelor's degree. "The courses are putting me in touch with people and organizations at such an accelerated rate that I sometimes believe everyone in Denton is a full-time volunteer. Yet, I know there's still plenty of room for me to be an effective helper."

Call 565-4417 or 369-8325 for more information, or visit www.unt.edu/untvols/volunteer_management_certificate.htm.