Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Acknowledgements
- The authors
- List of abbreviations
- Series Editor's introduction
- Introduction
- Section 1 Theories
- Section 2 Infrastructure
- Section 3 Activities and tools
- 34 Action learning sets
- 35 Apprentices, graduate trainees and work placements
- 36 Awards
- 37 Buddying
- 38 CILIP qualifications
- 39 CILIP qualifications – revalidation
- 40 Coaching
- 41 Collaborative working
- 42 Communities of practice – internal
- 43 Communities of practice – external
- 44 Conferences – attending
- 45 Conferences – organizing
- 46 Conferences – posters
- 47 Conferences – presenting
- 48 Conferences – sharing the learning
- 49 Conferences – volunteering
- 50 Conferences – workshops
- 51 Conferences – writing proposals for papers
- 52 CVs
- 53 Exchange of Experience events, TeachMeets and Unconferences
- 54 Formal qualifications
- 55 Funding for CPD
- 56 Group conversations
- 57 Job rotation
- 58 Learning logs and journals
- 59 Meetings – attending
- 60 Meetings – chairing
- 61 Meetings – note taking
- 62 Mentoring – external
- 63 Mentoring – peer
- 64 Minutes of madness
- 65 MOOCs
- 66 Networks
- 67 Networks – setting up
- 68 Networks – running
- 69 Personal development plans
- 70 Presentations – general tips
- 71 Professional membership
- 72 Projects
- 73 Project management tools
- 74 Reflection – facilitating
- 75 Reflective practice
- 76 Reflective writing
- 77 Research activities
- 78 Secondments
- 79 Shadowing
- 80 Social media
- 81 SWOT analysis
- 82 Time management
- 83 Time management tools
- 84 Training courses – attending
- 85 Training courses – commissioning
- 86 Training courses – planning, delivering and evaluating
- 87 Twitter
- 88 Twitter chats
- 89 VLEs
- 90 Visits
- 91 Volunteering
- 92 Webinars
- 93 Writing blog posts
- 94 Writing business cases
- 95 Writing case studies
- 96 Writing e-mails
- 97 Writing journal articles
- 98 Writing newsletters
- 99 Writing procedures
- 100 Writing project plans
- 101 Writing reports
- Index
49 - Conferences – volunteering
from Section 3 - Activities and tools
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 June 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- Acknowledgements
- The authors
- List of abbreviations
- Series Editor's introduction
- Introduction
- Section 1 Theories
- Section 2 Infrastructure
- Section 3 Activities and tools
- 34 Action learning sets
- 35 Apprentices, graduate trainees and work placements
- 36 Awards
- 37 Buddying
- 38 CILIP qualifications
- 39 CILIP qualifications – revalidation
- 40 Coaching
- 41 Collaborative working
- 42 Communities of practice – internal
- 43 Communities of practice – external
- 44 Conferences – attending
- 45 Conferences – organizing
- 46 Conferences – posters
- 47 Conferences – presenting
- 48 Conferences – sharing the learning
- 49 Conferences – volunteering
- 50 Conferences – workshops
- 51 Conferences – writing proposals for papers
- 52 CVs
- 53 Exchange of Experience events, TeachMeets and Unconferences
- 54 Formal qualifications
- 55 Funding for CPD
- 56 Group conversations
- 57 Job rotation
- 58 Learning logs and journals
- 59 Meetings – attending
- 60 Meetings – chairing
- 61 Meetings – note taking
- 62 Mentoring – external
- 63 Mentoring – peer
- 64 Minutes of madness
- 65 MOOCs
- 66 Networks
- 67 Networks – setting up
- 68 Networks – running
- 69 Personal development plans
- 70 Presentations – general tips
- 71 Professional membership
- 72 Projects
- 73 Project management tools
- 74 Reflection – facilitating
- 75 Reflective practice
- 76 Reflective writing
- 77 Research activities
- 78 Secondments
- 79 Shadowing
- 80 Social media
- 81 SWOT analysis
- 82 Time management
- 83 Time management tools
- 84 Training courses – attending
- 85 Training courses – commissioning
- 86 Training courses – planning, delivering and evaluating
- 87 Twitter
- 88 Twitter chats
- 89 VLEs
- 90 Visits
- 91 Volunteering
- 92 Webinars
- 93 Writing blog posts
- 94 Writing business cases
- 95 Writing case studies
- 96 Writing e-mails
- 97 Writing journal articles
- 98 Writing newsletters
- 99 Writing procedures
- 100 Writing project plans
- 101 Writing reports
- Index
Summary
VOLUNTEERING FOR ANY project, working group or conference can be hugely beneficial to members of your staff and their careers. Volunteering at a conference may allow staff to attend the conference for free and, depending on what work they get involved in, can also improve their knowledge of a particular topic, their confidence, networking and other professional skills. It might even help staff develop skills that cannot be developed in the office. Perhaps you work for local government and staff are not allowed to create social media accounts, but they could run the Twitter feed for a conference. Maybe there are no opportunities for your staff to develop their staff management skills, but they could get involved in ‘staff management’ for a conference. This sort of volunteering can help progress a person's career and positively impact on their motivation, particularly if your organization lacks opportunities.
Levels of volunteering
There are different levels of volunteering for conferences. Sometimes conference organizers need more ‘people on the ground’, volunteers who can act as guides for delegates, showing them where the different rooms are, or ‘runners’ (running to get a tech problem solved), or sometimes just to help move equipment around. Sometimes library conferences approach local LKS courses and ask for student volunteers.
A member of staff could apply for a longer-term vacancy on a conference organizing committee or steering group. This would involve having a look at the conference website, seeing what the parent body is and then asking if there are any vacancies. If there are, is it a vacancy where the member of staff has a particular skill or knowledge that might help?
Staff should think about when the conference is being held and what they want to do. They can offer to help (one-off volunteering) in the run-up to the actually conference. If they want a longer-term position, they should watch mailing lists and social media (such as Lis-Link (JiscMail, 1998) or any subjectspecific lists) for ads for conference committee vacancies. They should also talk to people who are already on a committee and ask questions such as:
• What is expected of you?
• How much work is involved?
• Is it all year round? Or are there peaks and lulls?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Practical Tips for Developing Your Staff , pp. 121 - 124Publisher: FacetPrint publication year: 2016