Volunteering & Volunteer Students

{Image Credit: Eric Doner}

Last Friday, I attended the Silicon Valley American Marketing Association's annual Board Retreat as a board member.

We are a group of committed marketing professionals now in planning phases to move forward with our mission: "Stay Connected, Stay Informed." As the VP of Volunteers (fancy title for volunteer recruiting lead) I am responsible for replenishing the fuel to burn the midnight oil, or in other words, bring the team volunteers to help them drive their initiatives.

I left the day feeling really good about what we would accomplish within the next year and beyond. Even though working virtually can give you great flexibility, I can't stress enough the good feelings that come from actually meeting the people you work with. I doubt any of the jokes and discussions we shared in real time could be matched over phone conferences, e-mails and IMs.

Of course, the word "networking" is just as over-used as "social networking." If it weren't for SVAMA, I wouldn't be able to refer to any real experiences...like when one board member good-naturedly confused two other members while introducing one of them during ice-breaker introductions.

We had a good laugh about it, and surely could not have had the same experience virtually.

Maybe this is also the reason for Lunch 2.0, Tweetups, Meetups and other non-virtual, non-owned and co-branded events rolling about vs. the traditional conferences and mindshare.