Welcome to Skagit County

June 14, 2002

Staffers Attend National Volunteerism Conferences

Skagit County Senior Services Director, Tim Holloran, and Donna Sitts, Director of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), attended two national conferences in Salt Lake City June 6-10.

The first conference, sponsored by the federal Corporation for National Service, focused on volunteerism among the senior population, including the soon to retire "baby boomers", and their importance as a resource to help meet community needs. The Points of Light Foundation sponsored the second conference, which drew over 3000 volunteer managers and philanthropists from foundations, government, business, and non-profits nationwide.

Prominent themes of both conferences included:
" How the expectations of baby-boomer volunteers will differ from those of previous generations and how to appeal to them;
" The importance of the role volunteers in homeland security, and disaster preparedness and response; and
" President Bush's initiatives to promote citizen involvement in community volunteer efforts--including the formation of the Citizen Corps, increasing the number serving in all the federal service programs (RSVP, Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, VISTA), the formation of Citizen Councils to plan for disasters, Silver Scholarships.

"I'm glad the Corporation for National Service made it possible for both of us to attend" says Holloran. "I came away with several ideas I can put to work right away about fundraising and involving even more of our folks in service that is both rewarding and valuable."

"The difficulty" reports Sitts, "was that there were literally hundreds of sessions to choose from. The world of service is changing fast, and we are going to have to hustle to keep up with it."