Community Partner

Recognition Breakfast Join us February 13th, 2011 in Ballroom A

of the Shepherd Union Building to celebrate

another year of partnership. The event

starts at 8:00 AM sharp. Please be sure to

RSVP with Jeff Robbins by February 7th!

Call 801-626-7737

MOU Renewal 2012

Partners who have not re-turned their 2012 MOU’s by February 13th will no long-er be partnered with the CIC and will have their posting removed from our website.

Site Visits

If you want to strengthen your ability to attract quality volun-teers and learn more about the CIC then a site visit is for you! Jeff Robbins will be conducting site visits. Contact him at jeffrobbins@weber.edu to schedule a short visit.

Community Partners Call the Spring Volunteer Fair a Success By Jeff Robbins

CIC VISTA, Community Partner Liaison

Service Event Calendar

The Spring Volunteer Fair

started with shining banners and

plenty of coffee as hundreds of

students connected with local non

-profits in the WSU Shepherd Un-

ion Atrium. Twenty-One different

non-profit organizations gathered

together on January 18th in order

to connect with potential volun-

teers from the Weber State Univer-

sity student body.

Organizations checked in at the

CIC tent (featured right) where

members from the CIC handed out

free popcorn and helped direct stu-

dents to surrounding booths. Past

Fairs have connected numerous

students to local non-profits, but

this year’s student traffic was unri-

valed in comparison to previous

years.

One reason for the

tremendous turnout

may have been be-

cause this year’s fair

coincided with the

WSU Career Fair. Both

events were hosted at

the same time in the

Union and likely helped generate

increased foot traffic. CIC organiz-

ers hope to continue hosting the

Volunteer Fair on the same day as

the Career Fair in order to build on

this Fair’s success.

(Continued on next page)

(continued) Non-profit

attendees are calling

this year’s event a huge

success for volunteer

recruitment. United

Way reported attracting

more than thirty volun-

teers and many other

organizations concurred,

saying that they experienced a sig-

nificant amount of interest from

students. The Fair also offered nu-

merous side benefits, like being

able to mingle with other non-

profits. Linda Larsen is the direc-

tor of Operation Adopt-A-Ghost,

an organization that supports de-

ployed soldiers and their families.

She discovered that “meeting peo-

ple from the other organizations

and networking with them” was

very useful. “We all have service to

the community in the forefront of

our thoughts all the time, and by

working together, seeing where

each organization’s mission meets

another, we can all do more.”

Maggie Favero, the Educational

Director for the Eccles Dinosaur

Park in Ogden, also attended the

Fair. For Maggie, one of the salient

benefits of attending was being

able to generate name recogni-

tion. “It is always amazing to us

the people who come to talk with

our volunteers who have

never been to the park, yet

we have been in Ogden for

over 19 years.” It is im-

portant to recognize that

even though not every stu-

dent at the Fair will volun-

teer, almost all leave with

a heightened awareness of

the organizations they encounter.

Such interactions can lead to un-

foreseen benefits in the future.

Unless students

have had previ-

ous experience

with your organi-

zation, it is likely

that they are una-

ware of your role

in the communi-

ty. The Volunteer

Fair is“...a great

opportunity to

show off what

[non-profits] have to offer”, says

Maggie. For this reason, the Vol-

unteer Fair is as much about har-

vesting volunteers as it is about

planting seeds for future volun-

teers, donors, and advocates.

Volunteer Fairs occur twice a

year at the beginning of each WSU

semester—once in September and

once in January. Students want to

know where they are serving dur-

ing the semester so there is no

better time to find student volun-

teers. While taking a morning

away from the office can be a sac-

rifice, Linda Larsen suggests that it

is worth the time. “Not coming to

a Volunteer Fair would be a huge

mistake for any non-profit or any-

one want to make a difference in

the world.”

Representatives interact with waves of

motivated students

Ready...Go!

“Not coming to a Volunteer

Fair would be a huge

mistake for any non-profit…”

-Linda Larsen, Operation Adopt-A-Ghost