Monday, February 23, 2009

Great presentations today by David Campbell

David Campbell of HODR gave two great presentations today. One for business classes and one for the general public. Good stuff. Thanks a bunch David!

A video of each will be up (just said 5 hours to go...lol)...but a few highlights of the talk to the general public. I will put up highlights of the business one as well, but it will be a while (have to make a test for tomorrow).

(I am adding some things that came up in other conversations as well)

Started with a history of HODR

Volunteering does three things
  1. Helps those in need
  2. Gives hope to those who need it. (shows you care)
  3. Helps the volunteer to grow and develop new skills and network
*Getting volunteers with specific skills and abilities to use those is important. Everyone wants to gut houses etc, but sometimes marketing, working on a website, filling out forms or working on a grants or a budget is most valuable thing. One way to do this is to work in field for part of day, then part of day in the office.

* when going into a disaster site (and I would add to just about anything) go into it with an open mind and be flexible.

* Giving feedback is important. Volunteers want to see what they did had value and donors want to know the impact of their giving.

* Nightly/daily meetings are important for many reasons. They increase transparency, get everyone on board, allow others to see what got done, address potential problems, and act as a training/orientation for new people. (I would also add they are often my favorite part of the day. So when you get a chance, participate in these!)

* He then discussed how assessment when deciding on whether to deploy or not is done at HODR and why "number of schools damaged/destroyed is such a good measure"

* volunteering broadens your point of view

David then gave some advice:
  1. Be skeptical and critical when you read. Don't just take it as truth.
  2. Include what is the right thing to do and what you want to do in any job consideration. Do not just look at income.
  3. Build a circle of friends that you trust.
  4. Trust is a valuable asset. Protect it.

He ended with a Q&A session.


Thanks for coming David! As I said, the video will be up soon.

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