Volunteer Opportunities The Learning Group is a member driven organization. Being committed to openness and full participation, we invite you to become active in a capacity and at a level that addresses your own skill and professional developmental needs and interests. On this page, we offer sample volunteer opportunities. These are meant to illustrate some of the ways in which you can develop your own skills, knowledge, and contacts while helping OD meet its mission and goals. But if there is some other area or task that interests you, by all means contact the Coordinating Committee at cc@learninggroup.org, and will be glad to provide the advice and empowerment to help you carry it out. Program Opportunities New program proposals are always welcome and may be sent to programs@learninggroup.org. In addition our "program ballot" provides a list of program ideas on which input is invited and, in many cases, need leaders and/or supporters. In addition, we regularly need volunteers at each program meeting for note taker and front desk. Such opportunities provide opportunities for networking and enhanced enjoyment of meeting participation. Moreover, such service gives one free admission or a month's dues extension, whichever is applicable. Some program need facilitators. Such openings are often advertised in the newsletter, but we can also craft opportunities for those generally interested in such activity. Special Interest Groups and Programs The Learning Group offers a variety of special interest groups and programs. Participation in these endeavors is an excellent way to broaden one's skills. Some examples of volunteer opportunities in these areas are as follows: Our Consulting Alliance provides a means for members to develop consulting experience. We currently have one consulting team, but if more senior level volunteers were able to make appropriate time commitment to lead other teams, the demand has been shown to exist. Our Intern Program is seeking to place practitioners as OD interns. Volunteers who could help with research and marketing would be very helpful.  Our Jobs Group regularly seeks presenters for its meetings. In addition, its e-group provides a way for virtual participation in jobs/career research and support efforts. Our Mentoring Program is always interested in enrolling volunteer mentors. Marketing and administrative support would be welcomed, Our Speakers Bureau is recruiting speakers, coaches and marketing staff. We also invite those who have ideas for developing speaker venues. Beyond these ongoing endeavors, if you have an idea for some other special purpose group, the Coordinating Committee (cc@leanringgroup.org) will be glad to help you explore and implement such options. Of particular interest would be reviving one of three former special interest groups that are presently dormant - the Consultants Group, the Dialogue Group, and the Book Club. We are also considering the formation of a Writers Group. Suggested endeavors include, among others, a Learning Group case studies book and a newspaper column. It is has frequently been suggested that social or informal meetings would help connect members and promote networking. The Coordinating Committee would be glad to work with anyone who will take the initiative to coordinate such events. Perhaps some local small get-togethers that would bring together people in the same area would be an easy way to begin. We could also use volunteer help to research and plan meeting locations. Publicizing meetings is another area in which members could help. Marketing Activity There are many ways in which members could help the Learning Group as well as themselves via marketing. Options include member maintenance and recruitment, alliances with other organizations, and connections with educational institutions. We could use the web page and other resources to market the business endeavors of our members. No doubt, too, the Learning Group could, by connecting members with OD practices, provide greater outreach and utilize economies of scale. Web Operations Two years ago, we launched a new version of web site. This has achieved much critical acclaim, but there is still much work to be done. For one thing, we were able to put up only a small part of the former pages, because so much revision would have been needed. Volunteers with at least some Front Page experience could find opportunities for combining research interests with Internet and web skill development by updating old web pages and producing pages on new topics. Some of our web pages could use "owners" who do research for updating and expanding. Such volunteers would not need to learn or do the technical work Two examples are the Education in OD and Getting a Job in OD pages. We would also like to have web pages and books and other OD research aids.