Greater Richmond Association for Volunteer Administration

Join us Thursday, November 5th from 9:00am to 10:30am as Noah Scalin, an artist and author, empowers us to add to our volunteer professional toolkits.

More on Creativity at Work

This is not about getting out of a box or coming up with a Big Idea. It’s about being able to consistently find potential in any situation. To do this you need to have a toolbox you can rely on.

In this session, we will learn The Big SevenTM, a set of strategies that anyone can learn to apply. This develops confidence in those who don’t feel creative and helps those who already identify as creative to harness and level-up their capabilities.

Participants will apply a creative practice model to explore these strategies to ensure that insights from many perspectives can be documented and shared during the process.

Artist/Author Noah Scalin will share the unusual story of how he completely overturned his own working practices to develop a new way of sustaining innovation in his work and life.

He explains The Big Seven practices that he uses to continually learn and grow in his work, sharing examples of how they can be applied in any context that requires innovative approaches.

Participants will immediately put these concepts into practice themselves with a Creative Sprint ® challenge.

This event is free for GRAVA members and $5 for non-members.

Please register for this workshop by noon Wednesday, November 4th.

To register for this event, head this way.

About the Presenter

Noah Scalin founded his own business in 2001 with the idea that he could make a living doing what he enjoyed and effect positive change in the world. What he didn’t know at the time was that a small act of creativity would dramatically transform his life and work, winning him a Webby award and landing him on the Martha Stewart show. Since then, he has traveled the world bringing his message of creative practice to everyone from incarcerated teenagers to Fortune 500 executives. His awe-inspiring work has been featured in Fast Company, USA Today and the New York Times. He has authored six books on design and creativity and exhibited at museums and galleries internationally. He is the first artist-in-residence at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business where he was retained as adjunct faculty.

Join us for a networking hour Thursday, October 15th from 4:00pm to 5:00pm. Bring your questions, thoughts, and ideas. Let’s stay connected, even when we’re apart.

To register in advance for our social hour, head this way.

Thursday, February 6th
8:30-10:30am
Community Foundation for a greater Richmond
3409 W Moore St Richmond, VA 23230

Prepare to make data work for you.

Alan Delbridge from the Community Foundation for a greater Richmond is going to lead us through a data tutorial. We plan to learn how we can make the most out of our data by developing some dashboard-building skills. This will be an incredible skills-building opportunity!

As always, breakfast will be served.

To do before the meeting:

• Have a google account and access to google sheets
• After signing into their google accounts, participants will need to “add” this document to their google drives
  1. File dropdown click “make a copy” to add an editable copy.  
  2. Show up to the training!
• If anyone is interested here is a link to the course I took. The page has sample lessons available for preview. The course costs $199, but GRAVA HAS SCHOLARSHIPS!

We hope everyone’s holiday season has been joyful and that 2020 brings even more happiness.

Our January meeting is the second week of January—we all need a little time to get back in the groove after the holidays!

Facilitated Networking

Thursday, January 9th
8:30-10:30am
Special Olympics Virginia
3212 N Skipwith Rd #100
Richmond, VA 23294

Are you brand new to the industry? Are you a longtime volunteer professional who is keen to grow and change? GRAVA wants to connect you to other volunteer professionals who can help you! Facilitated networking will ensure we can all create deeper connections to folks in our community.

As always, breakfast will be served.

This workshop is free for GRAVA members and $5 for non-members. An impactful act of professional development is joining GRAVA! We offer workshops year-round and a summer conference; learning with fellow volunteer professionals is a great way to invigorate yourself, grow your community network, and keep learning new skills.

GRAVA members, you’re invited to the GRAVA social on Thursday, December 5th from 4:30-5:30pm at Social52.

To RSVP, head over to our invitation!

Cheers to all the good work GRAVA members did in 2019!

Download a free printable of the GRAVA Meetings 2019-2020.

Join us for conversations and workshops on advocating for volunteers within your organization, strategic planning, data, managing interns, and so much more!

GRAVA events are free for members and $5 for folks who aren’t members. Every event is an opportunity to win a prize, gain a skill, eat a tasty breakfast, and network with fellow volunteer management professionals.

To become a GRAVA member—or renew your membership—head over here.

Self Care 

with Project Yoga Richmond

Thursday, November 7th
8:30-10:30am
Visual Arts Center of Richmond*
1812 W Main St
Richmond, VA 23220

GRAVA appreciates you! This month we honor Richmond’s volunteer professionals with a self care workshop (and a gift for everyone in attendance!) at Vis Arts. Project Yoga Richmond is going to lead us in chair yoga practice—no need to wear your stretchy pants, though, chair yoga is office-clothing friendly—and we are going to celebrate all of the amazing ways you make Richmond a better place for everyone.

As always, breakfast will be served.

This workshop is free for GRAVA members and $5 for non-members. An impactful act of self care is joining GRAVA! We offer workshops year-round and a summer conference; learning with fellow volunteer professionals is a great way to invigorate yourself, grow your community network, and keep learning new skills.

*Vis Arts has a parking lot behind and beside the building. There’s also street parking.

Emotional Intelligence

Presented by Susan Wilkes

How are you smart?  Come learn why “emotional intelligence” may be more important, especially in volunteer management, than traditional “IQ.”  In this interactive session, we’ll learn about the key components of emotional intelligence, watch some fun video clips of EQ in action, and explore where we might get a boost in EQ!

October 3rd
8:30-10:30am
LaPrade Library
9000 Hull Street Rd
North Chesterfield, VA 23236