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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Greetings Members and Member Organizations,

Wow! Its finally here: a booster vaccine and Thanksgiving. A bright light is shining for 2022. All of us have had many challenges this year, but I am Thankful we overcame them and are looking forward to an awesome 2022.
 
I know its early, but in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I, and the Board of VAN, would like to say thank you for your exceptional work this year as volunteers and in the management of volunteers. We are so fortunate to have such a group of hardworking and committed members as you. Thank you for always being there for us and each other.
 
On December 9^th the VAN Board will hold its annual retreat. If you have some ideas on Professional Development Workshops or other activities, we can offer during 2022 please email them to us. We are also still looking to fill some board positions, such as Membership, Public Affairs, Professional Development and Finance.
 
Now, the holiday season is coming, so think up a marvelous Thanksgiving feast and have a well-deserved rest and let every day of the holiday season be filled with joy. I would like to say thank you once again for your continued loyalty and faith in VAN. May you and your family have a great holiday that is full of making safe happy memories.
 
Thank you for being our treasured member!

Gerlinde Higginbotham
VAN President

NOVEMBER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
PLEASE NOTE THE TIME AND DAY!

VAN Professional Development Meeting
Topic: Use Your Natural Talents to Unleash Your Leadership Potential! with Andrea Hoff from You Thrive Training & Consulting, LLC
Time: Thursday, November 18th at 9 AM 
Description: Volunteer managers and coordinators play a variety of roles throughout their career, and enhancing the leadership skills and abilities of these professionals is key to continually advancing the field. Effective leaders have the ability to communicate well, motivate individuals and/or teams, handle and delegate responsibilities, and solve problems. However, many organizations and leaders mistakenly take a weakness-based approach to their leadership role when just the opposite - a strengths-based leadership approach - is backed by an undeniable amount of research demonstrating its benefits. Utilizing CliftonStrengths as a framework, this session will help participants to name, claim, and aim their natural talents to advance their individual leadership potential within the volunteer management field as well as how volunteer professionals can advance the field as a whole. Learning objectives for this session include:

1. Differentiate between a weakness-based and a strengths-based leadership approach, and the impact of both to leadership potential.
2. Utilize strengths to overcome leadership barriers.
3. Utilize their natural talents to improve upon self-identified competency areas that will advance their leadership abilities and strengthen their grants efforts.

We all have natural talents. This session will teach us how to tap into them to overcome leadership barriers and maximize our leadership potential. Come and learn how!

Join Zoom Meeting on Thursday, November 18th at 9 AM 
See your VANtage newsletter for Zoom information.

DATE CHANGES FOR UPCOMING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MEETINGS
We know many of you have conflicting schedules, and have been unable to attend on Thursday mornings. November's date has been changed back to Thursday. We are planning to change December's meeting to a day other than Thursday. Stay tuned for December's date!

OPEN VAN BOARD POSITIONS FOR 2022
We are accepting applications for new board members for 2022! You'll notice that many positions are co-chairs, which means you'll have help! Open positions that will need to be filled are
Professional Development Co-Chair
Membership Co-Chair
Public Relations/Secretary Co-Chair
Web Coordinator
Treasurer

Please email your resume to President Gerlinde Higginbotham, ghco@ghconsultingservices.com.

JOB POSTINGS