Sonoma, California | January 15, 2015: The Napa | Sonoma chapter of Women for WineSense (WWS) has put out a call for volunteers. The founding chapter of the national organization has been organizing and hosting business, networking and wine tasting events monthly with fewer than a dozen volunteer directors doing the leg work for more than 300 chapter members for many years. The newly launched WWS Volunteer Corps (http://wwsnapasonoma.com/volunteer/) provides needed infrastructure and support for the fast-growing organization.
Chapter President, Christine L. Mueller, explained, “This past fall we surveyed our members about what they wanted more or less of. And the answer came back loud and clear: They wanted more of all of our different events.” She continued, “We’d love nothing more than to hold more career development seminars and more wine tasting and education events for our members. But we’ve reached capacity with our current structure and our board of directors’ available volunteer time.” She clarified further, “Even though we’re a non-profit, we need to operate like any successful business to continue our upward growth and remain healthy financially. So we created this new Volunteer Corps─for which we’re targeting to attract upwards of 50 member volunteers─and this will provide us with needed vertical structure in the organization. Then we’ll begin executing the corresponding strategy plan as our members come on board to take various volunteer positions on our staff.”
Ellen Reich Luchtel, Membership Director, went on to explain the chapter’s recruitment strategy: “Our website’s volunteer page provides a list of more than two dozen different volunteer jobs, many of which would benefit from being held by multiple members who can do the same work at different events throughout the year. We divvied it up into smaller do-able tasks so that when many volunteers accept the workload, it won’t seem like a job but more of a fun activity to do with friends.”
Ms. Luchtel continued to map out the overall strategy: “Our objective is to make membership in the chapter much more valuable to our members by offering greater participation opportunities. These activities will strengthen relationships and contribute to achieving the chapter’s goals of providing career development tools and wine education. By giving these volunteer members more opportunities to develop and participate in running our events, they’ll come away with a sense of empowerment. Just come to our volunteer orientation meeting to learn how it all will work.”
Ms. Mueller summed up the differences between running her 325+ member organization and other wine country associations thusly: “There are many fine organizations in Napa and Sonoma working to promote growers, wineries, and tourism. Virtually all of them have paid staff. We are unique in having no paid directors or administrators. So everyone is truly dedicated─beyond their day jobs─to make this a success. And with Women for WineSense celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, we thought it was time to take it to the next level.”
ABOUT THE WWS VOLUNTEER CORPS
The newly formed Corps offers volunteer positions that range from Assistant to the President to Facebook Content Manager. Volunteers can become a Lecture Series Manager or Membership Ambassador. Of key importance is the Volunteer Coordinator, who will help develop and run the Volunteer Corps program for the chapter.
Volunteers may be asked to serve monthly in some positions. Others may not have their assignments to serve until later in the year. And some will be tasked with setting up new programs in the works. So their participation will be heavier the first few months of 2015, but will become a much lighter workload once programs are launched.
The more than two dozen positions can be found at: http://wwsnapasonoma.com/volunteer/ where downloadable PDF job descriptions are listed along with a short online application. Upon review of applicants’ information, they will be invited to attend the chapter’s Volunteer Orientation meeting, which will start with a wine and hors d’oeuvres reception before presenting the Volunteer Corps program. More information can be found on the chapter’s blog at: http://wwsnapasonoma.com/launching-wws-volunteer-corps/
ABOUT THE CHAPTER
The chapter’s full 2015 calendar of events can be found at: http://wwsnapasonoma.com/events. The chapter will hold “Bubbles Meetup” at Sigh in Sonoma on January 22nd (https://wws-bubbles-meetup-sigh-2015.eventbrite.com) and the first of its 2015 Tasting Series (formerly Wednesday Wine Club): “Wines of the Loire Valley” at Back Room Wines in Napa on February 12th. (https://wws-tasting-series-loire-wines.eventbrite.com) The chapter’s winter events conclude with “Women in Wine” to be held on March 5th at Napa Valley College’s Performing Arts Center in Napa (https://WWS-WomeninWine2015.eventbrite.com).
Women for WineSense is a not-for-profit organization 501(c)6 formed in 1990 as a way to help its members advance their careers in the wine industry, providing educational events as well as aid wine enthusiasts in developing their wine knowledge. The Napa|Sonoma WWS chapter currently has more than 325 members of which 75% are professionals in the wine industry. For information about becoming a member, please email our Membership Director, Ellen Reich Luchtel at Membership@WWSNapaSonoma.com, or visit: http://wwsnapasonoma.com/join-our-membership/.
