For quite some time euforia had been thinking at how to include our volunteers more substantially when it comes to taking strategic decisions and paving the way for the future of euforia. After some brainstorming during a meeting of our most experienced volunteers (aka the level 3 eTPers),, the volunteer circle idea was born and a call was sent across the euforia community in Switzerland and abroad. We wanted to find volunteers that were ready to commit to turning this crazy idea into reality. And here they are: Gordon Keay, Manon Pétermann, Nicole Recklies and Osi König are our current members of the very first volunteers circle.
In line with euforia’s tradition, during our first meetings we brainstormed about what we love about volunteering at euforia and what we could change to make our volunteering even better, and we set our priorities and objectives accordingly. Here’s a short briefing. In the coming months, the volunteers circle will focus on 3 main areas: community building, coordination between euforia volunteers and staff and among volunteers, and euforia 3.0.
As euforia is growing, we feel it’s crucial that we focus on our community, so as to make sure that euforic people are connected and our sense of belonging around the euforia vision and values is enhanced. The first concrete step we are taking when it comes to community building is reinforcing connections between euforia volunteers at city and regional level through prototyping local chapters. Local chapters are quite common across volunteering organisations, but of course we’re thinking this the euforia way. Expect more info on this soon.
Our rapid expansion across Switzerland and abroad also means our coordination will be key to make the most of the growth process we are going through. That’s why we set improving coordination among euforic people in all capacities as one of our priorities. We’ll look into ways of improving our knowledge management and we’ll find the best possible way to join efforts when it comes to fundraising.
Finally, we love to think of euforia as volunteer-driven, that’s why through euforia 3.0 we are imagining ways of empowering our volunteers to decide what they want euforia to be like in the future. We are going as visionary as we can and it’s very likely that we’ll soon seek out for crazy ideas. Stay tuned.
If you would like to contribute to the volunteers circle or simply know more about this, please just get in touch with Manon, Gordon, Nicole or Osi. Or email me at massimiliano@euforia.ch.