Are you new to the field?
Did 'volunteer manager' just get added to your job description?
Looking to learn 'best practices' to support your organizations volunteer program

This training is for you! 

Join us and develop your volunteer program to its fullest potential!

Our Volunteer Management 101 Training will help you maintain a thriving volunteer base that gets more work done, builds community support and increases your organization's effectiveness. Specifically designed to assist anyone new to volunteer management, this typical one-day training has been modified for our remote reality and will take place via Zoom in two 3.5 hour morning sessions covering the following topics:

• Volunteer Program Development
• Recruitment
• Understanding Volunteer Motivations
• Orientation and Training

• Risk Management
• Supervision
• Volunteer Recognition
• Breakout Group topics

About your Trainers:

Melia Hadidian Tichenor, CVA is in her eleventh year of working in the volunteer management world in Portland, specializing in bringing learning experiences into the service environment. She currently serves as the Coordinator for the Student Community Engagement Center at Portland State University, helping empower students to engage with communities to create positive social change, in addition to training colleagues in volunteer management best practices with NOVAA. 

Melia completed her Masters degree in Postsecondary Adult and Continuing Education (PACE) and a Service-Learning Graduate Certificate through PSU’s Graduate School of Education and has been a Certified Volunteer Administrator (CVA) since 2014. Prior to coming to Portland State, Melia spent eight years at Hands On Greater Portland, working to support hundreds of Hands On's nonprofit partners in developing a wide array of episodic volunteer projects, both for the Hands On Project Calendar and for various national days of service. In addition to her work with Hands On's nonprofit partners, she ran the Hands On Greater Portland TeamWorks program, which brought together teams of 10-12 volunteers to explore specific issue area or neighborhood through the lens of service learning and experiential education.

Melia has also taken her volunteer management experience abroad to Armenia, where she served for four months as a volunteer consultant and trainer to the staff at Birthright Armenia, a program designed to connect young diasporan Armenians to their cultural and ancestral roots through volunteer positions and internships in the Armenian homeland. 

Lupine DeSnyder is a Certified Volunteer Administrator (CVA) with over 20 years of experience in volunteer program management and community engagement in private, non-profit and government settings with organizations ranging from private businesses to public and non-profit organizations, such as the City of Portland and The Nature Conservancy. She also co-founded, managed and grew the affordable health care-based business, Working Class Acupuncture. Most recently, Lupine served as Community Access Coordinator in Volunteer Services with Metro Parks and Nature, and as Partnership Manager with the statewide environmental nonprofit, SOLVE, in Portland, Oregon.

Lupine has trained and served as a neighborhood mediator with PCC/East Metro Mediation. She facilitates the East Portland Youth Advocates group, which strives to creatively connect and inform youth service providers in East Portland. She also serves on the board for Morpheus Youth Project, a non-profit that builds healthy communities for young people thru arts and culturally responsive activities both in and outside of correctional institutions. She has a B.A. in Political Science from University of Utah with a stint at University of Oregon tucked in there as well.

In her distant past, Lupine was a State Parks Seasonal Park Ranger in Southern Utah and blames this for her passion around connecting people with natural areas by promoting equity in access and volunteerism. She is excited to share and learn from workshop participants.