Wanted: An Energetic Director for Sustainable Woodstock

by Christopher Bartlett

How do you maintain a volunteer group's energy? How do you keep it vital, relevant, and growing? And most important, how do you ensure it delivers results? These are the challenges facing any volunteer-led organization, and they are the questions that have been discussed for many months by Sustainable Woodstock's leadership group.

Because Sustainable Woodstock has such an ambitious, long-term agenda involving such a diversity of activities, the group quickly recognized that the task of holding it all together while ensuring it maintains momentum towards its objective was going to be extremely challenging. After studying the characteristics of organizations that succeeded in meeting such challenges, it became clear that most had engaged a part-time or full-time individual to support initiatives and coordinate activities.

Ralph Copleman, executive director of Sustainable Lawrence, and mentor in Sustainable Woodstock's early development, identified three important benefits that a paid leader could provide: "He or she can ensure consistency in the organization's direction and message, inject leadership to stretch the organization with new ideas and challenges, and provide the accountability for results that only a paid position can provide."

Having obtained a generous grant from the Canaday Foundation to fund a part-time director, Sustainable Woodstock is now in the process of advertising the new position in local newspapers (including the Standard), on websites, bulletin boards, and through informal networks.

• The announcement describes four responsibilities that will be at the core of the director's role:
• To support and sustain volunteer activities.
• To communicate a clear vision and share informed perspectives on sustainability.
• To collaborate with the community, the town, and the other local organizations.
• To solicit funds from government, foundations, and individual supporters.

The leadership group has also spent time discussing the kind of person needed to fill this role. In doing so, it has reached out to solicit the views of other experts including Buzz Boswell, executive director of Pentangle. "It goes without saying that you would want someone who is committed to your mission and connected to the community," said Boswell. "Beyond that, to lead a volunteer organization, you really want someone who can identify and draw on people's strengths, as well as constantly inject new energy into the organization."

In addition to communication skills and a collaborative style, Sustainable Woodstock is seeking a flexible, energetic, and independent self-starter who gets things done and has a track record of achievement. The compensation will be in the range of $30,000-$35,000 for three days a week. Applications will close on August 14. For more information, please refer to the website job posting.