Be A SayWhatClub Volunteer

Hearing Loss Volunteers are Making a Difference

The SayWhatClub is run completely by volunteers. We currently operate 10 email lists, a blog, an informational Facebook page, and two closed Facebook Groups.

Why volunteer? Volunteering can give you skills and experience that may lead to new employment opportunities, and may also make you seem more appealing to any prospective employer when seeking employment. Additionally, recent studies indicate that volunteering may increase overall health, and feelings of well-being.

Volunteering is fun! Being part of a committee is a great way to make new friends and can increase your sense of self-worth.

Current Open Positions

Open positions are listed in blue under committee descriptions. If you would like to volunteer, send a message to swcboard@saywhatclub.org

Since we are an online club, most of our volunteer positions require that you have a computer.

Committee Descriptions

Hospitality Committee (HC)

BOD LIAISON: Ilene Morales
CHAIR: Martha Wilson
VICE-CHAIR – Mary-Ann Livesey

The members of the Hospitality Committee handle the process of assisting new applicants to join the SayWhatClub. We are the first people they interact with. The Chair assigns HC members to work with new members, helping them get signed on or answering questions about SWC. Being a member of the Hospitality Committee is a very rewarding experience as it is so nice to see our newbies blossom on their new lists and make friends that truly ‘get it’! We encourage you to join us & become a member of this wonderful committee.

Duties Include:

provide the prospective member with the application to join
help the individual choose an appropriate list and answer questions
process the application and connect the new member to the list via our listserv
send copy of our ‘Helpful Tips’ e-mail after getting newbie signed on
follow up with the new person when needed
notify Chair, List Rep and Hospitality Committee members of any daily activity
submit a monthly report of all activity. (Newbies added, members deleted, etc.)

Current HC members: Debbie Gilmer, Vicky Harland, Mary-Ann Livesey, Henderson Wiltshire, Martha Wilson.

List Representative Committee

BOD LIAISON: Ann Marie Picardo
CHAIR: Linda Binns
VICE-CHAIR: Pat Dobbs

Duties Include:

Greet and contact each new subscriber and try to contact them on list at least once during the first month of their membership to the list.
Contact subscribers who are up for renewal and try to find out why they are not renewing if they do not want to. Some are just lurkers and still do renew but asking for reasons for not renewing, can be beneficial.
Post occasionally on topics that would be of interest to list subscribers, especially if the list is slow. Hearing-loss topics are always of interest. An occasional request for people to check in and tell the list what’s new in their life can also keep people engaged and open new topics for discussion.
Be alert regarding changing subject lines and remind people to trim their posts so that subscribers on digest do not receive multiple copies of previous posts in a thread. Part of this reminder can also include that if one does not post to their home list during a 9-month period, a renewal notice will be sent. Posting periodically to a list will prevent renewal notices from being sent.

Current List Reps:

Connect: Leslie Cotter, Pat Kovac
CI: Judy Heimbach, Linda Binns
Explore: Martha Wilson
Forum: Norma Ortiz, Carol Hansing, Bet Whitcomb
Vistas: Scott Oberg, Linda Binns
World: Lorne Smith, Nancy Fenstermaker, Pat Dobbs

Web Committee

BOD LIAISON: Ilene Morales
WEBMASTERS: Michele Linder, Ilene Morales, Lorne Smith, Kim Ward, Vicky Harland, Deanne Pedroni, Audrey Dessauer

Mission:

We provide the SWC Board information and advice re the website. With some assistance from a professional web developer, we maintain existing features, edit pages and and suggest changes. We would like to implement better photo pages.

Web Committee Volunteer Needs:

Our website is a WordPress site, and was designed to be managed by people with very little background in website maintenance. Knowledge in HTML is rarely needed, and training is available. If you know HTML and/or WordPress, or are willing to learn, please consider joining the web committee. We need people willing to check the page for broken links and general editing as needed. Help us keep our page updated so that we may attract new visitors to our website and club.

Specific Volunteer Needs

We will train you

Current Members:

BOD LIAISON: Ilene Morales

Michele Linder (Editor) Webmaster. Layout and design.

Lorne Smith (Admin) Convention Steering Committee page and form updates

Kim Ward (Admin) Webmaster. WebCom Training. Forms and General updates

Vicky Harland (Editor) Member Registration

Deanne Pedroni (Editor) Blog and Newsletter

Audrey Dessauer (Editor) Convention webpage updates

Social Media Team

BOD LIAISON: Ilene Morales
ACTING CHAIR: Ty Smeltekop Chair position is open, a volunteer is needed.

Facebook – Nonprofit Organization/Public Page

SayWhatClub, A Worldwide Forum for People with Hearing Loss
Link: www.facebook.com/SayWhatClub/
Admins/Editors: Kim Ward, Chelle Wyatt

Facebook Groups:

SayWhatClub Friends with Hearing Loss –Don Dippner, Kim Ward, Marty Wilson
SayWhatClub Gen-Y –Vivie Moraiti, Tim Stones

Blog

Link: www.saywhatclub.org
Contributing Writers: We are looking for a blog writer and someone to coordinate other writers for SayWhatClub’s blog.

Twitter – We are looking for someone to tweet blog post updates and about the convention.

Link: @ahearingloss

Volunteer Needs

If you like Facebook and other social media, like to play around with layout and design, or you are a budding writer who likes to write about their own hearing loss experiences and other things related to living with hearing loss, this might be the area for you to give back to SayWhatClub! We need people who are good at online research, networking, interacting with people. We also need some creative and tech-minded types. Someone who tweets is also needed.

Research: People who are good at online research for hearing loss related content to share on our public Facebook page. You will be given training on where to find articles, news items, blogs, videos, and other content to share, and are free to come up with some of your own resources.

Layout and Design: Anyone with layout and design experience to create shareable content (memes, gifs, etc.) to boost circulation and reach on our public Facebook page. Some of the items that get the most views are comics, inspirational quotes, etc. If we had someone who was social media savvy in creating content that would be great!

Monitors: People to monitor our public Facebook page every day for comments, questions, and private messages that need a response. When we are interacting with those who “follow/like” our page we get more shares and more circulation, which grows our following more rapidly. We also need people monitoring for any spam, inappropriate comments, or unsolicited advertising.

Writers: People to write articles for our blog. It can be something brief or a bit longer. You can write about a personal experience or interest–workplace experiences are always popular. Poetry, book reviews, or you can even interview someone. Specifically, we’d like see more about technology for people with hearing loss–articles that make technology a bit more accessible to those who aren’t tech-minded. You can do interviews or any other mode of writing that would be interesting to our readers, as long as what you write or review is related to hearing loss.

Outreach: People who are good at networking and who can recognize an opportunity to connect with someone, either to “follow” them on social media because they often share interesting content, or to invite them to follow our page. We have some wonderfully notable people who follow us on our public Facebook page.

Technical Knowledge: We desperately need someone who is familiar, or who is willing to familiarize themselves with technology geared toward people with hearing loss–hearing aids, cochlear implants, assistive listening devices (ALD), mobile apps, captioning phones, CART, and/or any other equipment that assists people with hearing loss. One of the biggest needs in SayWhatClub is finding volunteers who can take the tech babble and help the rest of us who are challenged in this area understand it in layman’s terms.

Current Members: Michele Linder, Chelle Wyatt, Cristal Alferez, Claudia Goenaga, and Norma Ortíz.

Convention Steering Committee (CSC)

BOD LIAISON: Bet Whitcomb
CHAIR: Mike Steele
VICE CHAIR: Vacant

The CSC is dedicated to overseeing the annual SWC convention. With a good group of volunteers the committee runs well and the work is spread out over months. During the convention all volunteers will be busy at some point but should be able to enjoy the convention as much as the attendees.

CSC roles and subcommittee members

Chair: Mike Steele
- Chair – The chair oversees all subcommittees on the CSC, coordinates publicity and delegates tasks and getting regular updates from all subcommittees. The chair is somewhat involved in each committee making sure tasks are being completed on time. The chair recruits team members as needed.
Vice Chair: Vacant
- Vice Chair – The vice chair aids the chair, helps make decisions and offers support where needed. The vice chair steps up if the chair becomes unavailable.
Local Committee (workshops, package recipient): Ruth and Gregg Gorrin
- Local Chair – The local chair provides information on the host city and helps promote the convention locally and find local sponsors. This person helps find a keynote speaker and workshop presenters. Usually 1-3 of the workshops are local people. Attendees can be used to present workshops also. Also helps recommend and organize activities outside of workshop hours.
CSC Treasurers: Donna McNary, Kim Ward, Ilene Morales
- Treasurer – The treasurer collects attendee’s registration monies, balances the convention account each month, reports to the BOD, pays all bills related to the convention, provides guidelines to scholarship winners to set up their own travel to and from the convention and prepares financial statements monthly, as well as annually in September at the end of the convention.
Registration: Dawn Linder, Shari Steele
- Registration Chair – The registration chair receives and tracks all early-bird and regular convention registrations and reports all attendance figures and payments to the CSC treasurer. The registration chair collects all the necessary information of attendees such as address, whether or not family is attending with said person and what list/group they belong to, coordinates roommate requests, collects banquet dinner orders, prepares name badges and distributes name badges and tote bags to all registrants.
Activities chair: Rhonda Edwards
- Activities Chair – Working with the local chairs, the activities coordinator helps schedule and arrange voluntary tours and activities, tracks registration and payments, and verifies the receipts and expenditures for the CSC treasurer.
Advisers: Pat Kovac, Lorne Smith, Marty Wilson
- - Advisers – Past Convention Steering Committee chairs serve as advisers to the chair on request.
Hospitality: Chris Fuller, Cynthia Hurst
- Hospitality Chair – The hospitality chair is responsible for the theme, decorations, food and activities at the Welcome Party.
Sponsorship: Lorne Smith, Pat Dobbs, Chelle Wyatt
- Sponsorship Chair – Seeks sponsors, vendors and donations to help fund the convention. Sells the advertisement space in the convention program and on the SWC website. Uses a database of past participants with contact information.
Website/Program: Lorne Smith, Michele Linder, Mike Steele, Audrey Dessauer
- Publicity – This person sends convention announcements monthly to all the SWC email lists and Facebook groups. Announcements include registration, presenters & workshops, tours, sponsor information, etc. This person has access to all SWC lists to be able to post information.
- Convention Website Coordinator – A volunteer handy with website management puts information up on the convention website as it becomes available. The website coordinator takes information from the various subcommittees and put it up in timely manner. This position needs someone familiar with WordPress, adding graphics, creating links, etc.
AV Coordinator: Don Dippner
- AV coordinator– In charge of coordinating and troubleshooting audiovisual presentations for the con. This person will work with presenters, the CART provider, hotel personnel and the hearing loop provider to make sure audiovisual presentations run smoothly.
Scholarships: Ilene Morales, Sherry Chase, Linda Binns
- Scholarships – the sub group of people who discuss and decide who is awarded the scholarships.
Scouting: Pat Kovac, Mike Steele
- Scouting – the people who go out to a city to decide where to hold our next convention. We try to hold our conventions in different parts of the U.S. every year, rotating through the eastern, central and western regions. International cities can also be considered. Much of this is based on if there is an SWC person living near a city who is wiling to serve as local chair.
Love Page: Sheiladawn Fitch
- Love Page – Coordinate submissions and production of the SWC Love Page fundraising messages to offset printing costs of the convention program book.
Message board coordinator: Sheiladawn Fitch
- Message Board Coordinator – Posts and maintains a physical message board and other means of communication for convention attendees.

Silent Auction: Inactive

Silent Auction Chair – The Silent Auction raises money for the SayWhatClub. Members throughout the SWC donate items to silent auction. Members send donations to the local chair, if applicable. These funds are not included with convention funds.

Members: Bet Whitcomb, Mike Steele, Ruth and Gregg Gorrin, Dawn Linder, Shari Steele, Donna McNary, Kim Ward, Ilene Morales, Lorne Smith, Michele Linder, Chris Fuller, Don Dippner, Pat Kovac, Pat Dobbs, Chelle Wyatt, Sherry Chase, Cynthia Hurst, Rhonda Edwards, Linda Binns, Sheiladawn Fitch