It’s hard to believe, but it’s been less than two weeks since many of us were in New Orleans for ACE. It was great to see and connect with so many chapter leaders and members from across the country. Those that have had the opportunity to attend ACE know it offers many benefits for chapter leaders to recognize each other’s achievements, share our challenges (and solutions) and expand our network of dedicated volunteers. While each of our education sessions were an opportunity to learn industry related content, we had additional functions specifically dedicated to volunteers. Below are the highlights of volunteer-based events at ACE.  

Volunteer Luncheon – We kicked off ACE 2023 with our annual volunteer luncheon to honor volunteers and chapter leaders and recognize their achievements including chapter awards, consisting of the communications, government affairs, membership, and state achievement. We also recognized our Diamond award nominees and finalists during the celebratory luncheon. For a full list of chapter awards, see our next issue of Edge magazine.

Chapter Best Practices – Monday offered an additional interactive opportunity for chapter leaders to network and learn about new chapter best practices. Members of the Chapter Leadership Team (Ben McCullough – IA ANFP, Debbie McDonald – TX ANFP, Melissa Kern – WI ANFP and Toni Skaggs – WY ANFP) were panelists for the session. Each shared their chapter’s best practices on various topics including volunteer recruitment, knowledge management, embracing change and communication. Attendees also shared their own best practices with the audience, and during the roundtable portion of the session.

Honors Gala & Diamond Award – Our annual Honors Gala took place Monday evening, with a bit of twist. Attendees and guests were dressed to the nines accessorized with elegant masquerade masks while they enjoyed dinner and dancing. Our ACE awards recipients were honored during the gala including Chapter Volunteer of the Year Award honoree, Amarilys Saluk, CDM, CFPP from the Southern New England ANFP Chapter, Legacy Award honoree, Colleen Zenk, CDM, CFPP from the Minnesota ANFP Chapter and the Diamond Award winner, Georgia ANFP. To read more about our award winners, please see our next issue of Edge and the ANFP website.

New this volunteer year, ANFP is offering chapter leaders/board members the opportunity to meet one-on-one virtually with ANFP staff and Chapter Leadership Team (CLT) members to learn more about how we can better support you as chapter leaders. We hope you’ll take advantage of this opportunity to help us learn how to provide better service, develop more and better resources and explore how we can continue to work together, as chapter and national, to improve the membership experience and increase awareness of ANFP and the CDM, CFPP credential. 

Each call will be approximately 1 hour and includes select ANFP staff as well as a member of the Chapter Leadership Team, along with any chapter leaders/board members your chapter deems necessary. 

At this time, each chapter president has received an email that contained a link to a survey, asking if the board would like to schedule a one-on-one call. We ask that each chapter president take some time to discuss this with your fellow board members if you have not done so already and then reply with your response via the survey. If your chapter decides to opt-in to this offering, ANFP staff will contact all board members to determine a date and time for the call.  

If you have questions about this program, please contact Abigail Solazzo at asolazzo@ANFPonline.org.

This month we are honoring Adam Hagar, MBA, CEC, CWPC, CDM, CFPP, of the Ohio (OH) ANFP. Adam joined ANFP in 2008 after taking the Dietary Manager’s Certification program at Columbus State Community College, apprenticing at New Albany Gardens and Care Center with Don Damron, and successfully completing the CDM Credentialing Exam.

For Adam, volunteering is a way of giving back to those who have helped him through the years, serving in long and short-term roles and wherever assistance is needed either with ANFP or other organizations. He began volunteering with ANFP in 2021 as the chapter treasurer and is currently serving as the chapter president. As chapter president, he is focused on driving member engagement at the chapter level and introduced monthly, virtual education sessions for members as one way to increase this. Ohio members are offered monthly, free presentations where they can earn CE hours in sanitation or ethics as well as general hours.  With the assistance of the Chapter Secretary, they recruit speakers in various disciplines, or Adam presents the topic himself. These sessions take place online via Microsoft Teams around the 3^rd week of each month and are available to all OH ANFP members. In addition to the monthly sessions, Adam and his team digitized and centralized all past and current documents related to the chapter for a seamless transition for future leadership. Adam also serves on the Chapters Insights & Data Task Force that is taking a closer look at all areas related to ANFP chapters.

Outside of volunteering with ANFP, Adam has volunteered with Columbus ACF as the Dining Room Manager at the Columbus Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Clam Bake at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and provided training for displaced people, in food safety and basic kitchen fundamentals, to give them the skills they need to create a career in hospitality. He has also served as the Certification Chair for the Columbus ACF from 2012-2016. 

For the future of the OH ANFP chapter, Adam plans to revive the regular state conferences once again and give members a chance to get away from their day jobs and learn new and upcoming trends that they can then take back to their facilities. He also plans to continue to build relationships with vendors and speakers so the chapter can once again have the educational seminars they had pre-pandemic.    

Thank you, Adam for your hard work and service to ANFP and the OH chapter. Dedicated volunteers such as yourself ensure our chapters are stable and continue to benefit our members. We appreciate your volunteerism!

We’d like to recognize you as our Volunteer of the Month. Please send your nominations to asolazzo@ANFPonline.org.

Below are important requirements for the first rebate installment. Please note some items are now past due.

• Submit bank statement for the month of April to ANFP Headquarters – Due May 31 (Past Due)
• Officers entered in Chapter Portal for future volunteer year (Officers must be entered each year regardless of length of term.) – Due June 1 (Past Due)
•  Code of Conduct - Signed by Chapter President, President- Elect, Treasurer, Secretary   - Due June 1 (Past Due)
•  Affiliate Agreement – Reviewed, signed and submitted to National – Due June 15 (Past Due)
•  Submit end of the year financial statement by June 30 each year (for the previous fiscal year) to ANFP Headquarters - Due June 15 (Past Due)
•  Fall Meeting Dates - Due July 15
  
• 990 filed and E-receipt submitted - Due July 15

Learn more about becoming a Chapter Champion HERE.

As you may know, May is Mental Health Awareness Month. The purpose of this month is to bring about awareness of our own mental health as well as others. It also gives us an opportunity to learn about ways to improve our mental health, which could include listening to a song that puts you in a good mood, going for a walk, meditating, or watching your favorite movie. Volunteering also provides cognitive benefits that can help to boost your mood, reduce stress, and change your overall perspective. Learn how volunteering can benefit you and your members below.

Reduce Stress  – According to the Dr. Albers of the Cleveland Clinic “when you help other people, it activates the reward center in your brain and releases serotonin, dopamine and endorphins.”

Gives You a New Perspective on Life – The Cleveland Clinic also states volunteering can give you a deeper sense of purpose that may change your perspective on life for the better. By doing for others, it’s an opportunity to give back and be useful.

Helps Us Stay Connected – We know volunteering helps us feel connected and a part of something bigger than ourselves and provides the opportunity to make new friends and build relationships.

Develop Self-Confidence – Volunteering is also helpful in developing our self-confidence according to NAMI, through skill and leadership development, and gives us a sense of pride and accomplishment. 

Join Us! Annual Chapter Board Orientation

We will be conducting our annual chapter board orientation on Wednesday, May 24, at 2:00 PM CT. This is a great opportunity for new chapter leaders to learn about chapter management and ask questions or for seasoned chapter leaders to provide advice and share best practices.

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwodumtqDgqGNJ6JNOku3vxICZnj11bRe9j

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

For those of you not able to attend, please find the recorded program here: https://videos.anfponline.org/chapter-best-practices-leveraging-volunteer-data-to-improve-engagement-succession-planning/

Chapter Champions

Learn more about becoming a Chapter Champion HERE.

Congratulations to the following Chapter Champions!

Indiana ANFP
Iowa ANFP
Kansas ANFP
Minnesota ANFP
Lousiana ANFP
South Dakota ANFP

Did you miss the Continuing Competence Webinar for Chapter Leaders?

For those of you that were not able to attend the continuing competence webinar last month, please click on the link here to view the presentation. You’ll hear from Ken Hanson, CBDM Chair, and why the Board decided to implement this model, why its important, what are the requirements and next steps to take as chapter leaders.

Chapter Awards – Due April 30

If your chapter is applying for chapter awards, including communications, government affairs, membership, state achievement, or the Diamond award, please submit the completed application to chapters@ANFPonline.org by April 30 or upload via the portal. Award applications are available in the chapter portal as well.

Chapter meetings are back in full swing this month with fifteen meetings taking place in April alone and more to follow in May. In person meetings present many opportunities for our members; networking, professional development, and chance to provide feedback.  Not only can members provide feedback in a formal evaluation, but also through our conversations we have during coffee breaks, at dinner or during happy hour. While these may be anecdotal in nature, it can still be useful information. The feedback itself is important, but what we do with this information is equally important. So how can we act upon it? In our next Chapter Best Practices session, we will discuss how we can leverage this information and data to better meet the needs of our members. We’ll start by discussing the survey results from the membership survey that was distributed to members last fall. Here are some highlights we will cover.

Reasons Why Members Have Not Attended Chapter Meetings – Learn about the obstacles or challenges our members face that make it difficult to attend chapter meetings and how we can better support them to be able to do so.

Greatest Benefit of Attending Chapter Meetings – We know there are multiple benefits of attending live meetings, so what drives our members to attend and how can we hone in on this and entice those who don’t regularly attend meetings.

Chapter Leadership Satisfaction – We’ll discuss the overall satisfaction of chapter leadership. This is a great opportunity to share our best practices and learn from one another about the challenges we are facing and how to overcome them.

Along with the member survey data, we’ll discuss how chapters can use their own data to further engage members and build their succession plans during the Chapter Best Practices webinar on Wednesday, April 26 at 2:00 PM Central Time.

To register for this session, please click on the following link.

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMoc-CorTMoEtfbPXWSBot2Pw8KJqGMkdtb

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. All participants will receive 1.0 CE for attending the live session.

This month we are honoring Matt Schlagel, CDM, CFPP of the Kansas (KS) ANFP Chapter.

Matt first joined ANFP shortly after he retired from the Army in November of 2010 and was hired to be the CDM, CFPP for his local hospital. Matt began volunteering as a pre-professional and also attended KS ANFP chapter meetings during this time. 

Since beginning his volunteer career with ANFP, Matt has served as district secretary and treasurer, as well as State Secretary and President. He has recently changed positions within another state where he hopes to become involved with the chapter. He has also volunteered with CASA, Habitat for Humanity, the Hope center of Dickinson County, The Salina Rescue Mission, Meals on Wheels, Hospice, Eight Days of Hope, and other local charities.

As an ANFP chapter leader, Matt made quite a few changes along with his fellow board members. During his tenure, he was able to improve communication for the chapter, initiate credit card payments for meetings, moved the chapter from a local to a state-wide bank and organized multiple chapter meetings.

In terms of what he would like to see in the future, Matt would love to see more members become involved and take on leadership and volunteer roles.  

Matt, we thank you for your commitment and dedication to bringing change to the KS ANFP chapter and their members. Your hard work is appreciated and invaluable to our members. Thank you!

We’d like to recognize you as our Volunteer of the Month. Please send your nominations to asolazzo@ANFPonline.org.

Look for the upcoming chapter rebate deadlines and requirements in the May issue of Volunteer Leader. If you have any questions in the meantime, please contact us at chapters@ANFPonline.org.

Learn more about becoming a Chapter Champion HERE.

Congratulations to the following Chapter Champions!

Louisiana ANFP
Minnesota ANFP
South Dakota ANFP
Iowa ANFP