Discover Your Spirit in Old Town Scotsdale

Take a break from education and enjoy a night on the town networking with old and new friends! During the 2009 AHVRP Annual Conference, AHVRP has arranged for a Dine Around Bus Trip to show attendees more of Phoenix, including opportunities for dining and shopping 'til you drop. More

Skills-based Volunteering

Skill-based volunteerism is service by individuals or groups that capitalizes on personal talents or core business skills, experience or education. More and more, agencies are struggling to meet their bottom line. At the same time, many agencies are missing out on a precious resource - the talent of individual volunteer leaders and corporate teams who can use their skills and products to increase the capacity and effectiveness of nonprofits. Skill-based volunteerism or SBV comes in all shapes and sizes. More

The New Volunteer Workforce

Nonprofits rely heavily on volunteers, but most CEOs do a poor job of managing them. As a result, more than one-third of those who volunteer one year do not donate their time the next year - at any nonprofit. That adds up to an estimated $38 billion in lost labor. To remedy this situation, nonprofit leaders must develop a more strategic approach to managing this overlooked and undervalued talent pool. The good news is that new waves of retiring baby boomers and energetic young people are ready to fill the gap. More

Celebrating Courage and Compassion: Managing Volunteers That Work Among the Sick and Dying

It takes a unique person to volunteer among the sick and the dying. This unique person is able to look beyond the wheelchair, the braces on the legs or the scars from the surgeries and see a human being. These volunteers have different motivations. Some have lost a loved one and bring a compassionate understanding to their volunteering. Some have loved ones who survived a life-threatening illness and "want to give back" to others in similar situations. Some believe that we are "put on this earth to help each other." More

Data Privacy Rules Coming

A privacy bill under consideration in Washington would significantly impact retail through provisions that would spell out how companies would have to protect customer data and what they must do if information is compromised, yet, as worrisome as that might be for some, any concern is essentially moot because a Massachusetts regulation with substantially the same provisions will go into effect Jan. 1. And the rule is written in a way that essentially gives it jurisdiction in all 50 states. More

Customer Service and Empowerment

Where is the training for human beings to deal with the other things that can, and will, go wrong? Why must customers work so hard to get satisfaction? Why must they lose their valuable time, waste energy and experience high stress levels just to get their issue resolved? Why is it, that when businesses are closing all over and those that are still in business are experiencing sharp declines in revenue and profit from prior years, that they are not able to understand that their people are not doing the job – the job of retaining the precious customers they have; the ones that are spending money even now? More

Shoplifting Prevention 101

It is important to plan policies and procedures for shoplifting. We all hope it will never happen in our store but in the event it does, retailers and staff should be prepared to handle the shoplifting situation. Take these questions into consideration when writing your shoplifting policies and procedures. More

Busting the Nine Myths of Cloud Computing

Wherever you turn, someone's ready to tell (or sell) you something related to cloud computing. Cutting through the myths is essential to deciding whether, when, and how the cloud is right for you. Here is CIO's take on the matter. More