CWRA Student and Young Professionals

Roles and Responsibilities

All of us volunteer for the CWRA… and you can take on a variety of roles depending on where you want to contribute and what you want to learn. It can be as simple as just adding your name to a list and receiving useful emails, or it can be as involved as leading teams of people in your own neighborhood and across the country. The choice is yours.

If you do want to get more involved, we have an organizational formula for SYP teams at all levels. Our chapters and sub-committees each work with the same roles. These roles and their responsibilities are described below:

Team Leader Role

The team leader is responsible for leading the team. Team leaders are generally involved with keeping the bigger picture in mind, long-term planning, "fire fighting," ensuring continuity and helping the group be as effective as possible.

Facilitator Role

The facilitator has two key responsibilities. The first is to do the leg-work of organizing meetings. Performing this task allows the team leader to focus on his or her job of leading rather than simply organizing meetings. The other key role for the facilitator is to ensure that meetings run smoothly. Running an effective meeting is a skill that takes time to develop. There are lots of resources on the internet, but one that you might find useful can be found at:
http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/LEADS/FACT%20Sheets/fact2.pdf

Project Manager Role

The project manager is responsible for leading projects within the sub-committee. The projects can be run by individuals or groups, depending on the size of the project. The project manager should be able to focus on completing a successful project without having to worry about keeping a chapter running.

Team Member Role

In addition to SYP Executive roles, and the roles that exist at the sub-committee level we have two additional SYP National Committee volunteer positions:

Volunteer Coordinator Role (presently vacant)

The volunteer coordinator has the special task of taking the pulse of the different branches of the SYP network. To do this the volunteer coordinator sits on the G&A sub- committee, and communicates with volunteers at the national, sub-committee and chapter level. At the G&A committee level we felt it was important to have a designated person to have conversations, emails and chats (Wiki, Facebook) with the SYP volunteer network to: gauge energy levels, discuss whether folks are satisfied with their current roles and duties, connect people with similar interests, get people in touch with appropriate sub-committee leaders if they are interested in getting involved with a committee or project, and ensuring chapter and sub-committee leaders are notified when new/special projects arise.

There is a lot of people time involved in this position, and there also a lot of room to develop ideas on volunteer management and recognition.

Mentorship Program Coordinator (Farah El Ayoubi)

The mentorship coordinator is a key member of the mentorship sub-committee and basically sets people up in a mentorship relationship. The coordinator accepts applications (available online) from potential mentors and mentees and makes matches using the program database. Matches between mentors and mentees are based primarily on applicant preferences and compatibility. Team members have the responsibility of helping complete projects. The purpose of this role is to help people get involved without getting "sucked-into" the organization. Sometimes it's nice to get involved in a minimal way knowing that there's no other commitment.