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The Congress of Volunteer Administrator Associations (COVAA) is an event. It is a first-ever convening of official representatives of existing associations of volunteer program managers throughout the United States.

Our field today has many local, state, and regional associations of volunteer program managers (generic), as well as a number of field-specific “affinity” associations with national and local groups. While these associations range in size and effectiveness, they clearly already formally represent a substantial percentage of practitioners in our profession. However, in the past, most of these bodies have rarely collaborated or even communicated, except for the few groups that joined the now-dissolved Association for Volunteer Administration (AVA) as “affiliate” members.

Download the PDF of the Congress Announcement

1. Any such existing association is invited to send one official representative – with voting authority – to a two-day meeting starting Monday evening, December 4 through mid-day Wednesday, December 6 in Denver, Colorado. The Congress is hosted locally by the Denver DOVIA.

2. This two-day meeting will be structured and facilitated to allow participants to discuss such things as (the following is just a possible list):


• What are existing associations already doing well and don’t need a national organization to do for them? What might a national organization provide that is value-added?
• What might a “congress” of associations permit existing groups to do together? Is the “congress” model the best choice for moving forward?
• How might a “congress” encourage the formation of new associations in geographic areas without such a group now?
• What might be the interrelationship between a national “congress” and local associations?


3. The option of engaging participants who cannot come on site via conference call, webinar, or possibly live video platform, is being explored and will be offered, if cost permits.


4. The immediate goal of the Congress would be to create a working network of associations with a designated steering committee to, in turn, carry any organization work forward.


5. Announcements and the most current information related to the Congress will be posted in advance so that all participating associations can convene their own local meetings and discuss the questions posed. In this way, official representatives can come to the Congress with a good sense of what their colleagues think and want.

There is a desire to reach out to all previous AVA individual members, colleagues who have chosen not to join their professional association, or those who do not have an association to join, and there will be future opportunities for individual colleagues to be involved. In this preliminary stage, the Congress will begin with a clearly identifiable group of perhaps 75-150 people who represent probably 3,000 to 6,000 practitioners through existing associations. Then, strategies can be developed for the engagement of individual leaders.

ALL UPDATES AND MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE CONGRESS WILL BE POSTED TO THIS WEBSITE.

 The first step in making sure that the Congress is inclusive is to identify all existing associations – something that has not successfully been done before. To this end, this Web site invites all associations to submit a profile, whether or not that association sends a representative to the Congress. Please help to spread the word