2 The Oregon Surveyor | Vol. 46, No. 1 From the PLSO Chair MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR Poll Results Welcome 2023 and welcome to all of you. I’mwriting this article just prior to our 2023 PLSO Annual Conference. How this conference has kept up with the times is admirable. Through the pandemic years, the Conference Committee has made the ability to attend the conference either in person or virtually a more common occurrence and a pleasant experience. Who knew prior to March 2020 more people would be working from home than in the office? Being a traditionalist, I have concerns about how sharing and communicating among staff is handled when people work remote, and how the every-day training that commonly occurs will now take place. But that discussion is for another time. I would like to talk about the results of the poll PLSO sent out to the members. We had more than 50 responses out of 463 members. We were hoping for more responses (and who wouldn’t), but we do thank those of you who took the time to respond and give the Board of Directors direction for this next year. It was interesting to see that 92% of those respondents said they currently volunteer in their community. That shows we do care about our communities and I would hope that would transfer to caring about PLSO and its members. Currently we are seeing a trend of members not stepping up to be chapter officers, and those who are stepping up have filled these positions multiple times. Those of you who fit this scenario, I thank you a million times. One poll question was “What about the experience have you enjoyed about volunteering?” To that question, 80% responded that they felt they made an impact, met new people, felt good about it, and learned from it. Yes, it does take a commitment to volunteer, but my experience is that you take away more from the time you spent than you ever had to give. The next question was “What parts of the volunteer experience need to be improved?” 86% answered that communication from the organization required too much time and nothing got done. I have found this to be a very common experience in any organization which is based on volunteers. Communication among volunteers in any organization is key and how you go about keeping people informed is vital. Nowadays we have so many venues of communication it is more likely to get lost in all the other chat we receive. How we communicate with the members really depends on how you want to receive the information. In other words, speak up, and let us know how to improve. The next question that I was particularly interested in is “What has stopped you from volunteering to be a PLSO Chapter Officer?” 34% either don’t have the time or didn’t want to make the time. Another 20% said it was too stressful or they don’t enjoy it. The remaining responses varied, but mostly fell into the category of “not enough time, too busy, or worried they won’t do a good job at it.” I totally understand the time issue, but you can still help PLSO by reaching out to other members that you feel could do a good job serving PLSO and ask them to step up and serve the organization. The amount of time put into the position is different for each person. It depends on what you and your fellow members want PLSO to achieve. There is never a bad idea brought forth. Withmost ideas, the conversation is usually about “how to implement it.” The question of “Would you serve on the Board of Directors, but not be responsible for chapter meetings?” brought a response of nearly 50/50. I have heard in the past from chapter officers that the hardest duty of the position was coming up with the monthly chapter meeting speaker. The more successful avenue on this problem I have heard is to spread the word among the chapter members on either topics or speakers and ask those Tim Fassbender, PLS PLSO Board Chair Get involved with your chapter, attend the meetings whether they are virtual or in person. Let them know what is on your mind and listen to their problems, because you may have the solution to their problems.
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