City of Austin – To Volunteer or Not?

That is one of many, many questions a new City of Austin committee has been tasked to answer. Luckily a smart group of people has been pulled together to answer this question. That group includes me (strangely enough) and I’ve decided to blog about the process. Consider me your inside FOIA person. The committee has been pulled together by the City of Austin Chief Information Officer and is called…ready for this….The Strategic Advisory Group for Community Service, Volunteerism and Philanthropy. What’s the acronym for that?

Austin’s in need of a serious reboot of what we do around all three of those . Why? Well Austin’s on a downward slide for volunteering. Since 2007 we have moved from 5th to 41st on volunteer hours. And as Monica Williams (who joins me on the committee) put it’s in her editorial in her latest issue of GivingCity “Where have all the leaders gone?”

Take a look and let me know what you think. I’ll update you as the committee takes shape and defines a clear vision.