Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation volunteers and staff met in Missoula, Montana, in early May 2024 for the second-ever RMEF Volunteer Summit. It took place just before the celebration of RMEF’s 40-year anniversary with various volunteers and staff from across the country attending. The summit allowed volunteers and staff the opportunity to share ideas and explore solutions for the most common challenges faced by volunteers and chapters.
The structure of these meetings utilized a focus group format, with about 15 people in each group, made up of chapter volunteers, state chairs, regional directors and field operations leadership. A group facilitator led the discussions and a recorder documented them. Topics included volunteer recruitment, chapter growth, increasing event attendance, chapter leadership and how to make more of an impact for RMEF’s mission.
“The Volunteer Summit helps those in attendance to network and learn from one another,” said Jared Wold, RMEF volunteer program director. “The challenges for one chapter may not be the same for another and this meeting platform allows our volunteers and field staff to work together, brainstorm ideas and create solutions to move the mission forward.”
The volunteer summit will continue in future years but is limited and by invitation only.
The topics discussed and notes recorded will be featured as upcoming RMEF Volunteer Newsletter articles. Volunteer summit topics are also available within the RMEF Event Management System (EMS) (accessible to chapter leadership), under the “Resources” tab in the “Volunteer Resource Articles” folder.