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*This speech was delivered on the occasion of NVOAD's 25th Anniversary
Remarks
at 1996 NVOAD Annual Membership Meeting • March
26, 1996
Michael Bruinooge, President
President's Report
25th
Anniversary
Problems or Opportunities
Highlights of 1995
Priorities for 1996
NVOAD is 25 years old. The immediate reason for forming the organization was Hurricane Camille. In the aftermath of this disaster, the voluntary organizations who wanted to help victims realized they didn't know very much about each other, and certainly weren't very well coordinated.
On July 15, 1970, seven of them got together to form NVOAD. W.D. Dibrell of the American Red Cross is generally regarded as being the most influential in getting NVOAD started.
The NVOAD logo depicts the ideals that started the movement. A contest during the 1980s led to the current design. The top of the logo depicts the way our member organizations flower within with their own identities and constituencies of support. When there's a disaster, they come together in one place (the downward vertical movement of the logo), but then (as the lines bend to the right) move in a single, concerted, coordinated direction for the benefit of disaster victims, while still keeping their own identities.
In its 25 years, NVOAD has grown from seven members to 27, with two affiliate members as well. And it's grown from having 0 State associate members to 47 today--soon to be 48 when the board approves another State's membership tomorrow. And we don't even know how many county or local VOADs we have because that local movement has grown so rapidly.
In our 25th year we were honored with a number of State proclamations, and one from President Clinton as well. These are displayed in the room today. Our recent Newsletter issue has a story about the proclamations. And in connection with this special event I want to release to you today a commemorative 25 year history of our VOAD movement, written by Quentin Remein, who was our long-time Executive Secretary, and at my request, gave many volunteer hours to writing this document. We are deeply grateful to Quentin for this important service. (Applause for Quentin, who is present at the meeting.)
So today we celebrate. Why is celebration so important? One reasons is that every organization has problems--and it's all too easy to get consumed by them, and in the process, to forget the vision and accomplishments that have kept the organization going over the years.
A fairly recent approach to the management of organizations is called "Appreciative Inquiry." It originated at the School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. And USAID (Agency for International Development), notably, has promoted its concepts with many of its partner organizations. Appreciative Inquiry says that no matter what our business, agency or group, we need to take significant time periodically to appreciatively review what brought us to it in the first place. By reliving that story we re-encounter the ideals and energies that not only were important to us at one time, but remain so. We also remember the achievements of the group. And finally, out of that remembered past, we envision our future. That is, we speak of dreams and possibilities, based on our heritage, that can be realized. And we discuss how to put them in place. Then, and only then, are we in a position to address significant problems. The point is not to ignore problems. The point is not to start with them, not to be consumed by them. Because if we do so, a negative, debilitating spirit infects us. Whereas out of gratitude and positive envisioning, energy flows. Excitement and life flow.
I've taken the time to talk about this because it's relevant to us today, to how we look at NVOAD and its future. Although NVOAD is relatively young, we have a fine history to celebrate. And we have values and ideals that are extremely important: 1) Cooperation (an attitude and a commitment that says we respect and affirm others, that we are not the be-all and end-all ourselves), 2) Communication (the regular act that knits us together over time), and 3) Coordination (the actions and programs that result, for the benefit of disaster victims).
Remembering helps us look with positive energy at two recent developments in the disaster response world. One, we have seen an explosion of interest nationally in disaster response. We have experienced several large disasters in the United States since 1989. And out of them, the public has demonstrated by its generous giving that it cares about disaster victims. Consequently, organizations big and small, including many that never before showed much interest in disaster response, have entered the field. In a related development, our VOAD movement has spawned the growth of local or County VOADs in rapid fashion, especially in the disaster-prone States of California, Florida and Texas.
How do we look at these developments? I think we must look at them not as a problem to be solved, not as events that cause us to hunker down and retreat into a competitive spirit, but as opportunity--opportunity for growth, and opportunity to work with others for the fulfillment of our ideals. Stephen Covey, in his Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, talks of a "scarcity mentality" versus an "abundance mentality." We need to see that the emergence of new players in disaster response is "abundance." It is opportunity. The pie (of public support) is not finite. It can grow and support a multitude of efforts. What we need to do is not fight and compete, but instead, work on ourselves, on making our own organizations, whether NVOAD or NOVA (a NVOAD member) the best they can be.
For this reason, the NVOAD Board will be addressing the issue of County and local VOADs in a positive light, working on how we can clarify the relationship between them and the State VOADs, and how we can better spell out our values and goals so that new members clearly understand them and can contribute to coordination of services.
It's traditional for the President to list the highlights of the past year. What happened in 1995?
1. We added one NVOAD member, the International Relief Friendship Foundation, and increased our State VOAD members from 43 to 48.
2. We had a successful State VOAD Leadership Conference in Tempe, Arizona, with the highest attendance yet, at 90.
3. We had remarkable growth in the number of county and other substate VOADs (at years' end, for example, Florida had over 12)--so much so that States don't always how many local VOADs there are in their borders.
4. We found that our staffing arrangement with Aldrighetti/Battistelli Associates worked very well, and renewed our contract.
5. We saw the VOAD ideal extend across the seas, when a counterpart group emerged in Japan--the Nippon Volunteer Network Active in Disaster. NVNAD invited Jerry Collins of the American Red Cross, Ben Curran of FEMA, Garvel Wike of the Emergency Network of Los Angeles (a local VOAD), Jim Goltz of EQE International (an engineering firm) and myself to visit Japan in February. Our group took part in several symposiums in Tokyo, Osaka and Kobe in which we related how our agencies work and cooperate in the United States.
In addition to the communication with Japan, we have seen some interest in the western Canadian provinces in a VOAD-type organization.
6. With Quentin Remein's help we compiled an Index of all NVOAD policy decisions over our 25 years. And of course we have also just distributed a history of NVOAD to you that Quentin authored.
7. And for the first time we were able to compile and distribute to you (today) annual reports of activity from 22 of our 27 members. These all follow a similar format suggested by NVOAD and are, we hope, the beginning of a process that will see reporting from every member organization within a year or two.
These are the year's highlights. Now I would like to mention our shared priorities for 1996 as identified by the Board of Directors.
1. We need to continue to strengthen, train and equip VOAD leaders.
2. We need to prepare guidelines for the development of Substate VOADs and their relationship with State VOADs. These guidelines should also better define the leadership that we hope VOADs will provide. The Board intends to begin this process at its meeting tomorrow and complete it by September.
3. We need to keep our communications systems up-to-date with changing technology and opportunity. VOADNet has served us well, but the fact that it takes even a little bit of extra effort to both join up and log on and off is a deterrent to membership, when Internet access has improved so dramatically and most people communicate directly through it. We hope in the coming year to set up our own Home Page on the Worldwide Web and to have at least two Internet List Serves where VOAD members can share information about disasters and their own responses.
4. The NVOAD Board will complete a Long-Range Planning Process that we hope will allow us to develop consensus over important questions like, "How big should we grow?" "Should we do fund-raising, and if so, how much?" This process should allow us to bring conclusions to you by the time of our next Annual Meeting for your discussion and endorsement.
5. We will be developing a Joint Action Plan with FEMA within several weeks. In connection with that, FEMA has already indicated their interest in contributing resources for training programs for VOAD leaders. NVOAD and FEMA will also be working toward a longer term Memorandum of Understanding. Larry Zensinger, the Director of FEMA's Human Services Division in the Response and Recovery Directorate, is our liaison with FEMA. We're delighted that he can be with us today and give us his thoughts both on changes within FEMA and the relationship between our two organizations.
6. Finally, we need to expand our lines of communication with the business community for the good of our members.
In closing, I would like to mention two priorities of mine for NVOAD that have not been discussed as yet by the Board.
First, I think our members must do more in the area of disaster mitigation. Director Witt has rightly put mitigation at the top of the nation's agenda. Can't we as voluntary agencies start planning for our own contribution in this area? We're especially well placed to:
1) Educate our constituencies and communities about what they can do to mitigate the damage of future disasters, and 2) Use volunteers to help homeowners make structural changes either after a disaster or in anticipation of future disasters. Mitigation is, of course, not something that NVOAD itself can or should do. But it is our role to encourage all of our members to do this important work.
Finally, I would like to see NVOAD develop guidelines for our members that hold us to high standards of performance. Our Annual Reports are a beginning. They position us to take the next step, which is to define for our members what excellence in service really means. And this in turn can only bring benefit to those whose it is our mission to serve: disaster survivors.
It's been a pleasure and an honor to serve you this past year in the role of President. Thank you very much.