VolunteerCONNECTION - October 2022

- Tweet0
- 0
- Pin It 0
- 0
- Subscribe to RSS
Subscribe

Subject: VolunteerCONNECTION - October 2022

View Online

A Story of Connection

A Recovery Day Celebration

As the regional coordinator for SMART in British Columbia, Canada, my mission is to help as many individuals seeking self-empowerment and evidence-based tools as a process to help themselves. When I became the coordinator a few years back, I ventured out as a newbie, eyes wide open, finding as many resources as I could to help grow SMART Recovery in the community that I love so much.

In September 2019, I found out about the Recovery Day BC event and I wandered myself down to see what the fuss was all about. Well, there were people lining the street all celebrating their own recovery, live music playing, and kids playing and laughing in the KIDS ZONE. At that moment I said to myself, I would love to have a SMART booth proudly displayed for all to see. A few years went by and COVID happened; a lot had changed in British Columbia. We lost many in-person meetings, some facilitators retired, and many of the determined facilitators dove into the online Zoom platform.

Announcements & Reminders

Upgrades to US and CA Shops

As part of SMART’s continued dedication to improving user experience for our participants and volunteers, our IT department has been working hard to transition our US and Canada bookshops to a new e-commerce platform. The Canada Shop moved over to the new platform in September, and we expect to have the US Shop moved over in the coming weeks.

The new platform, Shopify, is much faster than our old one, with better search tools and modern checkout options including Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Shop Pay. Another advantage of this transition is that making purchases through our shops will be much easier as there is no longer a login requirement.

Facilitators will still receive the discount on the purchase of handbooks by using a discount code. Discount codes have already been emailed to our Canadian facilitators and will be emailed to our US facilitators when we complete the transition of the US Shop. NOTE: To receive the discount code, a volunteer must be listed as a facilitator for a registered and active SMART Recovery meeting.

Please send any questions or concerns to volunteerhq@smartrecovery.org.

SROL Leadership Team Name Change

The group of experienced volunteers from each platform of SROL, previously known as "Leadership Team", is in the process of changing its name to the "Liaison Team". The team thinks this better suits their positions as representatives to SROL. Plus, it helps clear any confusion with the newly formed "Executive Leadership Team" which is different group of staff members. Now that everyone is aware, we will start making changes to places where "Leadership Team" appears.

New Volunteer Opportunities Page

We have added a new page to VolunteerHQ titled Volunteer Opportunities. This page lets you know the different ways/places to become involved in SMART. The page lists common areas SMART needs volunteers (SROL, mentors, training team), meetings that are looking for co-facilitators or new facilitators, and locations that have space available or want a volunteer to start a meeting at their location.

SMART Recovery East Coast Conference

It's your last chance to register for the 2022 East Coast Conference next week. You don't want to miss this informative and impactful event. Reserve your spot today.

Upcoming Continuing
Educational Opportunities

Facilitator Refresher

How long has it been since you were trained? Would like a little brush up? Please join us on November 5th from 11:00 to 1:30 p.m. ET for the Facilitator Refresher Course.

Topics will include:

What is the Global Training Committee?
What are the things that are required for a SMART Recovery Meeting
How to you keep check-in's brief?
Dealing with difficult participants
What tools would you like to review?
Prerequisites: Completion of 201, 203 or 301
Cost: FREE

Registration will open October 15th and close October 22nd

Registration: https://smartrecoverytraining.org/register/start/

Training ID number OST20221105-FROH

Facilitating a Teen Meeting

Do you run teen SMART Recovery meetings or are you wanting to start one? The SMART Recovery tools work great with teens, with just a little knowledge of how teens think. The next Teen Add-on Training will be held December 3rd from 11:00 - 3:00 p.m. ET.

Topics will include:

Focus on working with this age group
How to keep them coming back
Prerequisites: Completion of 201, 203 or 301
Cost: $40 per person

Registration will open November 19th and close November 26th

Registration Information: https://smartrecoverytraining.org/register/start/

Training ID number OST20221203-TTOH

Payment needs to be made here:

https://smartrecoverytraining.org/register/payment-form

This multi-purpose form has three sections to complete:

About you, where you'll enter your name, email address and phone number
About this payment, providing:
1. Payment Type, "Select Other Payment"
2. Additional details, use the Training ID number from above
Pay here, where you'll enter your payment information.

Helpful Hints

Social Media Guidelines & Best Practices

In response to the many volunteers who reach out to the National Office asking for guidance on using social media to promote SMART Recovery, our Marketing and Communications team have created a document that has been added to VolunteerHQ outlining our social media guidelines & best practices. The document is located on the promotional materials page which can be found in the menu under Volunteer Resources or by clicking here.

Requesting a Certificate of Insurance

If you are a facilitator in the United States who is asked to provide a Certificate of Insurance to the location of your meeting, the National Office can help.

Email: information@smartrecovery.org and include the following:

Meeting number
Location name and address
Your name and contact information

Please allow five business days for processing.

One-Time Cancelation Notices

Local Meeting Cancellations:

As a registered facilitator of a SMART Recovery meeting, you can use our self-service meeting change option to make cancelation notices. When using this option, changes take effect as soon as you verify the change. One of the great features of the self-service meeting change options is you can do it in advance.

For example, if this month has a holiday and your meeting will be affected by it, put in a cancel date now. The cancelled dates will be shown 7 days prior to your meeting date. You could even put your vacation days in months ahead. Your participants will thank you for planning. No one wants to come to a meeting and find out it’s been cancelled, and the facilitator didn’t tell anyone.

To use the self-service change option to cancel for one date or a series of dates:

Locate your meeting on SMARTFinder
Click on your meeting to show full information
Under “Facilitators” click on “Request changes to your meeting”
Make the desired changes by Comma-separated dates in YYYY-MM-DD format.
1. For example: "2022-11-01,2022-12-01" to list Nov 1 and Dec 1, 2022, as cancelled.
Submit your changes
Check your email and verify the changes

SROL Cancellations:

To post a one-time cancellation, first, login to SROL. Next, click on the menu button "Resources". Under that menu, you will find the "Meeting Announcement (Cancel/Resume)" form.

Here is the direct link:

https://community.smartrecovery.org/community/announcement/

Meetings of Interest for Volunteers

To see a full list of meetings and supports available for our volunteers, please check out the Facilitators Training and Support page.

Facilitators Training & Support

Volunteer Recognition

SMART knows that it's our volunteers that create the biggest impact in the lives of those we serve, and we wanted a way to recognize the work you do. Started during Volunteer Month, we will continue to feature several of the volunteers you recognized through the Volunteer Recognition Program.

John Balla - Facilitator, Illinois

John brings patience, understanding, humility, and evidence based approaches, to recovery. He facilitates the discussion in a way that I have not found in other meetings and I learn something every time I attend.

Terilyn Marino - Facilitator, Nevada

Terilyn is an excellent facilitator. She has a lot of knowledge pertaining to [approaches] to addiction, especially with regards to the SMART Recovery program. She is personable, engaging, and moderates the meetings with great skill.

She balances the individual needs of the attendees while also delivering excellent tools and techniques from the SMART Handbook. I recently graduated from a 30 day residential program for alcohol... and I am currently attending IOP.

Terilyn is a far superior meeting facilitator than any of the “professional” therapists that run the IOP program.

I feel interested, educated and energized after each of the meetings that she facilitates. I am inspired by her enthusiasm and presentation to use the SMART tools daily to guide my recovery.

Submit Your Group Donations
to SMART Recovery

Your group donations to SMART Recovery help empower millions worldwide with tools to recover from any substance or activity addiction.

SMART Recovery is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Submit Your Group Donation

SMART Recovery is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Subscribe

Subject: VolunteerCONNECTION - October 2022