When I came on as a Committee Chair, I was still learning what committee actually was. My husband and I had been leaders for a few years prior before coming on committee and the committee I joined was fairly small at first. Most of us had never been on committee, and honestly most of us had never experienced Young Life as a kid ourselves. We were all learning together! I think my learning curve could have been lower if I had known a few things and pursued them earlier on - especially when I moved into the Committee Chair role.
IT’S A PARTNERSHIP
Sometimes it’s hard to see or experience, but I am convinced that Committee is meant to partner with the staff. As a Committee Chair, you are driving the committee ship to help foster this partnership. Often, you’re working not only to get committee to understand this, but for staff to embrace it as well. Depending on past experiences, personality, or just daily demands of the job, encouraging staff to partner in return needs to be an intentional focus. Staff are often trying to figure out what this should look like too. If you do it together, it tends to flow better.
AGE DOESN’T MATTER
It can be intimidating to be on a committee with people of all ages, but then to step into the role of Committee Chair when others on the team are decades older? That can feel intimidating for anyone. What I’ve come to learn is that anyone is going to feel intimidated as they step into a leadership role like this. Most adults are excited to serve, but don’t want to necessarily head up the committee. Embrace the age differences in your group and continue to pursue a wide range of ages, personalities, and backgrounds. Your committee will be better for it.
EVERYONE IS WILLING TO HELP
Literally everyone I’ve asked for insight and advice over the years. Regardless of the situation, I’ve been able to find other Area Directors, Regional Directors, and senior leaders who are not only willing to help, but EXCITED to help. I’ve done cold reach-outs to staff in other geographic areas and asked for their insights and they have all jumped at the opportunity to share. I found a great place to start is to do a quick search for “Young Life” on LinkedIn. You’ll quickly find thousands of people who are either on staff or are volunteers/committee.
YOUNG LIFE HAS RESOURCES FOR COMMITTEES
It can be hard when committees are ever-revolving and each has their own personality, but over the years, I’ve discovered a few great resources to help non-staff Young Lifers stay in the know. Many staff still forget that most committee don’t automatically get all the same info that they do internally. (Hint: Staff, an easy thing you can do is to over-share news, updates, and resources with your committee!)
Committee Manual: Young Life’s breakdown of what a committee is, why it exists, and many of the foundational basics. Find it here.
YL Funding Help Podcast: Short podcast episodes from two Directors of Field Development who share some best practices for fundraising. See them all here.
5.4 Friday Monthly Emails: Written for anyone in Young Life, you can get some great encouragement, education, and ideas each month from great minds around the mission. Sign up here.
Monday Morning Emails: While written largely to staff, as a committee member these are a great simple way to stay up to date with some of the big things going on. Sign up here.
Staff (And Volunteer) Resources (not just for staff): Looking for logos and other basic info? Most committee may never need to go here, but if you need it, it’s great to check out. Access it here.
THINK THE BEST OF PEOPLE
Inevitably, you’re going to run into awkward and hard situations. You’re a group of different personalities and many of us have opinions on how events or fundraising or leader care could look. We all have different strong points and just as obvious weak points. I’ve never seen this more clearly than in working with our committee. I’ve been humbled to learn and see people’s true heart toward ministry and realize why they operate the way they do.
One last thing- What if we never had a Committee Chair ‘wishing’ they had known something before enjoying the opportunity to serve in this important role. My YL Region (The Front Range Region, CO) has just drafted an ‘onboarding’ document for new Committee Chairs so they are equipped for the role and aware of the expectations. The link to the document is HERE.
Written By: Valerie Morris (valerie@tinterocreative.com)