1. Committee Development
Special Olympics North Carolina
Leadership Conference 2017
Presented by your Community Resource Directors,
Lauren Bruce & Melanie Guntner

2. There’s no “U” in Committee!
Obviously, your role as coordinator is B-I-G! Committees help disperse some of the workload
Community involvement, program collaboration, and networking can help to expand your committee!
Through Committees, Program growth can occur in:
Sport and coaches
Fundraising
Unified Champion Schools and Young Athletes
Healthy Athletes
Athlete Council and Global Messengers

3. Why should I have a committee?
Share the love and the responsibility!
Anything you don’t want to do, can’t do, don’t have time to do, don’t have the skill set to do, etc. can be delegated to a committee, with you, the coordinator, in an advisory role.
You will engage community members/partners from all backgrounds, skills, and interests.
New committee members bring fresh ideas and experiences!

4. Your Current Committee
Think about your current committee:
What committees do you have?
What committees do you want to establish?
What are your goals for the upcoming year? How can you activate other people to help you achieve those goals?
What is not working with your current structure?
How can your Community Resource Director help?

5. What types of Committees are there?
We have created a list of standard Committee Chairs that include:
Competition
Fundraising
PR & Education
Families
Health
Training
Finance
Outreach
Volunteer
Do these already-created descriptions work for you? Do you want them modified to fit your program? These descriptions are available in Microsoft Word format, so you can modify them to fit your needs!

6. Other types of Committees
Is your program in desperate need of a Committee Chair for something you don’t see in the pre-existing list of Committee Chairs? OR do you know someone with a specific talent, but don’t see a chair position for them? Let’s make a description!
One example that we discussed was a Logistics/Transportation chair. This person would manage all travel, including overnights! (NO! A job description doesn’t exist for this yet, but your Community Resource Director would love to work WITH you to help create any new job descriptions!)

7. But how do I find new people?
In this session, we discussed ways for SONC to help:
Host an Interest Meeting in your area! SONC will help to organize, create invitations, and reach out to the community.
Post your desired positions on
If you want to create Facebook Ads on your local program page, SONC can help guide you!
Get your Youth Initiatives Director involved (Kelly M and Allie), she might be plugged into the school system or have another contact that can help.

8. But how do I find new people?
Another way for SONC to help:
No matter if your local program is based in Parks & Recreation, schools, the community, or YMCA, or some combination, each of these members of the community can and should be involved in some way. Each of these groups has something unique that they can offer. Contact your Community Resource Director if you want or need someone to join you for a meeting, or need any resources to share while at the meeting.

9. But how do I find new people?
Then the group shared their ideas that have worked:
Post your needs on social media (both your personal and your local program page)
Ask around at your church (one program not only gained a committee member this way, the new member’s place of business also came on as a sponsor!)
Do you belong to any clubs or groups? Ask your group to help!
Ask each committee member to bring a friend or coworker to the next meeting.

10. But how do I find new people?
More Ideas from the group:
Host a pre-season meeting for all of your athletes, invite the parents, and let them know where you need help.
Consider hosting an annual (or whatever basis you like) update meeting to keep everyone in the loop as you begin a new year of programming.
Involve your athletes! Many athletes can drive, have jobs, and want to be more involved! If you do this, it might help to paid him/her with a mentor, so your athlete stays on track, and doesn’t forget any of his/her responsibilities.

11. But how do I find new people?
More Ideas from the group:
Do you have someone who is super-involved in Spring Games? Make him/her the Spring Games Director, and let him/her make the decisions for you! At Spring Games, you can focus on identifying new people you want to join your committee!
Reach out to local businesses. Many love volunteering and can take care of most of your volunteer needs for a Polar Plunge, Spring Games, etc. and beyond. Also, sponsors love to see where their donation is going - so getting them more involved would really bring the experience full-circle for them!

12. But how do I find new people?
More Ideas from the group:
One local program has an advanced PE class at a local school that serves as their Spring Games Management Team.
One Local program has a college Unified club that serves as their Spring Games Management Team.
Don’t be afraid to ask local high school students to help beyond Spring Games. Students often need service hours for clubs and for getting into college.

13. Having trouble keeping committee members around?
Meet Monthly.
Offer light refreshments at your committee meetings. (Who doesn’t love free food?)
Send reminders the week or day of your meeting. Sometimes committee members just need a gentle reminder.
Have more than one person oversee the bigger projects, that way the committee member has someone to fall back on if something comes up (and that backup person isn’t you!)
Have a committee member create an agenda, monitor the meeting time, or take notes to switch things up – they may find they enjoy the change and having a bit of responsibility.

14. Having trouble keeping committee members around?
Change the location of your meeting to somewhere more productive or convenient. For example, many hotels love hosting and will even occasionally offer to volunteer.
Maybe the time of your meetings is holding you back. Try a lunch meeting instead of an evening meeting, or offer both times until you can figure out which is the best time to meet! You might see some new faces!
Give committee members a choice of 3 dates/times, and choose whichever one is the most convenient (a google form or scribble calendar).
Make sure to thank them for their help!

15. Having trouble keeping committee members around?
Does your committee serve in more of an advisory capacity? Ask them to do more. If they won’t, they don’t need to come to the meetings.
Start small! If you think someone on your committee can handle more responsibility, give them projects that gradually increase in size.
Be direct with them:
Let them know why you need their help
Let them know what it will mean if their responsibility doesn’t get accomplished
If they don’t follow through, let them know that/why it is not OK

16. Ideas for how to work better with the community
Talk to your Community Resource Director when you need help. We’re happy to meet with EC Directors, Principals, Parks & Rec, YMCAs, Town Councils, Community Foundations, etc. When you aren’t getting any traction, it might help to bring in someone from the SONC staff.
Once again, your Youth Initiatives Director can explain the benefits of Unified Champion Schools and in-school inclusion really well! They’re happy to join you for meetings as well!
Make Spring Games part of the IEP for each student.
Consider creating a school liaison position for your committee and/or funneling communication with schools through one individual to keep things simple for both parties.

17. Questions?? East: Contact Lauren Bruce, lbruce@sonc.net
West: Contact Melanie Guntner,