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Stalking the Elusive Executive:
Tips for Getting Top Decision-Makers to Read Volunteer Management Literature

“If only my boss would understand!” That is a phrase often heard by Susan J. Ellis, president of Energize, Inc., an international training, consulting and publishing firm specializing in volunteerism. Volunteer program managers express their frustrations to her because they know that a successful volunteer program relies on the highest decision-makers in their agencies being educated on the subject of volunteerism.

Unfortunately, there are not many places where executives can learn about maximizing volunteer involvement and, in some ways, they don’t even “know what they don’t know.” So volunteer program managers have a key role to play as in-house educators, teaching “up” to their immediate managers and onward to the top of the organization.

Fortunately, Ellis has offered a dozen specific, practical suggestions for encouraging a hard-to-reach executive to read volunteer management literature. The e-publication, “Stalking the Elusive Executive,” is offered free-of-charge in the Energize Online Bookstore ( www.energizeinc.com/bookstore.html).

Susan says, “I wrote my book From the Top Down to help executives who really want to support volunteers and are looking for new and better ways to do so, but I realized that the directors of volunteers needed someone on their side to help teach their bosses about the essentials of a sound volunteer program.”

Several of Susan’s tips include:

• The Direct Approach: Buy a volunteer management book for your exec and ask him or her to read it.
• The Direct Approach with the Author's Personal Touch: Buy it for him or her and ask the author to inscribe/autograph it first.
• The Seize-the Moment Approach: Be alert when a situation occurs that provides the opportunity to give your executive volunteer-related information at a “teachable moment.”
• The It's-Harder-to-Say-No-to-a-Volunteer Approach: Buy a book, but ask a key volunteer to give it to the executive requesting that he/she read it.

To download the free article and full set of tips, go to the www.energizeinc.com/bookstore.html.

Note to editors: You have permission to reproduce this press release as an article in your publication without needing to contact Energize further. We simply ask that you include the full contact information included below in anything you print and please send us a copy of the actual publication. Thank you.

Contact Information for Reprints:
Energize, Inc., www.energizeinc.com
5450 Wissahickon Ave.
Philadlephia, PA 19144
(215) 438-8342
info@energizeinc.com