Volunteering

"There are three types of people in this world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder what happened. We all have a choice. You can decide which type of person you want to be. I have always chosen to be in the first group."
-Mary Kay Ash

General Volunteer Information

The Komen North Texas Race for the Cure® and every event organized throughout the year by Komen North Texas would not be possible without the generosity of spirit of hundreds of dedicated volunteers. The Komen Foundation was founded on the ideal of being volunteer driven and is now admired worldwide as such. Volunteers are at the heart of every initiative at the Komen Foundation. You can make a difference!

If you are interested in volunteering on any of our committees please contact us at volunteer@komennorthtexas.org and enter “Volunteer Recruitment” in the subject line. Please include your day and evening contact information, and what committee or committees you are interested in. Download information on our volunteer opportunities. All volunteers must submit the downloadable Affiliate Volunteer Release form.

We have volunteer opportunities on the following affiliate committees:

Education & Community Outreach

Co-chairs: Janet Crawley and Holly Vasquez

We are looking for volunteers to help spread the word about breast health and carry out the Komen mission. We need women and men to help with health fairs, mailings, putting packets together for newly diagnosed women, and beginning work on a resource guide for the women and men of Collin, Denton, and Grayson counties.

Qualifications for Community Outreach Committee:

• Energetic and creative
• Enjoy meeting new people and ability to communicate well
• Have a car and phone (email user is a plus!)
• Can give 2 or more hours a month
• Speak English, Spanish, Arabic, Vietnamese, Chinese, or any other language that our community speaks
• Nurse practitioner, medical professional, educational professional, survivor or family of a survivor

Fundraising Committee

Chair: Colleen Campbell

Need strong, organized committed people to work on this committee. Fundraising committee members work year round in assisting the Chair with duties such as:

• Screening fundraising offers to determine if it is beneficial and appropriate for the affiliate
• Presenting qualified opportunities to the Board for approval
• Recruiting and mentoring event chairpersons
• Overseeing various events from initial organization through final reporting and thank you’s
• Working closely with the PR committee

Public Relations

Chair: Jennifer Hernandez

In need of 1 to 2 people to assist in:

• Creating email newsletters
• Compiling books of press clippings
• Celping to organize events during Breast Cancer awareness month which is October
• Distributing press kits during Race
• Scouting other opportunities and avenues for publicity

PR volunteers need to be very professional and organized. A background in PR is a plus.

Finance Committee

Chair: Teri DeWitt

Individuals with accounting or book keeping experience needed to manage the Affiliate’s financial duties, which include:

• Serving as an assistant to the Chair of the Finance Committee
• Establishing system of receipt and disbursement for all Affiliate funds
• Meeting reporting commitments to the board and the National Organization of Komen
• Balance sheet and income statement reporting
• Budget-to-actual reporting to the Board
• Bill paying and book keeping using Quick Books On Line.
• Follow up communication with donor organizations
• Record keeping of all financial activity, including vendor records, paid bills files, deposit activity
• Bank reconciliations

Grant Committee

Chair: Martha Still

The Grant Committee is busy the entire year. This year, 2005, the Grant Year moved to a calendar year of April 1 to March 31. The Grants are paid in two payments and reports must be submitted by each grant recipient twice a year to ensure the recipients are distributing their funds according to their application.
Help needed on the Grants Committee would include:

• Individuals from Collin, Denton and Grayson Counties to help spread the word of the Grant Program.
• 2 - 3 individuals from these areas to be on our Grant Review Board.

If you are interested in learning more about the Grant process we would like to work with you to be a Grant Co-Chair next year. National offers an excellent training program for the Grants Program. Working with grants is an extremely rewarding and busy position. It is rewarding to see the money we raise put to work in our Affiliate service area.

Office Administration

Chair: Jennifer Hernandez

Keep our office facility up-to-date and running smoothly. This position could be handled by one person or split by 2 or 3 people. These committee members need to be organized and dependable.

Duties include:

• Checking voice mail and passing messages along via email
• Stopping by our office 2-3 times a week, year round, to bring in and sort the mail
• Tracking donations that come in the mail and sending out pre-printed acknowledgements
• Other miscellaneous tasks as needed

2007 Race Committee

Chair: Colleen Campbell

Do you like planning events? Have you always wanted to see how a Race for the Cure® is put together? Are you an organizer? Are you clever and creative? Do you like to have fun and be a part of a team? Then we want you on the Race committee! The 2007 Race will be Saturday, June 3rd.

The organizing committee for the Race for the Cure® will begin meeting in November. We generally have one meeting a month until April, when we will begin meeting more frequently until race day.

This is a great committee and we need lots of energetic people, both men and women. We have several committee chair positions to fill, as well as committee members needed, so whether you like to be in charge or a worker bee, we have a place for you.

The next Race is on June 2, 2007, our 17th annual. And, we want you to help and join the fun. If you have questions or know someone else who might like to join our team, please contact me! I look forward to working with lots of great new people.

Volunteer Committee

Chair: Denise Meyer

The volunteer committee recruits all volunteers for Affiliate functions and events throughout the year including the Race. Each year the Race involes about 450 volunteers e in various roles, pre-race and on race day, to ensure that everything gets done.

Recruiting duties include:

• contacting volunteers from last year
• notifying various volunteer leagues
• coordinating with PR Committee

The time commitment for one person doing all of these duties is a couple of hours a month in March and early April, and progresses to 10 to 15 hours a week mid April until the day of the Race.

The more committed committee members that we have, the less time on a weekly basis each individual will need to commit to.

Time is spent:

• Following leads via telephone and email
• Emailing information to past volunteers
• Updating the spreadsheet to schedule volunteers
• Gathering and entering information from the returned volunteer release forms
• Assigning individual volunteer duties
• Working on Race Day
• Helping with the volunteer appreciation party

The qualities needed for this committee are:

• Fluent in email - an absolute “must”!
• Organized
• Excellent communication skills - written and oral
• Ability to meet deadlines
• Ability to work well with other committees to determine volunteer needs
• Ability to juggle differing requests from multiple people