105: Building an Army of Volunteer Advocates

Carla Lehn had a vision for how volunteers could transform the California State Library system. She talks about what she learned, the unexpected benefits of gathering feedback, and how she literally wrote the book on the transformative power of volunteer advocates!

Carla Lehn had a vision for how volunteers could transform the California State Library system. She talks about what she learned, the unexpected benefits of gathering feedback, and how she literally wrote the book on the transformative power of volunteer advocates!

Guest Bio:

Carla Lehn
Principal - Lehn Group
Former Library Programs Consultant, California State Library

Carla Lehn began her career as a VISTA volunteer, and after receiving a Masters in Community Development from the University of California, Davis, worked for United Way for over a decade.  

Prior to joining the California State Library staff in 2001 to work on statewide literacy, volunteerism, and community engagement initiatives, she was a private consultant based in Hawaii on volunteer engagement, board development, and community collaboration.  

Carla has published several articles, and a previous book on volunteer engagement. Her most recent work, From Library Volunteer to Library Advocate: Tapping into the Power of Community Engagement, was published in June 2018 by Libraries Unlimited.

Since her December 2015 retirement, Carla has focused on her consulting practice and bucket list travel, and continues to be an active volunteer.

Show Notes:

Carla has worked in the recent past with the California State Library to build the capacity of the state network through deeper volunteer engagement.  Through this process, she introduced libraries to the concept of “skilled volunteering” and began to work with local libraries to develop community leaders.  

When she began the process of change, she identified benchmarks to track through a volunteer survey and review of current metrics. This allowed her to track the evidence of impact for the Get Involved Initiative. For the work of local community groups, they were able to increase total volunteer involvement across the state by 52%.

Because volunteers were now more intimately involved with meeting library needs they were better equipped to speak on their behalf. Volunteer leaders also became stronger advocates of their local libraries, telling friends and co-workers about the library, recruiting fellow volunteers, speaking to local decision makers about library needs, and making financial contributions to the library as well as asking others to give.

In 2018, Carla’s published From Library Volunteer to Library Advocate: Tapping into the Power of Community Engagement.  Listeners can purchase it at a discount from https://www.abc-clio.com/ using the Promo Code: Q31920

If you want to learn more about Carla’s work, you can contact her directly at carlalehn@gmail.com.

You can also connect with Carla on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlalehn/.