Volunteer List - How do I get on a SWATA committee

One of the more frequent questions that I get from members since I was elected to the SWATA Executive Board is "I want to be involved. How can I get on a committee?" That's a great question and I want to make sure that everyone understands how they can be appointed to a SWATA committee, work group, or task force.

On the SWATA Executive Board we want to make every effort to make sure that hard working members who want to be involved in the leadership of the association have that opportunity. Because of that we established a volunteer list in the spring of 2007. Since that time well over 100 members have filled out the online form which can be found at

http://www.swata.org/committees/volunteer_form.php

Close to 90 of those have been appointed to committees in the last 2+ years. At the most recent SWATA Meeting we appointed approximately 45 members to committees. While there are still some people on the list that have been there for quite some time you can see that many members are getting appointed to committees and are being "put to work" so to speak. When a committee chair has an opening or several openings on their committee they will request the most recent volunteer list to check to see if there is someone who fits what they are needing on their committee. I do want to give some pointers on how and why people get appointed to committees:

• Most committee assignments are made around the time of the SWATA Annual Meeting. Occasionally committees need extra members during the course of the year, but that is the exception rather than the rule.


• To be appointed to a committee be flexible. If you check the box that says "any committee" you have a greater chance of being appointed quicker than if you specify one or two committees as they may not have openings every year.


• If your contact information changes please make sure that you up date it with us.


• Please understand that even with the new committee structure (members may serve no more than three years on a committee) that it still may take a few years to be appointed to a committee.

If you have any questions about how committee appointments or anything else in SWATA happens please don't hesitate to contact anyone on the SWATA Executive Board.