Episode 104: Volunteering

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All right.

Welcome back for another episode of the Fleet Success Show. I'm your host, Josh Turley, joined by my co-host, Jeff Jenkins.

Hey, hey, hey.

So today we want to talk about an interesting topic. I don't know. It feels timely for me because we're about to head to I&E next week.

Yep.

Well, I guess it's this week. You guys are going to hear this episode this week.

We'll be there.

We will be there. And what's interesting to me is, you know, we were talking about Fleet Success Summit last week. And one of the conversations I had while we were there was with a gentleman who's always up in the Pacific Northwest area. And for those of you who don't know, NAFA just went through a major, you know, realignment, reorganization, uh, with their chapters. So they got rid of their chapters and they created a bunch of local networking groups that then turned into, um, you know, what are they? Regions. Like just these massive regions now.

Because it used to be by state, roughly. Okay.

Yeah. You know, like in some of the areas there actually was like 2 chapters in a state. Texas is obviously very large, so they need to have multiple.

Yeah.

But out here in, in our area, like we had the Arizona chapter, the Pacific Southwest chapter, Pacific Northwest. Um, I think Utah was a part of the Rocky Mountain chapter or something like that with Colorado. And, you know, it's just been varying levels of participation, right? You know, and a lot of it was because of the you know, kind of the requirements, the bureaucracy of running an official chapter organization. And so they, uh, they kind of combined it all, got rid of a lot of the, the rigid, you know, like the, the accounting and the bookkeeping you had to do and like the minutes and all that stuff. Worst parts, the worst parts of running, you know, being part of a chapter or anything, right? And so they, they kind of realigned around this and, you know, and then created these huge massive supergroups Um, and so like I was the Arizona chapter chair and, you know, now technically I guess I'm still the local networking group leader, chair, whatever they want to call that. Um, I'm going to be giving that piece up to somebody else and give them an opportunity to volunteer for it and kind of help in that transition because, uh, now I'm a part of the overall regional council and I just got appointed as the regional chair for the, the, uh, you know, the Pacific region essentially.

Oh, well, congratulations.

Yeah. Cadolaces. You know, a little bit of both. I was trying to be positive, but it's something you volunteer for, so I feel like it's self-inflicted. Yeah.

Okay.

So, yep. But it, it, you got me thinking and then having this conversation with, uh, you know, with this gentleman from the Pacific Northwest, he asked me, he was like, hey, I just heard that you were, you're gonna get the chair down in the, you know, down the Southwest chapter. And I was like, yeah, you know, what are you guys doing up north? And he's like, well, we're, you know, we're trying to get it going. And I was wondering if I should volunteer. And my advice, you know, like I asked him just a couple of questions, but my advice overwhelmingly to anybody who's considering volunteering is that you should. And I say that for a couple of reasons. One is that when you have— when you go through a volunteer experience, one, you have to learn some certain skills, right? You've got to learn organizational skills, you have to learn time blocking and all of that, because it takes a ton of time to do anything worthwhile in a volunteer organization.

Of course.

And NAFA is no different, right? Um, and you know, there's a lot of heavy lifting usually involved, and that usually scares a lot of people away. Just that alone, um, just because you can't coast. You're not going to go and volunteer and be like, all right, go pad my resume and then I'm just going to not do anything.

Here's my 10 minutes a week, right?

Um, but I will tell you is that the benefits— because there's, you know, people ask me all the time, well, what do you get out of it? You know, and I'm like, there's no— from a, you know, from our side, we're, you know, obviously a vendor in the space. There's not really, um, you know, I wouldn't be able to go to any of our deals in the pipeline and be able to attribute and say, oh, well, it's because of my NAFA membership or because I'm the NAFA chair. Right, right. So it definitely isn't going to help you in that way if that's what you're trying to get out of it. But what it will help you with is networking, right? You will, you will be introduced to so many different people and knowing who the people are and knowing different styles, you know, like just being connected and plugged in. To the industry, you will find yourself, you know, like, uh, what's the word I want to use? Uh, it's not connected, but it's, um, like, like leveling up almost, right? Because you're surrounding yourself by a different set or a different type of people. Because the people that attend those things are typically people that they're investing in themselves, right? They're trying to grow and they're pushing themselves to grow and they want to get better. And you're surrounding yourself by people who want to get better instead of people who would just want to stay status quo. Um, the other thing that you really get out of it, I think, you know, is, is the relationship side of that, right? So not only are you meeting people who are going to help you get better, but you're meeting people that you can help get better and that you can build these, you know, relationships with. So like we're going to I&E and I'm already looking forward to meeting, you know, 10 to 15 people that are, you know, I wouldn't call them like really close friends, but people I haven't seen in a year since last year's I&E. Yeah, uh, that I'm looking forward to reconnecting with. Um, you know, so you just kind of, you build these relationships that then last, you know, for a lifetime essentially. Um, and they're all within the industry that, you know, like you're in. I think that's the thing I really like about especially the NAFSA volunteering, because it's not like any of my other groups that I'm a part of or anything like that, because it really is tailored specifically to the industry that I'm passionate about.

Yeah, right.

Um, and I think that's the other thing to get out of it too, is when you're volunteering, it's a— it's an amazing way to give back, right? And, and honestly, that's why I kind of do it, is to give back to the community or do something for the community, you know, that's done something so awesome for our family, you know, for this many years. Yeah. Um, but it's not— it's definitely not for the faint of heart.

How big of a time commitment? Now, so it's different for you, right, because you are chair.

Yeah, so it's a little bit heavier of a lift, but I, I think a really good chair, you know, and I'm still like, this is brand new, at least this type of format. Um, I'm going to break this up into two parts. So the first piece is this is brand new at the regional level, but my goal with the region is actually to not do as much work, right? Right. Like, if I do my job well, um, you know, like, we'll have this structured well and we'll have multiple volunteers helping and kind of like helping— everybody's helping lift where they're at, uh, which should take a lot less time for me. Now I will tell you is that running the Arizona chapter was not like that. It was, it was almost pretty much not just only a one-man show, but it was me and then like me supplementing it with my company.

I remember.

Like, how do we, you know, like, okay, well let's put on another event. Let's, you know, like let's provide lunch or let's do something, um, just to get more participation.

Well, it can be demoralizing when people don't show up.

Yeah.

Because you put all that time and effort into it and then we'd have 2 people.

Month after month after month. Yeah. And I think like one time we did have probably about 15 people that showed up.

Yeah, we did.

There's 60 members on the NAFA, you know, on the Arizona rolls. Right. And so it's like, where are the rest of them? And it does, it gets, you know, when you're in that local leadership area, this is actually one of the biggest reasons why NAFA switched to the regional. Is because they can get lonely. You know, you're the only one pushing and you're pushing for a cause that you believe in. But, you know, you're just wondering like, where, where's everybody at? Why doesn't anybody else care? Um, like I'm doing this for free.

Like where I'm giving lunch for free for you guys.

Come on. Like, you know, what does it take to get you guys out just to like, let's talk about the CAFM and let's talk about, uh, you know, fleet topics that are bothering you guys right now.

Um, well, and the agenda matters. I think that one that was well attended was when we talked about fleet success, right?

The pillars.

Was that the—

No, it was the CAFM.

The CFM was the one that had 15.

Okay. Yeah. And that was definitely something I noticed as well, is that anytime we talked about education, we got a lot more participation because the people want to get better. They want to grow. Uh, if we were talking about more just generic topics or, you know, doing like a fleet roundtable or something, um, you know, participation was hit and miss. Uh, consistency was another thing I found is that, you know, if we were able to keep going and get it consistently, we'd have a little bit better participation as the time went on. Um, but if we couldn't get anything going consistently, and that's hard to do when you're the only person doing it.

Yep.

Because, you know, we all know we have scheduling conflicts or things like that. Um, you know, then, then we found that it dropped off, you know, within probably about 3 months. Yeah. Yeah. It was just like hit and miss.

Well, because you were doing it once a month.

Mm-hmm.

Saying, hey, let's do it. And then it was not that well attended.

So we talked about going to once a quarter instead, but Yeah, it just kind of scaling it back. Yeah. And again, cause we got to, we, I think we'd done probably about 4 or 5 months in a row and it was just like, we weren't seeing it. We actually, I think we went back one month and it was like, okay, like there's something missing here. Right. Yeah. Um, and so the key then is if you're in a local group is, is A, find the support because if you're trying to do it alone, it's going to, you're going to burn out real quick. Yep. Um, and then you're not going to be able to deliver the kind of experience that you want and envision for your. Your volunteer group. Um, but on the flip side, if you do have that support and you can get the people around you, you know, I don't see any reason why you couldn't do it monthly, you know, or why we couldn't have done it, uh, you know, every other month.

Yeah. One of the other struggles was like trying to find that content people wanted, right? Because you'd reach out and say, hey, what do we want to talk about? What are the things that are most important?

And then you'd get like one or two replies asking your wife, what do you want to do for dinner? I don't know. What do you want to do for dinner? I don't know. You You know, and then, yeah, but, but then you'll get like these emails that come out and it's like, boom, you know, and then all of a sudden 20 different replies on a single topic. Yeah. So it's just, it's kind of interesting.

Someone has to start it.

Mm-hmm. I do think that's one of the things I like too about this new regional model from NAFA is that the, it's not just local groups anymore, right? Like if the, if the Arizona chapter wanted to put on something, we could really only influence the Arizona chapter.

60 people, right?

And if we wanted to go to another chapter event, we technically could, but we weren't usually getting those email notices or that communication. And now, like, at the regional level, we'll be able to kind of coordinate between, oh well, Nevada's doing this, or, you know, up in Sacramento they've got an event going on. And it can be in like almost an infinite number of local groups, right? So Flag and Kingman want to get together, well, we can set up a local networking group for the North Rim. And then we could set up another one for like south and southern Arizona. Uh, and so, because that was the other issue too, was that you've got members spread across a state the size of Arizona. It's not like it is back east, you know.

No, you've got like a 6-hour drive to some places, right?

Yeah, a 6-hour drive with nothing in between. Yeah, you know, so it's not like you're meeting up somewhere in the middle, uh, to, you know, to have a meeting. Not like Jersey where you can, you know, it's a 1-hour drive but it's only 20 miles, you know. Yeah, well, and then into where your region, it may only be 60 square miles, and then you go to the next chapter and it's another 60 square miles, right?

Yeah.

So it's just way dense on the East Coast. Come out here to the West and it's like, yeah, no, it's a 2-hour drive to get to the next chapter member. That's tough for people.

It's really hard. It's a lot of commitment. Yeah, it's not just the time at the meeting, it's the time traveling, right?

You know, and like we talked to Greg, Craig Grebel, Grebel, he was at one of our speakers at Summit. Yeah. You know, and same thing, like he was the chapter chair for Pacific Southwest, but he was definitely removed from the LA area.

Right.

So anything he wanted to do, he was telling us that, you know, for their EVs and things like that, it would take him 45 minutes or something like that just to get to the next dealership.

Yeah.

Another 45 minutes to get to the dealership that could actually service the EVs. And by then the charge was gone. So like, You know, but that's the kind of like how remote some of our members are. Uh, I think he lives out in like the Joshua Tree area, but it's, um, I really like this model where they're trying to make it more localized without requiring all of the bureaucracy. And so it's more supported with local elements of it.

Okay. Has it, so is this already started though?

Started this year.

Okay.

So it's kind of like underway, like our region just had our first meeting. While we were at Summit. Oh, okay. Um, so like it's that new. Um, and I think we're gonna have another one after I&E next week. But, uh, yeah, so I think the, the key though is, you know, I'll get asked questions like, well, what, where should I volunteer? What should I go do? Uh, obviously you gotta find something you're passionate about. And if you're passionate about fleet, there's NAAFA, there's Fleet Pros. Um, if you're in, uh, the trucking area, you know, then like like there's councils, TMC, you can volunteer to be on some of those. The guys at ATA, like Jack Poster at VMRS, he's always looking for people to help, you know, evangelize VMRS systems. If you're in public works, APWA has, you know, opportunities to serve and volunteer. They need help with events, they need help pushing, you know, kind of their message and their agenda. You know, they need help you know, getting membership and things like that. And it— and that's one thing too, like with NAFA, right? Like the kind of the overarching goal is to grow the membership, right? And so that was always different too, is, well, are we trying to educate people or just grow membership? And right, how do you do that when you only have 15 people showing up? And, and so, um, you know, just make it about serving and less about, you know, trying to grow the presence of the chapter or grow the presence of the association. But find something you're passionate about and that'll be easy, you know.

Yeah. And usually when you serve people, right, you start to care a little bit more. Like there's, there's something that goes with that.

Yeah.

I mean, that's what they talk about. Like, you know, when you provide service or you provide like some type of volunteer hours, you feel better afterwards. Right. And this one, I mean, you do it kind of selfishly too because you're building your own personal network. You're, you know, you're gaining knowledge. There's all these things that come from it that, um, totally worth the time investment you're putting into it.

Yeah, there's definitely people I would have never met in the industry had I not been volunteering and not been part of the, the NAFA community. Um, you know, and it's people that I can turn and talk to when I need advice on something or I want to get somebody's perspective, uh, on— it could be something work-related like, hey, how would you go build this feature? Or, um, hey, we're thinking about, you know, going in advertising and being maybe part of Flagfly or something. Uh, what goes on? What do you do with that? And how does this work? Right. Right. And so you ask these questions, and because we have this, you know, it's a, a wider network, uh, we end up getting a lot better, uh, information and advice. Um, I don't know that we would have been able to, you know, necessarily— like, we've got some awesome people on our team now, uh, between Steve and Tony and, and, uh, Mark. Mark. Yeah, right. Uh, I don't know that those connections would have happened had we not been part of NAFA at first, right?

Because that's where you met Steve, essentially.

Yeah. Yeah. Because I met him— I want to say I met him at an IED event, uh, and then eventually, like, we had him come speak for us, um, and like, he and I just hit it off. So it's very easy for us to, you know, like, hey, what do you think about coming and working here? He's like, actually, I was going to ask you that same very thing, is, uh, you know, uh, are you guys ever looking for somebody like me, right? Uh, but I'll tell you, it's like, if we don't hire Steve You know, like that, that was something I just— it wouldn't have happened without volunteering in AFA. And not that, you know, like we hired Steve and therefore, you know, like we were able to hire other people, but more it sent a signal to the industry as well.

That's credibility.

Yeah, and, and that credibility allowed us to go out and hire Mark. And honestly, like, it just kind of— it started building momentum. To now, you know, like we're just, we're adding more and more people that are just like, they're talented, they're sought after.

They know the shit. Like honestly, they're fleet geniuses.

Yeah. And that comes from, you know, participating. Right. And again, you know, I kind of said at the beginning, right, like you're going to learn and you're going to grow in ways that you didn't anticipate. I wouldn't have anticipated that as part of volunteering. It's a benefit. You know, just like the benefit is you're going to get better at your job, you're going to get better at doing what you need to do. But if you are going to volunteer, and I think I said this at the beginning, but I'm going to reiterate it right here, don't do it for the wrong reasons because it does take so much time.

What are the wrong reasons?

Uh, you know, selfishness, ego. Like if you're doing it just to put it on the resume, advance your career, pad your resume. Yeah, you know, it, it just there's much easier ways to pad your resume. Go volunteer at the Cancer Society, go volunteer at, you know, at a no-kill shelter or something like that. Right. There's a lot easier ways than volunteering in a fleet community. But I'll tell you, there's very few ways that really give back to a community that needs it. Right. Like we need help in the fleet area.

Yeah. What type of a time commitment do you say? Like, so someone's saying, oh, I, you know, I want to go volunteer, but I don't know that I can invest Right. A lot of time. So what is that typically?

Uh, I will tell you, like at the regional level, I'm imagining this is maybe once every other month, you know, it's probably like a 1 or 2 hour meeting once every other month.

Oh, so it's nothing.

It's not huge. Uh, it's more probably the in-between stuff, right? It's like, hey, we're going to set up an event. Okay, well now we've got to go. And you know, this is, you and I have booked events before for our stuff, right? It's setting up a venue. It's figuring out food. Figuring out how you're going to pay for that food.

Agenda, speakers.

Getting sponsorships. Yep. Getting right and reaching out to associate members to say, hey, would you be willing to pay for the food or, you know, the speaker at this event that we're trying to get, you know, a bunch of fleet people to? And then the question is, well, how many people do you have coming? We don't know. We don't know because it's a volunteer event.

Right.

And, you know, do you charge for the event? What do you do with the money you collect? How do you do all that? Yeah. And so there's definitely— and events definitely are the backbone of an association. If you don't have good events, you're not going to have a good local experience, right? Um, but they are the one thing that takes up the most time for sure.

Well, and the people that are there, I mean, that's what matters. Like, can you imagine if it wasn't just 60, if it was 120 or if it was 180, or you just triple the number? Like, how much information and experience can you actually glean from that many people who have done this?

Yeah. And I'd even be fine if it was just, you know, like 15 people regularly. Mm-hmm.

Right.

Because then at least you, again, you're starting to build relationships and you're building connections within the community. And a lot of them are doing the same thing you're doing in the same area you're doing it with, working with the same vendors. Right. If you're having trouble getting parts from, you know, your local Ford dealership, well, guess what? If you go and call, you know, talk to the other city or talk to another organization that's working the same metro area you are, they might know somebody else you could talk to.

Yeah.

Uh, and you're able to solve your problems better that way.

Yeah.

Right. And so that might be the first thing is if you're not sure if you should volunteer, I'd ask, have you been participating in the event so far? Right. And if not, are there— are they putting on events? That's why I volunteered here. There was nobody doing anything in the Arizona chapter.

And you wanted to get it going.

I wanted to get it going. Now I know why people weren't doing it, because it's freaking hard. But it is one of those things that, you know, like there, there are people in our community, especially here in Arizona, that want to participate. They want to be a part of something like that. Right. It's just a matter of figuring out, you know, how to get them all together in one room so that we can start building that momentum. Because people don't show up just for the content. They show up because of who else is there.

100%.

Right.

Yes.

If I'm going to go to a networking event, it's because I want to go network with people that I know and I like, you know, and if it's your first time there, you know, it's a little uncomfortable. A little bit uncomfortable.

Yeah.

Right. And so that's, you know, I think that's where the direction I was trying to go was if you haven't been participating in the event so far, start there, right? Start just showing up to the events before you decide to go pitch in and like volunteer as the chapter chair, right? Be a part of the community, work, you know, figure out who's who in the system and figure out like what's, what's involved in running an event, what's involved in being a part of things. You can volunteer for a little piece of that just to help. And then kind of work your way up and, and look for ways to serve in a bigger, higher capacity. And that is something that will benefit you as well, is learning those organizational skills, right? You know, then you can take that from one organization to another pretty quickly.

I'm not gonna minimize the volunteering part, but at least show up to an event if you don't want to volunteer.

Yeah, just to participate.

Just participate. You know, you may figure out that, hey, I do like this group of people, I am getting value, and then you'll see the benefits also of volunteering.

Yep.

Yeah.

So if you're, uh, if you're considering it, I definitely would recommend it. You know, just as I recommended to this individual who asked me, hey, should I do this? You know, uh, and honestly it can seem intimidating, like, oh, you know, like nobody volunteered to be the chapter chair. Should I, should I do that? Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Step up, especially if nobody did it. Right. Well, there's probably a reason why I don't, I don't want to jump into that. The worst case scenario is you're going to bomb and fail. Right. You know, the best case scenario, and then you learn, and then you learn. The best case scenario is you do amazing at it and the community benefits Right, right.

But, and you love it.

Sitting on the sidelines is definitely not the way to go, you know, uh, unless you are just so overwhelmed and you're so tapped for time and you don't have any time to give, you know, um, you obviously need to take care of priorities. And I would put volunteering lower on the priority list than, you know, paying the bills, uh, getting, you know, making sure that your job is done.

Yeah.

That kind of thing.

Hanging out with your family.

Hanging out with your family. Right. Like there's definitely, you know, uh, elements of that. Uh, but if you If you can find the time to give, because nobody has the time to give, you've got to find it and make it. But if you can, I definitely would do it.

So, and that's coming from a guy who does it.

So, uh, well, that's going to wrap it up for us for this week. Uh, as I mentioned, you know, hopefully if you're, uh, you're out on the trade show floor, we'll be here at NAFIN all week. Uh, you know, be looking around. There's a lot of events going on, especially around the, uh, the new regional thing. I know I'm going to be pretty busy going back and forth between different events for that.

Perfect.

So never mind, my time estimate for volunteering just went up. But yeah, we'll, you know, hopefully we'll see you out there on the trade show floor. Come by, say hi.

Yeah, we'll have some books with us, right? So if you want a book, let us know. If we run out of books, then, you know, come and give us your information. We'd be more than happy to shoot you one.

Yep. But otherwise, until next time.

Peace.

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