Welcome to our first newsletter for 2005. Managers of volunteers will find a lot to help them:

• Read on for our lead article: Resolutions or goals?

• Author and speaker Susan Ellis touring Australian in March

• First ever Australian Retreat For Advanced Volunteer Management • 

• We have a free book available for you • 

• Learn more about our latest article • 

• Life coaches contributing to research

• USA opportunities

  Susan Ellis touring Australia

We are very excited to be co-hosting Susan Ellis on her tour around Australia . Susan is a specialist in volunteer management and will provide those managing volunteer programs with excellent advice, skills, knowledge and direction. You can find out more about Susan at http://www.energizeinc.com/ener/susbio.html    We highly recommend Susan and would urge you to enroll in one of her Australian seminars in Adelaide , Brisbane , Melbourne and Sydney .  For more information go to http://www.ozvpm.com or email us. Look forward to seeing you at one of our workshops

Australian Retreat For Advanced Volunteer Management

The first ever Australian Retreat for Advanced Volunteer Management will be held in Canberra from Wednesday March 30 - Friday April 1, 2005. The brochure gives you many more details about the retreat, including accommodation options, a program outline, pricing details, early-bird offers and a registration form. Click here for the retreat brochure.   

Free Book: "Turn Your Organisation Into a Volunteer magnet"

Edited by Andy Fryar, Rob Jackson and Fraser Dyer

Contributions from authors in Australia , UK and USA , The topics include; "Are you passionate", "Building staff capacity", "Creating internships", "Now you've got 'em how do you keep 'em"

You will find Martin J Cowling's article: "Balancing the needs of volunteer and organisation". The book has been written by volunteer manager professionals for volunteer manager professionals.  Click on the image on the left and enjoy!

Our Latest Article: Sabotage! The Five Lethal Factors Volunteer Managers Employ to Harm Their Programs by Martin Cowling

In this article we warn readers to be aware of the five 'lethal factors' of sabotage that can easily sneak into our management practices, describes how to confront them, and suggests how to deal with each in a decisive manner. It has been published in E-volunteerism . You will need to subscribe to the evolunteerism journal to read the article.

Life Coaches contributing to Research

We are seeking life coaches to complete a short survey (12 questions only) investigating what it is that makes a life coach successful. We ll publish these results later in 2005. Click here to be taken to the survey. Please let anyone you know who practices as a life coach more about this survey. Thank you for your assistance.

USA and UK opportunities

Martin J Cowling will be available for speaking and consulting work in September and October, 2005 in the USA and UK . Take advantage of this opportunity and contact us as to how we can help you at this time. Our website will tell you more about our speaking and consultancy work: People First - Total Solutions.`

85% of people who attend Martin's presentations rate them 8 out of 10 or more. Comments" Came away with 8 items to action - excellent",  session was great- high energy", "great presenter and good new ideas not same old information:" Take advantage of this opportunity and contact us as to how we can help you at this time.

Resolutions, targets and goals

The fireworks of New Years Eve have barely finished when some have already broken their New Year's resolutions!   The tradition of making resolutions dates back to the early Babylonians. While contemporary resolutions include the promise to not lose your temper, lose weight or quit smoking, the most popular Babylonian resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment.

How seriously do you want to keep your resolutions? Do you want your resolutions to be simply that; resolutions quickly made; quickly broken; quickly forgotten? Or do you want them to be more? Would you like your resolutions to become goals that you achieve in 2005?

How you can really achieve your goals this year:

1. Work out why you want to achieve the goal e.g. Why would you want to lose weight in 2005?
2. Write down your goals where you can see them . But make sure you write them in detail so they are specific e.g. be fitter is not specific. Be able to run for twenty minutes at a heart rate of 125 or less is specific
3. Break them into smaller actions
4. Get assistance to complete them   e.g. tell a friend, get a life coach who will help you to remain faithful to your target, keep you on track and go further than you would ever imagine. People First -Total Solutions offers a life coaching service.
5. Don't give up!
6. Celebrate your goals!  When you reach your target celebrate! Reward yourself
7. Develop strategies to cope when you go backwards! Whatever we are aiming to do, there will be times when we will go back before we go forward. This may happen when you have reached your goal or when you are on your way to that goal. Whatever happens, you need to be ready and prepared to "get back on your bike" and keep riding

Good Luck! Have a great year! We look forward to staying in touch.

Welcome to our newsletter. Our aim is to support you in your work and life goals. Anything we can do to build our relationship? Let us know!
We do not send you the newsletter unsolicited. If you believe you have been added in error, please email newsletter@pfts.com.au and ask us to remove you from the list.

People First -Total Solutions People First -Total Solutions believes strongly in the protection of your Personal Information and actively adheres to the Australian Privacy Act (1988). If you require further information regarding our Privacy Policy including requesting a copy of our Privacy Policy, making an inquiry or complaint, you can contact our Privacy Officer on: email:privacy@pfts.com.au People First -Total Solutions PO Box 189, Flemington, Victoria, 3056. Australia