VAN-DOVIA

The Directors of Volunteers in Agencies (DOVIA) of King County is now the Volunteer Administrators Network (VAN). The intent of this change is to no longer limit our geographic service area and to expand our service to sectors including corporate, government, education and non-profit agencies.

DOVIA members voted on this change at the annual conference in February. After discussion, the vote was unanimously yes.

Implementation

We had already be planning to do a 3-6 month transitional phase where we would use both names together Volunteer Administrators Network-DOVIA of King County. In light of the AVA dissolution and the potential for a new national organization with possible naming tie-ins, we will extend that transition to 6-12 months, and reconsider if needed.

Comments

Several members asked these questions about the name change:

Q – Isn’t DOVIA the universally accepted name for a group like ours?

A – About half the groups around the US use DOVIA in their name, many other names are also common – Leaders of Volunteers (LOV), Volunteer Administrators Network, AVA of XYZ. We have found that outside the world of volunteer development that DOVIA is not recognized, and wanted to go to a name that was more straightforward.

Q – Why is there no geographic area in the new name?

A - We chose Volunteer Administrators Network without a geographic tie in to be as inclusive as possible of members who wish to join. We currently have members from Snohomish, Pierce, King and Island counties. Some of those areas have existing networking groups that wish to tie into to our organization, yet still exist as their own entities. We did not want to set ourselves up to exclude any member who wants to join, limit ourselves if our membership expands, nor imply that we were taking over territory.

Contact Us:

VAN-DOVIA of King County
PO Box 19584, Seattle, WA 98109

Tel: 206-442-9615
Email: dovia@doviakc.org