Administrative Assistant's Update - sample

JUNE 2018 4 ship, communication, networking, time management and teamwork. He also has volunteered his time at an- nual conferences of CanFit Pro. He says the experience of leading fitness classes as well as assisting at fitness conferences has taught him patience, including how to work with people and convey calmness under stress. "These are all wonderful things that you can trade back and forth between your real job and your volunteer work," he says. "When you are volunteering, you are having an opportunity to do something that is not part of your regular job and gives you an outlet and means of expressing yourself that you can't always do in your job." Brooker, who has been on contract with Manulife after taking early retire - ment five years ago, currently con- ducts fitness classes on a less regular basis but has kept up his fitness lead- ership certification. This spring, when Manulife reopens its Toronto gym fa- cility (temporarily closed for repairs), Brooker plans to explore opportunities to lead classes for employees. As a class fitness leader, he says he sharpened his skills in public speaking, organization and time management, given that employees had a fixed time for exercise before returning to their offices. As well, he enhanced his skills of empathy as class participants came with differ- ing levels of ability. "I learned about limitations," he says. "I learned to be respectful of many different cultures and people of different age groups and backgrounds." One bonus of his volunteer work, says Brooker, was the opportunity to meet employees from across the Toronto office, not just those in his immediate vicinity. "They got to know me and I got to know them and it made it a better working environ- ment," he says. In some cases, admins look for ways to contribute their time to their professional organizations. Laura Nash, administrative assis- tant to the department of psychiatry at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, served as secretary to the (recently renamed) Associa- tion of Administra- tive Professionals between 2012 and 2015. She joined the organization in 2001 after a nearly 20-year career as a veterinary techni- cian and animal hospital manager and administrator. In her first career, she served seven years as president of the Canadian Association of Animal Health Techni- cians and also was Canadian rep- resentative to the North American Association of Veterinary Technicians for four years. She currently volunteers as ex- ecutive secretary to the Humber Bay Shores Condominium Association, a not-for profit organization established in 1997 to give residents a voice in quality of life issues in the fast-grow- ing west-end Toronto community on the shores of Lake Ontario. Nash says one young hospital col- league asked, incredulous, why she would volunteer her time for free. "I tell her because I am giving back to the community I am living in," says Nash. Her decades of volunteer activities, says Nash, have heightened her levels of patience and listening, invaluable in a hospital setting. "There is a wait- list at Sick Kids for every department and psychiatry has a long wait," she says. "Parents arrive at our place [for their children's health issues] at their wit's end and they do appreciate being dealt with in a compassionate way." For Janice Vilaca, executive assis - tant in the office of the senior ex- ecutive officer at the Brantford campus of Laurier University, a chance conversa- tion at work led to a meaningful volunteer opportu- nity outside of her professional life. A colleague mentioned that a local women's shelter needed volunteers – and donations – for its revenue-gener- ating social enterprise, a second-hand clothing store. "I thought that was a really cool concept," says Vilaca, who initially volunteered her time at lunch (with her employer's support) as a sales associate in the store. Later, at a volunteer appreciation event, she met a volunteer who taught yoga in a life- skills program for shelter clients. Given her own keen interest in food, Vilaca offered to volunteer to lead a workshop for shelter clients on healthy eating and meal preparation. For the past two years, she offers her class once a month. "I feel committed to the notion that food builds who people can be," she says. "When you are well nourished and when you understand how to cook then you feel good about that time of the day – which is three times a day." Like Nash, she likes the opportu - nity that volunteerism offers to give back to her local community. "It is a priority for being well rounded and keeping my boots on the ground," she says. Volunteer work builds personal, professional skills Continued from page 1 Laura Nash Janice Vilaca

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