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Volunteering with SMPS is a little bit like discovering a hidden door in a beautifully designed space. You think you know the layout, and suddenly new opportunities, connections, and confidence begin to appear. Yes, you give your time… but what you gain often surprises you.
You gain relationships that turn into collaborators, mentors, and lifelong friends. You gain confidence by stepping into spaces you once observed from the sidelines. You gain visibility, perspective, and the quiet satisfaction of knowing you helped move something forward.
You gain:
- Relationships that turn into collaborators, mentors, and lifelong friends
- Confidence by stepping into spaces you once observed from the sidelines
- Visibility, perspective, and the quiet satisfaction of knowing you helped move something forward.
Volunteers are the energy behind our chapters, the momentum behind our regional conferences, and the connective thread that brings ONE SMPS to life. Every program, learning experience, and welcoming environment begins with someone choosing to contribute their time and talent.
Volunteering strengthens your membership experience by helping you feel more connected to the people and purpose behind SMPS. It strengthens your organization by building leadership, communication, and strategic thinking skills that translate directly to your work. And it strengthens you, by creating space to grow, contribute, and make an impact beyond your day-to-day role.
Sometimes volunteering looks like raising your hand for a committee. It looks like sharing an idea. It looks like simply saying yes before you feel fully ready. And somewhere along the way, you realize you didn’t just volunteer—you expanded.
As we celebrate National Volunteer Week (April 19–25), we recognize the many ways volunteers contribute to their chapters, regions, and the broader SMPS community. Your time, perspective, and leadership help shape the experiences that make this community thrive. Because when you invest in the community, the return tends to show up in ways you never quite expected.
Article written by Kai Wright, associate director of volunteer relations at SMPS HQ.