National Volunteer Recognition Week is an annual initiative that recognizes and celebrates the significant impact volunteers have throughout the United States. This initiative doesn’t exist just to check off the task of thanking volunteers for their contributions. It raises awareness of the importance of service and the incredible work done by passionate individuals who give their time freely to better their communities and the world around them.

National Volunteer Week is April 19-25. April is national volunteer month. Honoring volunteers originated in Canada in 1943 to pay tribute to the women supporting efforts during World War II. Formally established in the United States in 1974, President Richard Nixon created the annual observance to recognize the impact of volunteerism on American life.

Just like community associations across the country, CAI is volunteer driven. Volunteers have a significant impact on CAI, from governance committees to event volunteers, national faculty, chapter boards and committees, and more.

In the government and public affairs domain, CAI’s advocacy work is accomplished in large part due to the work of volunteers. We salute and thank the more than 600 volunteers on these committees and task forces including:

• 36 state Legislative Action Committees with nearly 600 members.
• 16 members of the Federal Legislative Action Committee.
• 20 members of the Government and Public Affairs Committee.
• 20 members of the CAI Amicus Committee.
• 18 members of the Ombudsperson and Energy Efficiency Public Policy Task Forces.
• 11 members of the LAC Operational Guidelines Task Force.

The work of these official committees and task forces is critical to the CAI advocacy agenda on behalf of the 78.1 million Americans living in 373,000 community associations. These volunteers create and update CAI’s public policies. They educate lawmakers and monitor thousands of bills tracked by CAI each legislative session. They address issues of significant importance in community association law with friend of the court briefs in state and federal courts.

Their advocacy work is supported by another, even larger group of volunteers – you, the members and advocates of CAI.

You may never have thought of yourself as a CAI advocacy volunteer, but if you’ve ever done any of the following on behalf of CAI, you are. Have you ever:

• Acted on a CAI grassroots campaign to legislators?
• Made a phone call to a legislator to relay CAI’s public policy positions?
• Shared a CAI call to action on social media?
• Traveled to your state capitol for your LAC’s state advocacy day?
• Attended the Congressional Advocacy Summit?

Collectively, these thousands of micro acts of volunteerism elevate the important advocacy work of CAI, and they add up quickly. As of March 31, more than 34,000 advocates have helped advance CAI’s public policy agenda. If you are one of them, thank you!

If you are not one of those 34,000 advocates, and are inspired to join these individuals, there’s always room for more volunteer advocates with CAI. Here are some simple ways to get involved in CAI’s advocacy mission and initiatives:

• Become a CAI Advocate. Sign up to be an advocate and CAI will email you when we need your advocacy assistance.
• Become a CAI Advocacy Ambassador. Ambassadors recruit, organize, and motivate other advocates. If an advocacy issue arises in your area, you will be called upon to help get the word out so that CAI has a stronger voice with legislators.

Visit CAI’s Advocacy Center to learn more about CAI’s advocacy efforts and how you can get involved today.