Daria Skibington-Roffel is the new incoming board chair for Volunteer Airdrie.
Daria Skibington-Roffel has been volunteering in some form or another since 1991 when she was just 16. Since 2009, she has been working for different non-profits like the Bethany Care Centre and the Alberta Debate and Speech Association. That same year she started as the executive director for Volunteer Airdrie, but only lasted about a year and half, when a family crisis forced her to find full-time work in Calgary. Now, she’s back.
After a 14 year absence from the organization, Skibington-Roffel will be rejoining Volunteer Airdrie as chair of the board of directors, succeeding out-going chair Dave Maffitt, who has spent the last 10 years as the head of Volunteer Airdrie.
Skibington-Roffel won’t officially take over the reins until the end of June when she’ll be sworn in at Volunteer Airdrie’s annual general meeting. Until then, she said she’ll be taking any chance she can get to learn about her new role.
“Right now I'm just job shadowing [Dave Maffitt],” she said. “Volunteer Airdrie has grown so much since I was there and I'm just getting to know the programs and people…Right now I just want to know how things run before I make any plans. I don't want to disrupt something that is working so well.”
Remarking on the progress Volunteer Airdrie has made since 2009, Skibington-Roffel said she’s amazed at how far the organization has come.
“[Volunteer Airdrie] has come further than I could have ever imagined…and it’s awesome.”
Skibington-Roffel said she was very excited to Volunteer Airdrie in a leadership role.
“I said [to Dave]: ‘Hey, I’d actually like to get involved again, because I never wanted to leave in the first place.'”
Since 2004, Skibington-Roffel has been volunteering on various non-profit boards and has “served in every role."
Eventually, burnout forced her to take a step back from the volunteerism that had become synonymous with her life’s work.
“I had to leave a lot of my volunteer work and I'm slowly getting back into it,” she said. “When you do it for 35 years, you need to take a break.”
“That year [I took off] was hard,” she admitted. “But I knew I had to do it just for health and everything else. Burnout is real and you have to look after yourself but I just couldn't stay away. I'm one of those people where it's [like], stop me before I volunteer again.”
The almost inescapable drive to volunteer and contribute to a community is something Dave Maffitt knows a little bit about.
In 2014, Maffitt, who had come into his role as board chair of Volunteer Airdrie after joining the organization in May of 2013, promised the board at the time that he would give them 10 years.
“I tell people that's when I drew the short straw,” Maffitt said with a laugh. “But I haven't regretted it, to be honest."
Maffitt said his decade with Volunteer Airdrie has been “amazing.”
“I tell people this is my hobby,” he said. “I absolutely love what we've done and it has been so gratifying and energizing and I've learned so much about so many people that it's been tremendous for me personally to have that experience.”
According to Maffitt, a lot of people view volunteering as a one-way street, where the thought of owing the community something can morally persuade someone to give back.
“I don't see it that way," he said. "If you have the mindset, you are getting as much or not more out of the experience, it's something you want to be doing. It should be part of your lifestyle, whether you do it on a daily, monthly, or weekly basis.
"I think it just has so many benefits from a personal point of view in terms of your well-being and I just can't say enough about the experience.”
Although he’ll be stepping down from the top job, Maffitt said this will not be the end of his time with Volunteer Airdrie. He’ll be staying on to serve as a mentor to Skibington-Roffel, and will be working to figure out a way to make Volunteer Airdrie a self-sustaining organization.
A longer succession period should help Skibington-Roffel understand her new role. Admittedly, Skibington-Roffel said she has no sweeping plans to change Volunteer Airdrie.
“I don't want to make any sweeping changes at all,” she said. “ I don't want to go in there with a wrecking ball and make changes– that's one of the worst things a new chair can do. I want to make sure I know everyone first and know everyone who is involved...That way, I can say, 'Okay, where can we grow from here?'”
Maffitt said the organization is excited for Skibington-Roffel to take over.
“She’s gonna be amazing,” he said. “She has volunteered everywhere...on paper she is the absolute perfect candidate for this position. She brings a lot of experience in different roles that will really enhance what we're doing in the future.”
