The Center for Nonprofit Management and Hands On Nashville have announced OnBoard, a new program that will train and place community leaders who want to serve on nonprofits’ boards of directors.

“We are pleased to work with Hands On Nashville to introduce this important program,” said Lewis Lavine, president of CNM. “OnBoard offers nonprofits the opportunity to fill their board openings with trained individuals ready and willing to serve. For those who are looking for a governance involvement with a local agency, OnBoard makes the connection.”

The OnBoard program gives individuals the opportunity to learn about the nonprofit sector and key topics and trends within it from CNM’s expert trainers. Participants will walk away from this session understanding the purpose and leadership responsibilities of board members, the financial practices of nonprofits, and their roles in the community as spokespeople and fundraisers.

Following the educational component, OnBoard participants will complete a survey that identifies the issue areas they seek to address through service—from homelessness to environmental protection. Hands On Nashville will then work to match these individuals with organizations seeking qualified board candidates.

“In the last year, Hands On Nashville placed or referred a record 34,000 volunteers to community service agencies. A handful of these volunteers who have interest in deepening their community investment have asked us to refer them to agencies where they can volunteer at the board level. We are honored to partner with CNM to create a formal program that provides this opportunity,” said Brian Williams, Executive Director of Hands On Nashville.

The first OnBoard session will be held April 17, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at CNM. The inaugural class will have up to 20 participants accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. There is a one-time participation fee of $295, which includes the training, assessment, and placement. Click here to register.

In addition, CNM and Hands On Nashville will take the training and assessment directly to a business at a time convenient to its managers and employees. For more information about this option, contact Sarah Townsend at sarah@cnm.org.

Coverage of the OnBoard announcement ran in the Nashville Post and the Nashville Business Journal.

Today’s Nashville City Paper reports on a volunteer program that will be implemented with the help of the Salute 2009 Team Building Award winner:

A new program aimed to give Metro workers time to volunteer in schools will kick-off Wednesday morning when Mayor Karl Dean rolls up his sleeves to help East Nashville students in art class.

One primary goal of the initiative is to generate hands-on community support for the schools by making it easier for city employees to volunteer in Metro Nashville Public Schools during the workweek.

The mayor will release more details on the new program when he signs an executive order Wednesday at Warner Elementary to create the program.

Representatives of the PENCIL Foundation will help Metro manage the program.

Click here to read further coverage of this initiative.

Meredith Libbey is now the assistant to the director of Metro Nashville Public Schools reports today’s Nashville City Paper:

Libbey, a parent of two Metro schools students, is a communications professional with more than 20 years’ experience. She will join MNPS Feb. 1.

She comes to Metro from Ford Motor Credit where she is global communications manager with responsibilities that include media relations and internal communications for the company’s North America, Latin America and Asia Pacific & Africa regions.

“The Board and I believe that every student can achieve at high levels. Meredith is committed to helping us engage and communicate with families and community organizations that are our partners in meeting our goals for academic excellence,” Director of Schools Jesse Register said. “Meredith’s experience in developing strategies and communicating with diverse audiences will serve MNPS well.”

From the Nashville City Paper:

After a busy fall semester, Homework Hotline is closing for the holidays, giving its tutors and volunteers a chance to catch their breaths.

The Middle Tennessee telephone tutoring service says it answered 13,103 calls from more than 4,400 unduplicated callers. With most of them — including those from parents — problems were resolved, according to summary reports released this week.

Homework Hotline provides one-on-one free tutoring by phone to Middle Tennessee students and parents — helping students acheive, one assignment at a time. With Homework Hotline, students tackle new concepts, complete challenging assignments, and gain academic skills.

From today’s Nashville City Paper:

Can’t make it to the prestigious Sundance Film Festival this year? Don’t worry-Sundance is coming to you.

In a coup for Music City, the Park City, Utah-based festival announced Wednesday that Nashville will be one of eight cities across America participating in a new program called Sundance Film Festival USA. Essentially, the program will turn the eight cities into satellite hosts for the 2010 festival when it gets underway Jan. 21-31.

On Jan. 28, participating theaters will get a special screening of a film (with its filmmaker in attendance) flown straight from Sundance while the festival there is underway. The Belcourt Theatre, the city’s last operating historic cinema, will be the Nashville venue.

“We feel incredibly honored,” says Stephanie Silverman, Belcourt’s managing director. “It says that Nashville’s a darn good film town, and that word is getting out about our audiences and the filmmakers who are working here.

“It’s a testament that we’re able to do the kind of programming that Sundance finds important, and that Nashville will support it.”

Even more impressive, according to Toby Leonard, who handles film programming for the Hillsboro Village cinema, is the company Nashville’s keeping on the list. Other participating cities include San Francisco and Los Angeles, while The Belcourt stands alongside nationally recognized arthouses such as Chicago’s Music Box Theatre and Brooklyn’s BAM.

From the Nashville Post/City Paper:

The Nashville Zoo has added several prominent area executives to its board of directors. Chief among them is Dick Ragsdale, who has made the transition from honorary board member to chairman-elect. The veteran hospital entrepreneur will take over the chairman’s slot from Renée Chevalier in January.

Other local execs joining the board are Lee Beaman, chairman and CEO of Beaman Automotive Group, and Phil Wenk, president and CEO of Delta Dental of Tennessee. Beaman’s wife, Kelly, has served on the zoo’s board in recent years.

Also coming on board at the zoo are Chris Rayback, a real estate attorney at Bone McAllester Norton and a member of the Global Alliance of Hospitality Attorneys, and Cammy Price, who has been involved with the Zoo for many years and previously was a member of the Friends of the Zoo board.

A story today from the Nashville City Paper on Salute to Excellence Team Building Finalist, LP PENCIL Box. Winners will be announced on September 17.  Tickets for the event are available now!

The PENCIL Box has distributed more than $1 million worth of supplies to 100,000 students since opening in 2005, according to the PENCIL Foundation. Just last year, 35,000 kids received supplies through the program, according to the PENCIL Foundation’s Nikki Troutman.

The PENCIL Box reopens Tuesday for the upcoming school year. Troutman said donations – pencils, crayons, rulers, and other supplies – are still being accepted.

“We’re really looking for the basics this year,” Troutman said.

Donations can be left at businesses including the Rainforest Café and Davidson County Starbucks locations, or taken directly to the PENCIL Box. The best time for donations is between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Tuesdays, but appointments can be made for other dropoff times as well.

The PENCIL Box is located at the McCann Alternative Center, 1300 56th Ave. N. For more information – including information for teachers about making shopping appointments, and more details for donors – can be found by calling 242-3167 or by visiting www.pencilfoundation.org.

From the Nashville City Paper:

Safe Haven Family Shelter will become the first nonprofit to join the newly formed Savings2Give network – an organization that helps businesses save money to provide funding for charities.

Founded by Don Raymond, Savings2Give is the outgrowth of an earlier venture that also helped companies cut costs. This time, Raymond – who worked as a consultant for Ingram Barge Co, Purity Dairies, and Zeitlin Realtors, among others – get participants to give about a third of savings to help nonprofit charities, such as Safe Haven.

Safe Haven provides guidance and housing to homeless families, while it operates one shelter and five transitional homes in Nashville.

From the Nashville City Paper:

The $625,000 grant will be awarded to the YMCA of Middle Tennessee to operate a YouthBuild program in Nashville. The program assists dropouts in obtaining their degrees while also providing occupational training in the construction industry.

The effort to land YouthBuild locally was led by Mayor Karl Dean and Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors, according to a release from the mayor’s office.

“YouthBuild is exactly the kind of program we wanted to attract through the Alternative High School Initiative – it gives students who have dropped out a second chance,” Dean said. “There are no throwaway people in our society.

“We need to continue to reduce the number of students that dropout of our schools, but we also need to go after those who have already dropped out and get them back on track. It’s the right thing to do from both a moral and economic standpoint.”

From the Nashville City Paper:

If you are feeling the pinch of your tightened budget during these tough times, then your ears might perk up to hear this sweet musical news.

Up until noon Thursday, Nashville Symphony fans can purchase tickets for the slashed price of $15 to the orchestra’s Friday night performance of Brahms’ “Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73.”

(Tickets usually run anywhere from $35 to $110 a piece.)

The 7:30 p.m. concert will also feature a performance of Joan Tower’s composition “Made in America,” which won three Grammy Awards in 2008, among them an award for Best Orchestral Performance by the Nashville Symphony.

Plus, Conductor Leonard Slatkin and the Nashville Symphony doing “Symphony No.2 in D Major, Op. 73,” and Karen Gomyo will be featured on Max Bruch’s “Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op 26.”

The $15 tickets can be yours by logging into nashvillesymphony.org or calling 687-6400 and using promo code 6415. The sale was meant as a 24-hour promotion, so hustle to make your purchase!