2018 - The year of lazy Volunteer Management Activism!

2018. An uneventful year for the volunteer management sector. Certainly in Australia. And I am talking about the traditional sector of Volunteer Management in Australia. In other countries some progress is being made. Especially in the UK.

International Volunteer Managers Day had the theme “Be the Voice” Not a bad theme but be the voice for what? Looking at the fairly mute reaction I wondered if it was a good theme for a sector afraid to speak out.

Still. It was good to see the day more widely recognised. The Queensland government actually had a statement on the day. A few days after I tweeted the Premier. I’d like to think that helped. But not many volunteer Managers Tweeted about the day. We are ten years behind when it comes to social media. Most VMs I know are not on Twitter!

I tried. I re-joined my professional association on Volunteer Management. I took on the social media and Marketing portfolio. Though I made great inroads in a short time I had to leave after the publication of a volunteer management survey. A third party and a big player in the volunteer sector took umbrage in a survey we did on volunteer management. I felt that pressure was put on our president. They felt we were taking “their space” I was most disappointed knowing the people involved. A letter from our board with an apology was hastily written. I could not sign. I resigned.

It was not right on many fronts. We need to end the politics in our sector. There are too many people in our sector in positions of power who cold be doing better. Some may be doing our sector a disservice. People should on board to further volunteering and excellence in volunteer leadership and not just enhancing resumes!.Our sector needs people of passion and commitment and advocacy. We will look back in ten years hopefully and learn from the present!

Volunteering Victoria has again stood out in Australia in regard to how peak bodies should behave! South Australia is not too far behind. Both present fresh perspectives on volunteering and volunteer management.

Volunteer Australia has concentrated much on submissions to policies that emanates from Canberra but alone is it doing enough to progress volunteerism and volunteer management? Work like the National Standards are having a positive effect.

AAMOV may cease to exist in 2019. They may have failed to see that Volunteer Managers need the voice of an advocate. I do hope they reconsider more advocacy because we do need a strong voice.


I still believe we need a national conference or forum on Volunteer Management specifically. The loss of the Retreat for Advanced Volunteer management is a shame. It should be revived.

We need more activist advocacy for the Sector moving forward. We need fresh voices and new thought. It’s the only way we will gain some traction and get more relevance in 2019.