Volunteer Manager Threatens Naked Run!

What is the light bulb moment? To me it’s that time when one simply “get’s it” and goes “aha”!

It can also be known as the eureka moment!

Eureka is an exclamation used as an interjection to celebrate a discovery. It comes from the Ancient Greek Εὕρηκα/Ηὕρηκα - Heurēka/Hēurēka meaning approximately "I have found it".

This exclamation is most famously attributed to the ancient Greek scholar Archimedes; he reportedly proclaimed "Eureka!" when he stepped into a bath and noticed that the water level rose — he suddenly understood that the volume of water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body he had submerged. This meant that the volume of irregular objects could be calculated with precision, a previously intractable problem. He is said to have been so eager to share his realization that he leapt out of his bathtub and ran through the streets of Syracuse naked.

I am wishing for the day when peak organisations for volunteering, just like Volunteering England, across the globe have their Eureka moment. And that is this: Volunteer Management is an important cog in the wheel of volunteerism and must be supported!

Here is a news item thanks to The Third Sector Online in the UK.

http://thirdsector.co.uk


By Kaye Wiggins, Third Sector Online, 6 May 2010

"Volunteering England and Acevo say the next government must provide more funding for volunteer management Volunteering England and chief executives body Acevo have agreed to lobby ministers jointly in the next government to provide more funding for volunteer management.

When new legislation affecting charities that work with volunteers is introduced, representatives from both groups will ask ministers to commit to providing resources so that charities can train and manage the volunteers, according to Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo.
"Most of Acevo's members work with volunteers," he told Third Sector. "All three of the main political parties are talking about expanding the number of volunteers, but none is saying they would provide extra funding for this.

"There's an assumption by politicians that charities have an open door to welcome unlimited numbers of new volunteers. In reality, they need more funding to be able to do this."

Bubb said Acevo would also consider extending its professional development courses to cover volunteer management in greater depth, and producing a publication about best practice in volunteer management that would be distributed to its members.

Mike Locke, director of public affairs at Volunteering England, said Acevo would be involved with VE's continuing volunteer rights inquiry. Acevo would help the organisation to put together proposals for addressing volunteers' grievances, he said."



What a great and commendable move by VE! All of us in Volunteer Management across the globe should applaud this and hope that such activism spreads globally!

And yet in many nations, Volunteer Management is left off the national volunteerism agenda. Key experts and consultants in Volunteer Management are ignored and sidelined. Associations for Volunteer Management are ignored or irrelevant to the bigger volunteerism picture. Days celebrating Volunteer Management are frowned upon. Volunteer Managers are not consulted.

What is the status of Volunteer Management in your nation? Please share with us here?

I look forward to the day when my own peak body has its own Eureka moment and recognizes the value of my profession. If it does I may have my own Archimedes moment and run naked through the streets of Brisbane! Now that would be an amazing moment to witness…..but so too would my naked run through Brisbane! :-)

BTW - Volunteering England picks up another VM Champion award!!!