A blog I posted to I -Volunteer today. The link to I - Volunteercan be found on my favourite links here
There have been some criticisms of England’s professional body for Volunteer managers (AVM) on I-Volunteer of late. Unwarranted in my view. And I say this as a Volunteer Manager from down under!
To me, at least your association is visual. They have a fairly current and active website with some very interesting and topical blogs. People on their website can engage in conversation. As I look now the most recent comment is a couple of hours old.
I’ve seen them active on social media. I’ve seen them consulted by the press. I’ve seen them engage with Government. I’ve seen them comment on issues of the day relating to volunteerism and volunteering. I’ve seen them demonstrate a healthy relationship with the peak body for volunteering "Volunteering England". You’ve had a national campaign to recognise Volunteer Management with AVM and you have a National Conference on Volunteer Management!
So to an outsider looking on – they seem to be doing ok in my book. And fair play to them. Whilst I know that they don’t need my defense it intrigues me that they are condemned for being “London Centric”. Whatever the significance of this may be anyway.
I wouldn’t care if my association were Canberra or Sydney centric as long as they were carrying out their brief. But alas in Australia, in my opinion, things are very quiet as far as development in the volunteer management sector is concerned.
Right now you folk in the UK have great conversations on our sector as is evident by your robust debates on this great website I - volunteer.
Keep it up! Try not to make the debate personal though.
I’ve always believed that our sector is so small that we need to collaborate globally. Some professional associations around the world tried to do this once but it pretty much fell over on its arse! What happened?
There is some great dialogue and thought going on globally about Volunteer Management. How can we tie it all together somehow? How can we help each other?
These are just the thoughts of an outsider as far as your sector in the UK is concerned. But the global village of Volunteer Management is a very small one. Let’s get to know our neighbors to begin with!
Somehow I have a feeling that we can achieve much together!
Thanks for reading and I’d love to hear your thoughts!
A great post DJ.
ReplyDeleteI think that England is doing a lot of things well in terms of Volunteer Management. England’s professional body AVM is visual, active and liaises with government bodies and supports and promotes Volunteer Management. The fact that England has a National Conference on Volunteer Management is evidence of the active role that AVM in conjunction with Volunteering England plays in the promotion of Volunteer Management. We do not have a National Conference on Volunteer Management in Australia. It’s time we did.
I visit and contribute to I-Volunteer because there is opportunity to have intelligent discussion on issues on volunteer management and volunteering in general. I believe that there is not really an equivalent website in Australia which has the same level of active participation.
Through support, encouragement and leadership, I too believe we can achieve much globally if we all work together.