What's Next Indeed!

It’s been some time since I last blogged. Indeed it’s over 7 months since I last posted on my blog site. There have been many reasons for not doing so, one being that I now tend to use other social media platforms on which I opine. My more recent posts concerned activism as volunteering. Pre Corona crises, the biggest crisis was Climate Change. It still is.

The climate change crisis has not gone away. But I never envisioned, like many of you, that this Corona crisis lay ahead of us.

So here we are. In a time like no other in our living memory. Most of us are still staying at home. We are either working, furloughed or no longer in employment.

Everyone has been caught off guard. We are living through a moment of history. Millions of volunteers around the globe have been stood down. And on the other hand, hundreds and thousands are registering their interest in volunteering to help.

The theme for the next International Volunteer Managers Day has just been announced. “What’s Next?”

As a theme for a date meant to promote the profession of Volunteer Management it is a strange one. How do you promote a profession with a tag line such as this? Yes – it reflects how our sector may be thinking (or not). After all what profession is not thinking, amongst other things, on what on earth lies around the corner? The theme has gained approval, judging by what I see on social media comment sections, by those who comment habitually on such platforms (and that number is miniscule – if you are a volunteer leader the stats say you will probably never even read this!).  But I am also of the belief that if the theme so stated “crushed bananas will make us stronger” it would nonetheless garnish support, ‘Likes’ and ‘Hearts’ from the echo chamber that is Volunteer Management. No one seems to contest anything anymore in our sector. Did we ever? Sure, the late Susan J Ellis did. Susan is sorely missed. And then there is Jayne Cravens. A lone wolf? (Jayne will appreciate the reference!) The insolent VM is as rare as hens’ teeth! More’s the pity! Same with the volunteering sector as a whole. Too nice you see.

I am hearing from our sector now a familiar mantra – time to change Volunteer Management – time to take our sector seriously – time to have our sector at the table. William Butler Yeats spoke of polite meaningless words. I wonder.

In Australia there is a leadership vacuum in the volunteer management arena. One could argue the same in the volunteering sector space. Maybe instead of the navel gazing we could shift our focus on what this awful crisis will mean for society in two, five and ten years’ time and the role volunteering will play.

What role will volunteering and volunteer management play when the queues for social security stretch for miles? What role will volunteering play when neoliberal policies concentrate on “paying down the debt” at any cost?  How will volunteer management survive when organisations are slashing budgets and are short-sighted enough to take the knife to their volunteering programs to save a quick buck? And they will.

Where does volunteering sit when governments enact “Shock Tactics”. Shock tactics, according to Naomi Klein, author of ‘The Shock Doctrine, follow a clear pattern: wait for a crisis, declare a moment of what is sometimes called “extraordinary politics”, suspend some or all democratic norms – and then ram the corporate wish list through as quickly as possible.

In Australia right now nearly half of our pre-coronavirus workforce is on a government payment; with 5 million people on the JobKeeper allowance and 1.5 million on JobSeeker. 

Perish the thought of what society will look like when government ceases these payments. Which they will.

This is what’s next. This is the future our sector needs to prepare for. Now.