Your thoughts on Volunteering or Volunteer Management!

Happy New Year to all who read this blog around the world. One of my many resolutions is to get to know more people globally that are involved in Volunteerism and Volunteer Management. I’d like to start that process by inviting you to write about your experience. Maybe you have never written before? Maybe you have an inspiring story to tell? Maybe you would like to kick start a debate? Maybe you want to share stories about volunteers in your organizations or a story about your volunteering? Maybe you want to share an inspiring poem you wrote?

Why not share your writing on a blog that has had close on 250,000 page views with the most popular blogs receiving between 25,000 to close on 29,000 reads?

I am happy to volunteer my time to help you review and edit or just hear your suggestions first and help you turn it into an inspiring blog post. Nothing will be published until you are entirely satisfied. It doesn’t matter what experience you have or if you’ve never written before. Because I believe that if it is written from the heart then the story will take care of itself! J

Please get in contact with me by emailing acim4me@live.com

And don’t forget to like my FB page on Volunteering

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Volunteering/1459337747677886?ref=hl 

Thanks for reading

DJ 

Follow me on Twitter: @thedjcronin

John Ramsey Continues the narrative on the "10 great questions"

John Ramsey is a Volunteer Manager and has served as the Chair of the Association of Volunteer Managers, Head of Volunteering at Citizens Advice , Chief Executive at Student Volunteering England and Head of Information at Student Volunteering England.

Here is his reponse to the "10 great questions"


1. In 20 words or less describe/define Volunteer Management


Getting the best out of volunteers for our beneficiaries, our organisation, our community and our volunteers

2.What are the 3 main differences between Volunteer Management and Human Resource Management?

Legally – at least in England. Volunteers have no definition within employment legislation therefore there has been plenty of case-law about how you separate volunteers from employees.

Culturally – Volunteer Management requires a different mind-set to paid staff management. It is easy to be a lazy or incompetent manager of paid staff as people need jobs. A lazy or incompetent Volunteer Manager will quickly find they have few volunteers.

Operationally – the above two mean there should be a different framework for managing volunteers. For many reasons, paid staff sit within quite a prescriptive management framework. Volunteers should sit within the opposite, a fluid and flexible system that is much more focussed on meeting the needs of volunteers rather than those of the employer or the needs of legislation.


3. Where is the current leadership evident in Volunteer Management?


On the positive side, volunteer management in England has definitely moved up the political agenda in the last five years. It was not so long ago that it was never mentioned when talk moved on to volunteering. That is rarely the case now. And that is down to the likes of Association of Volunteer Managers, Volunteering England and a few vocal individuals.

However, we are missing two key ingredients.

Firstly a coherent discourse on the vision for volunteer management. And secondly a failure of individual leadership. Every volunteer manager has a responsibility to lead on volunteer management, whether that is in their organisations, their community, regionally or nationally. Failing to do so means we are failing both are own volunteers and are own beneficiaries.

But where is this mass rising up of volunteer managers demanding that they be listened to, demanding that they be involved? Apart from the odd voice, it is deafening by its silence.

4.Finish this sentence in less than 50 words… An association in volunteer management should…

…not be afraid.


5.There have been many debates on the definition of volunteering itself. How would you define volunteering?

Away from the more mundane ‘proper’ definitions: An expression of freedom to help your community be a better place.

6.If you weren’t doing this what other profession would you have been interested in?

Bread-maker perhaps. Or a sportsman – although I rather lack the talent, the dedication and the drive.

7.Who do you believe has been the most inspiring volunteer in history?


No-one comes to mind. One of our problems is that inspirational, successful volunteers are rarely celebrated as volunteers.

8.Where do you think social media can take volunteerism and volunteer management?

Down a blind alley, if we’re not careful. When you spend your working day on the internet, using emails, linked in to social media etc, it’s easy to forget many people don’t. It should be seen as one of many tools to develop volunteerism and volunteer management, nothing more, nothing less.

9.Does Government get volunteering? If not why not?


From an England perspective - yes and no. Without wishing to get too political, I think the principles behind the Big Society agenda do show an understanding of the role volunteering plays in the community but this has not been bought into at either national or local levels. I think a few individual members of Government understand the full power of volunteering but this has yet to be translated into meaningful action.

Why not? For the same reason that organisations don’t fully buy into volunteering. We, the volunteering sector, are failing to show that volunteering works in the way we say it does. We live in hard-pressed times when pragmatic decisions are being made every day. If we are saying volunteering is part of the answer without robust evidence to show that, it takes a very brave or a very crazy person to commit substantial time and resources into it. And to be honest, I don’t particularly want my government to spend its limited amount of cash on every scheme that comes along simply because there’s the odd bit of research that says it’s wonderful.

What we need to be doing is, firstly as organisations providing robust proof on the impact of volunteering, and then as a sector bringing that all together to show the benefits it has on health, on behaviour, on community cohesion… on every topic under the sun. If we’re not prepared to do that then why should we be taken seriously? And the same applies to volunteer management.


10.What would you like to achieve personally in the volunteerism world?

Make a positive difference in developing volunteer management and improving the lives of older people (who I work with in my day job)

More Response to "The Great 10 Questions"

"Rob Jackson is one of the leading authorities on volunteering in the world. His standing is based on an impressive mix of the practical and strategic. For much of his career he has been involved at the coalface of volunteer management." - Dr Justin Davis Smith, Chief Executive,Volunteering England

In April 2011 Rob left Volunteering England and founded Rob Jackson Consulting.Rob has written, spoken and trained on volunteer programme management internationally for nearly twenty years.





1.In 20 words or less describe/define Volunteer Management


Volunteer leadership and management is about engaging and inspiring people to bring about change.

2.What are the 3 main differences between Volunteer Management and Human Resource Management?


HR management, in my experience, is largely about compliance, making sure managers and staff follow set policies & process. It is about ensuring a paid workforce is managed by the rules, reducing the risk and liability to an employer of being sued by disgruntled employees. In volunteer management there is an element of policy and process setting but there are key elements that don’t appear in HR management. These are leadership, empowerment and flexibility.

Leadership – setting and/or communicating a vision and inspiring people to work together towards its fulfilment. That’s not something I’ve ever come across in HR where managers tend to be so focused on making sure people play by the rules they often seem to forget what the game is.

Empowerment – encouraging and supporting people to use their skills, their talents, their experience, their abilities to the fulfilment of the vision. HR keeps people in their boxes, volunteer management encourages them to flourish and realise their potential.

Flexibility – processes and policies are important but they cannot prepare for every eventuality. Good volunteer management realises this and is prepared to be flexible where necessary. HR sees the rules as absolute.

If I can cheat and have a fourth thing it’d be passion. I’ve met many volunteer managers who are passionate about what they do but not many HR managers with the same passion.


3.Where is the current leadership evident in Volunteer Management?


There are great leaders in volunteer management in organisations all around the world, leading amazing volunteers who achieve marvellous things.

However, I suspect your questions is less aimed at an organisation level and more of a global level.

In which case I’d say that the leadership I see in volunteer management is twofold: that aimed at making what we do better; and that aimed at setting a vision for where we should be going as a field.

We have ‘professional’ bodies, peak bodies and individuals all playing a part in one or both of these areas of leadership.


4.Finish this sentence in less than 50 words… An association in volunteer management should…


…be independent; be an advocate for volunteer management; be vocal; work with and for its members; nurture talent and grow leaders for the future; represent the field.

5.There have been many debates on the definition of volunteering itself. How would you define volunteering?


I’ve always liked Ivan Scheier’s definition:

"Volunteering is doing more than you have to - because you want to - in a cause you consider good."

I like it because it defines volunteering from the perspective of the volunteer – if they think it is volunteering then who is to say that it isn’t?!

6.If you weren’t doing this what other profession would you have been interested in?



No idea.

7.Who do you believe has been the most inspiring volunteer in history?


The people who right this minute are giving their time out of a quiet conviction that things could be better and they will take some personal responsibility to make some change happen.

8.Where do you think social media can take volunteerism and volunteer management?


I think social media has lots to offer volunteerism but it is a tool. It has its place but it isn’t the magical solution to the challenges facing volunteerism in the 21st Century as some would have use believe. For example, it can help make it easier for people to find out about volunteering but it doesn’t help us create new or re-engineer existing volunteering opportunities that meets the needs of people when they decide to volunteer.

Where social media, and the internet more generally, has helped volunteer management is in making it easier for us all to connect. There is no reason for volunteer managers to feel isolated anymore because with the click of a mouse they can engage with peers across the globe to share problems, discuss solutions and build support networks.


9.Does Government get volunteering? If not why not?


Government as an entity, no. Why? Because government is made up of people. So what about people within government (elected officials and staff)? Well some do and some don’t. Why? The same reasons some people see what they do as volunteering and others don’t – backgrounds, belief, philosophy, experience etc..

10. What would you like to achieve personally in the volunteerism world?


I’d like to continue to make my living in this wonderful field, meeting new people, deepening existing friendships, contributing to our collective knowledge and experience, sharing my passion for volunteerism and learning from others along the way.

First Response to “The Great 10 Questions” – Martin J Cowling

A big thank you to Martin J Cowling CEO at People First Total Solutions for being the first to respond to my “great 10 questions” in Volunteer Management.

Martin is a Leading Consultant on People issues in the Community and Non Profit Sectors. Blogger, consultant, trainer and world traveler Martin has a passion for people, volunteerism and Volunteer Management.

1.In 20 words or less describe/define Volunteer Management

Volunteer management is the process of engaging members of the community in achieving a common mission.


2.What are the 3 main differences between Volunteer Management and Human Resource Management?

Volunteer Management needs to incorporate good HR practices along with community development and what I call an entrepreneurial view of the world. The error in imposing a solely HR model on volunteer management is that the fundamental relationship between employees and employer is legally, morally and socially different to that of a volunteer and an agency. However failing to see volunteers as part of your HR is also a grave error.

3.Where is the current leadership evident in Volunteer Management?

Globally or in Australia? Globally: NZ and Canada. In Australia..Volunteering Queensland, CFA Victoria.

4.Finish this sentence in less than 50 words… An association in volunteer management should…

support their members, advocate for their members, not try to do too much and not duplicate

5.There have been many debates on the definition of volunteering itself. How would you define volunteering?

A member of the community giving their time on an unpaid basis to further a community mission

6.If you weren’t doing this what other profession would you have been interested in?

space commander- serious, teacher,

7.Who do you believe has been the most inspiring volunteer in history?

Jesus

8.Where do you think social media can take volunteerism and volunteer management?

I do training on this!

9.Does Government get volunteering? If not why not?

Some elements do but most governments see volunteering in motherhood and or economic savings terms

10. What would you like to achieve personally in the volunteerism world?

Make a difference in the lives of others