Thank you IVM Day (with apologies to Abba)

Today is special, in fact it’s a little bit more
You could celebrate, you've probably done it before
For you have a talent, a wonderful thing
The value to communities you bring
Of this day we are proud
All I want is to sing it out loud

So I say
Thank you IVM Day, the tune your singing
Thanks for all the joy your bringing
Where were we without it, I ask in all honesty
What would we be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you IVM Day
For giving this to me

Think recognition and IVM Day walks the walk
It uses “our sectors important” kind of talk
And I’m often thankful that it came to be
For our jobs real importance is plain to see
I’m glad the day began
And, whenever it was, I'm a fan

So I say
Thank you IVM Day, the tune your singing
Thanks for all the joy your bringing
Where were we without it, I ask in all honesty
What would we be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you IVM Day
For giving this to me

We’ve been so lucky, It is the day with plenty cheer
I wanna sing it out to everybody
What a joy, what a life, what a chance!

So I say
Thank you IVM Day, the tune your singing
Thanks for all the joy your bringing
Where were we without it, I ask in all honesty
What would we be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you IVM Day
For giving this to me

Thank you IVM Day
For giving this to me...

Thank you Senator Ursula Stephens from Volunteer Management

During the week Senator Ursula Stephens moved a notice of motion in the Australian senate which stated

"Senator Stephens: To move on the next day of sitting—That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) five million Australians volunteer in their communities every year,

(ii) effectively realising the full potential of volunteers requires skilled,
knowledgeable and professional volunteer managers who are responsible for their
recruitment, training, administration and support,

(iii) volunteer managers provided leadership, direction, inspiration and
motivation that allows people to effectively serve their communities,

(iv) well managed volunteer programs demonstrate that organisations value the
involvement of the community and strive to make the most efficient use of
resources, and

(v) 5 November marks World Volunteer Managers Day, recognising and promoting
greater awareness of the role of volunteer managers in mobilising and supporting
the world's volunteers; and

(b) thanks Australia's volunteer managers for their commitment to our community
organisations. (general business notice of motion no. 81)"


Well done Seanator for being visionary. Please accept my online Volunteer Management Champion Award! And credit must go too to those who advocate for IVMD and Volunteer Management especially since other bodies, which should be, aren't!

Introducing New Zealand's first blog on Management of Volunteers!

I am so happy to plug a new blog for volunteer management in New Zealand.

Go find it at http://management4volunteers.wordpress.com.

Sue Hine has contributed to this humble blog. And now Sue has started her own.

I do feel this is the way to go for Volunteer Managers in their contribution to the sector. Speaking with an independent voice! We need more VMs in More countries getting together speaking out on Volunteer management.

I will be watching Sue’s blog with interest and jumping in when I agree and disagree with her viewpoint!!!!

Sue is doing some great work for the sector in New Zealand. Her blog can only add value to our profession. For her drive and initiative Sue gets a VM Champion Award!!!!

More from the site



"It's all about engaging with people who work with volunteers, about supporting and encouraging their work, as well as dealing with the challenges.

Sue Hine is the author, a back-room person with long experience in volunteering which has taught her what is really important in managing volunteers.


She was Manager of Volunteer Services at Mary Potter Hospice in Wellington for 6 years until 2007. She is now co-leader of the Volunteering NZ group charged with promoting the recognition and professional development of managers of volunteers (see www.volunteeringnz.org.nz for reports and updates).

Among other things Sue is a tutor for New Zealand's on-line training programme for managers of volunteers via www.xperts.co.nz."

GUEST POST: not a whisper, not a note, not a jot of a reference to managers of volunteers!

Sue Hine, Independent Advocate, Wellington, New Zealand

I can be a very rude and cynical person, and the following press release brings out the worst in me. Please tell me where I have got it wrong in my response ….

http://www.i-volunteer.org.uk/newshound/coalition-government-confirm-plans-for-social-action-and-volunteering/

Coalition government confirm plans for social action and volunteering
23rd May at 17:27

The full programme for the coalition government has been now been published. Described by David Cameron and Nick Clegg as ''historic'' here's what's been pledged in relation to social action and volunteering.
'The Government believes that the innovation and enthusiasm of civil society is essential in tackling the social, economic and political challenges that the UK faces today. We will take action to support and encourage social responsibility, volunteering and philanthropy, and make it easier for people to come together to improve their communities and help one another.

1. We will support the creation and expansion of mutuals, co-operatives, charities and social enterprises, and enable these groups to have much greater involvement in the running of public services.

2. We will give public sector workers a new right to form employee-owned co-operatives and bid to take over the services they deliver. This will empower millions of public sector workers to become their own boss and help them to deliver better services.

3. We will train a new generation of community organisers and support the creation of neighbourhood groups across the UK, especially in the most deprived areas.

4. We will take a range of measures to encourage charitable giving and philanthropy.

5. We will introduce National Citizen Service. The initial flagship project will provide a programme for 16 year olds to give them a chance to develop the skills needed to be active and responsible citizens, mix with people from different backgrounds, and start getting involved in their communities.

6. We will use funds from dormant bank accounts to establish a 'Big Society Bank', which will provide new finance for neighbourhood groups, charities, social enterprises and other non-governmental bodies.

7. We will take a range of measures to encourage volunteering and involvement in social action, including launching a national day to celebrate and encourage social action, and make regular community service an element of civil service staff appraisals.


Before you swallow all this as fine and wonderful, a brave new world in which all your long-lost prayers for volunteerism, your NGO services, your best practice management of volunteers will be answered, consider the renegade’s views:


• Yaaaa….w…n…. Enthusiasm for civil society is a bit of re-cycling from a couple of decades ago. Ditto ‘social responsibility’. What I know is that people coming together to improve their communities and to help one another takes one heck of a lot more than good intentions and a government policy.


• Hello! Devolution of power from public servants? Community organisers, Neighbourhood groups? In another age we would have called this anarchy – only now anarchy has become a political instruction for social action.

• Community organisers were the most despised and rejected of men and women in the 60s and 70s for their activism in ‘community development’. I am suspicious of the rehabilitation of this term.

• Maybe there will be some tax breaks for philanthropic disbursements. But I bet there will be a lot more boundaries put on the charity $, who it goes to and for what purposes.

• Get them while they’re young. That’s the story. Rub their faces in what it means to be a responsible citizen, being multi-cultural, and force them to get involved in their communities. A National Citizen Service is not going anywhere.

• A Big Society Bank? Let’s do a raid and see just how much funds they will release for my really good community project.

• [Pause, for scribe to stop laughing.] I’m sorry, I have been laughing out loud at the image of public service bureaucrats compelled to undertake regular community service. The least the government can do is ensure such efforts are not confused with the Justice system and community sentencing….[further giggles, sote voce]

OK – my comments are directed at the plotting of the UK government, a newly elected Conservative/Liberal coalition. The really astute among you will notice (and I hope it hits you in the face) there is not a whisper, not a note, not a jot of a reference to managers of volunteers, the sine qua non of achieving the government’s aims and intentions.

So where is the voice for managing volunteers, and how can we make it heard?



Sue Hine began volunteering a very long time ago. Sue has been engaged with community organisations for more than 40 years, as a trainer, facilitator and clinical supervisor, and a volunteer in all sorts of roles. Her direct experience of managing volunteers is brief by some standards, just 6 years. But it was volunteering that taught Sue most about management, what worked and what didn’t, what made her feel valued and how a poorly run organisation did Sue and their client group a big disservice. Now Sue has become re-tyred, freed from alignment to any organisation, and free to tell you what she thinks and to float ideas that might get you thinking.

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!!!

And the next champion award goes to

Volunteering England for having the vision to see the need to have a National Conference for Volunteer Managers.

And the 1st VM Champion Award goes to.........

Volunteering Tasmania for their scholarships allowing people to attend the Australasian Retreat for Advanced Volunteer management in Adelaide recently! Well done VT for your vision and dedication to the growth of the VM sector!

Volunteer Management Champion Award

A common feature of this blog will be DJs Volunteer Management Champion Award! This award will be awarded to any person or group that champions the sector of Volunteer Management. Award winners will have demonstrated their interest in the betterment and growth of the Volunteer Management Sector wherever this may occur in the globe. Please post your nominations here!!!