Jayne Cravens speaks truth to power but is anyone listening?

Jayne Cravens is an internationally-recognized author, trainer, researcher and consultant. Her work is focused on communications, volunteer involvement, community engagement, and management for non-profits, NGOs, and government initiatives.

Jayne's Blog

I’ve been a fan of Jayne's for years now and especially of her blog. I haven’t always agreed with what she says but by golly whatever her views are she articulates them so well! One thing that amazes me though is that she isn’t appearing too much at national or international conferences on Volunteering. Her voice is so unique and her contribution to the sector has been priceless. Surely these days we don’t fear strong and articulate women? If you are looking for a dynamic speaker for your next conference do the conference a favour and go book her in.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jayne once, many moons ago at a Retreat for advanced Volunteer Management in South Australia. I loved how she broke out of the echo chamber and how she challenged our assumptions. If you read her blog you will see that she continues to do so to this very  day.

Her latest blog has the most powerful statement about volunteering itself that I have seen for a long long time. Jayne writes:

“Volunteer engagement is essential to the democracy and the life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for which my country, the USA, strives – paid staff just cannot do everything that needs to be done in this regard. Some activities are best done by volunteers – by people who aren’t being paid a wage to do certain work, who are freed from fear of being fired from a job that pays for their home, food, transportation, etc. and, therefore, able to speak more freely about what they are seeing and doing at the agency that hosts them as volunteers or in the community in which they are providing service.

But volunteer engagement does not magically happen and it is also not sustainable by mere good will and passion. Effective, sustainable volunteer engagement requires knowledge and processes.”

Even if that had been it – it would have been a powerful blog. Change the country and you could use this statement about any country when talking about volunteerism!  

But the blog goes on to talk about many important themes

“It’s long overdue for bold statements regarding public policy that affects volunteerism and community service by these associations. I’m tired of being out here on my own.”

In my response to this blog I assured Jayne that she was not on her own  .Although I often feel the same in the pursuit of speaking truth to power. I recently resigned from the board of my own association whom I feel lacks the independent voice to stand on their own feet and be proud of the fact! (More to come on that in a future blog perhaps!) And this was about our ability to have our own voice within the volunteering sector itself and nothing to do with Government! Naturally I worry that if we had the same situation as Jayne describes the silence from the Volunteer Management sector would be deafening also.

History will judge us not only by the action we took but by the silence and inaction. We live in an era where our Volunteer Management Associations are needed now more than ever. But instead of being the strong voice representing us, instead of them being a beacon of light, instead of being proudly independent, they are not just seen as irrelevant by others   - they are irrelevant.

I fear that Jayne's call to arms may fall on deaf ears. What she speaks about is really important. What she warns of is serious and has implications not just for her beautiful country but for countries around the world. But in the echo chamber of Volunteer Management we seem to be more concerned about what our titles should be and what super heroes we are on November 5^th. It simply doesn’t cut the mustard anymore!

Meanwhile volunteer activists around the globe take to the streets and are forming in groups (while our sector debates in conferences if these people are “true” volunteers!). New volunteer driven human rights organisations go from strength to strength. Globally, unions are growing louder. People are taking voluntary action in their communities harnessing the power of social media and technology. We have so much to learn from them.

When society looks back on our present in 50 years’ time they will look for the people who stood up to be counted. They will look to see who took action while human rights were being impinged. They will look at who cried out in protest when kids were locked up and when refuges were detained for years on islands. They will read about those that would not stand idly by while racism and fascism grew.

The future is already looking back at us and asking “What did you do?” Jayne Cravens spoke truth to power in her blog but is anyone listening?

 

Let’s not kill Volunteering

I draw you in dear reader with a provocative headline. In reality the title refers to the word “Volunteering”

Rob Jackson put it so well in a recent comment of his that there is no problem with the word volunteering. Rather there is an issue with the perception of volunteering.

There are issues with the perception of a volunteer and therefore by extension the Volunteer Manager.

But it’s the word Volunteering I am looking at here.

There has been some dialogue and movement of late to disassociate from the word Volunteer. I have seen some debate about the need to capture new audiences utilising a different framework to describe how people give time, freely for the benefit of others.

I am with Rob Jackson. It’s the perception of volunteering in our communities that we need to work with and not the semantics.

Volunteering is amazing. It is life changing. It is inspiring. Volunteers are making an enormous impact on our society and communities but we are utilising a dated viewpoint on such activity.

As National Volunteer Week approaches here in Australia watch out for the speeches that include the lines “Volunteers are the backbone of our society” and “Volunteers are the lifeblood of our organisation” etc. etc. Ad Nauseam.

This has become Lazyspeak because volunteering is much more than that and we are tired of hearing the same platitudes rolled out once a year especially when volunteering is undervalued and under resourced at an organisational and sector level.   

And if I have just ruined your volunteer recognition speech check out my Thank you speech to Volunteers I wrote 8 years ago and which I still believe should be the type of language we should use around volunteering. http://djcronin.blogspot.com.au/2010/06/thank-you-speech-for-volunteers.html

‘As a volunteer you bring much to this organisation. Skills, advice, experience, friendship, vision, leadership, inspiration etc.’

When you hear the word Volunteer what image do you conjure up in your mind? What unconscious bias may be there?

Getting rid of the word itself won’t help. Educating our organisations and our society and our Government on the massive impact of volunteering will!

And those of us who understand volunteering have a massive job to do. Let’s do it, change perceptions and encourage millions more to take voluntary action!

So why does Volunteer Management need a voice?

This is a blog I am writing today for LinkedIn. I will share it on other platforms but will publish it first to LinkedIn.( and now on my blog!)

Why is that?

This is the Wikipedia definition of Linkedin “LinkedIn (/lɪŋkt.ɪn/) is a business- and employment-oriented service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Founded on December 28, 2002,[5] and launched on May 5, 2003,[6] it is mainly used for professional networking, including employers posting jobs and job seekers posting their CVs.”

I want to zone in on the professionals utilising this site to network. But how many people on this site consider Volunteer Management a profession? What constitutes a profession is really a blog for another day.

But for now, I can safely say that there are many Volunteer Managers on LinkedIn. They come under many titles. Manager, Coordinator, Administrator, engagement officer etc.

But guess what? There are many people managing volunteers as an addition to their regular role. For example there are Secretaries, Case workers, Counsellors, Community development workers, Youth workers and Admin officers etc. who have also been tasked with the role of “Looking after the volunteers” (a cringe worthy expression if I ever heard one but in reality exists!)

And I am confident that many of them do a great job managing volunteer’s day in and day out.

However my concern is around the support they receive because very often the fact that they manage this large resource is not factored in to the support they receive from their organisations whether that be professional development opportunity, resources and budgets. My evidence of this is largely anecdotal though some organisations such as Volunteer Pro https://volpro.net/volunteer-management-progress-report/  and AAMOV https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PRWSDVF  are working hard to gauge the conditions and feelings of the Volunteer Management Profession.

We have some certificates and diplomas in Volunteer Management around the globe so some progress is being made. But the role of Volunteer Manager still seems to me to be undervalued, under resourced, under the radar and not treated as a profession.

I say this not as someone who necessarily is suffering the above but as someone who has worked in the industry for over 20 years and who is still hearing these stories from our sector.

There has been some talk lately about this being the Volunteer Management sectors own fault. We complain too much and don’t offer solutions. We are our own worst enemy. We don’t know what we want etc.

I want to call a halt to that Bull Poop.

For years and years we have been the people who facilitate the movement of people taking action in our communities. We have been the people managing, coordinating, rostering, helping, counselling and encouraging millions of people in our societies.

We love our roles and we know how volunteers act and think. We are on top of trends before they become trends. We are on the ground. We get volunteering!

And we silently standby when we see people come into our organisations with their multiple degrees who think they “know” volunteering, And we watch in amazement as policy on volunteering whether it be at an organisational, peak body or Government level is laid out without any consultation from the Volunteer Management Sector.

And this is why we need a voice. And this is why we need to speak up. The average volunteer manager or coordinator would be terrified today to speak up about these matters. It could cost them their job!

This is why we need strong Volunteer Management Associations.

In Australia we have AAMOV. I am proud to be a board member and a past president. But I can state that we are not strong. Why? We don’t have enough members. Yet!

People who work with volunteers need to see and understand what we stand for. Then they will invest because it means that they are investing in their own careers.

But here is a call out to other professions! We need you to support us too. And we want to collaborate with you. You may not have even realised that we existed. But we do. Share your knowledge with us on advancing and supporting a profession.

Who will be the voice when

·        Organisations under resource volunteer management

·        Underpay Volunteer Managers

·        Organisations decline Professional Development opportunities for Volunteer Managers

·        Volunteering Peak bodies don’t have Volunteer Managers on their boards or don’t support the VM Sector

And here is the crux of effective Volunteer Management. Effective Volunteer Management should be about professional Volunteer Managers who never stand for the exploitation or mistreatment of volunteers! We are not HR. We are VRM and its time we were supported!

My top ten gripes about volunteer management and volunteerism

Had a Twitter exchange today that gave me the idea for this blog.

What I tweeted is at number 10 but these are not in order of preference just a top ten gripe list. Feel free to add yours.  In fact I might turn each one into a tweet.

10.

I like to read job ads for leaders of volunteers. Usually I read the responsibilities which are major. Then I read the pay band which is minor. Usually part time too. What's with #crapwages in #volmgt #lovols #value #respect

9.

I got a good reply on Twitter to the above. I will honour it with a place on my top ten list

Even more frustrating when a job post doesn't mention pay, which usually means it's embarrassingly low. I never share job posts without pay listed. – Liza Dyer

8.

My reply to that gets number 8

Or when they won't list the role as Manager for fear of having to pay management wages! 

7.

When there is an ad for a volunteer leadership position but leading or working with volunteers only makes it to “desirable” in the selection criteria or does not make it at all! And people find themselves in senior roles concerning volunteering but haven’t a clue about volunteerism!

6.

A volunteer management role that states – “Must have HR degree or experience”

5.

People who are given the responsibility of managing volunteers as an add on to their core role. I.E. our receptionist is nice so he will be good “looking after the vollies” or “Our Social worker will have plenty of time to manage the 100 volunteers we have too”

4.

The word “Vollies”. I am not sure why but it makes me cringe.

3. 

“Just A” As in “I’m just a volunteer” or “I am just a volunteer coordinator” We are all guilty of this one. It needs to be dead and buried!

2.

“The lifeblood of the organisation” This old chestnut usually is brought out during an event like volunteers week. Usually used by a politician, CEO or journalist. WE are tired of the lip service. Find more profound language my friends!

1.

The following conversation

‘What do you do?”

“I manage volunteers”

Crickets

“That’s nice”