A Poem for Leadership in 2020

As a leader

I hope you are there for your people
As they work just as hard from home
I hope that your caring nature
Means no one may feel so alone
I hope that you check on your people
With an email or call or two
And words of sincere encouragement
To say that we still value you
For now’s when your skills are called for
With truly leading your teams
And all of your leadership training
Is not what the old handbook seems
Just lead with care and integrity
And care for the people you lead
And they will reward you in future
And help your team to succeed

DJ 2020 

All revolutions start with volunteers

What an amazing thing to see volunteers around the world march in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement.

In my own city Brisbane, 30, 000 people volunteered to march on Saturday.

I was not one of them. This time due to health reasons. And I know they face criticism due to covid-19 reasons around social distancing during this time.This is not for me to debate here and now.

Yet the volunteering sector is always so quiet when it comes to this type of activism. The Volunteer Management sector never seems to involve itself around the issues of the day when it comes to social justice.

Yet we seem to forget that civil rights, for example, only came about due to the efforts of volunteers.

But we play it safe. Rather than grasp the opportunity it provides to our sector.

Susan J Ellis was always ahead of her time. I wish she were here now.

“Remember, no one gets paid to rebel. All revolutions start with volunteers.”

 This is my favourite Susan quote.

Volunteers are challenging the status quo right now. Are we as a sector keeping up with what is going on?

That's Nice

No matter how many years of experience you have.

No matter your understanding of volunteering.

No matter that you have a proven track record on volunteer recruitment

No matter that you have worked hard for countless years

No matter that you explain to people that you are a professional in your field

No matter that you continuously demonstrate same

No matter that you may be an expert outstanding in your field

No matter that you have been successful in the past

No matter that you know your job, your people and your programs

No matter your title or position

You will always meet the person who will never get any of the above because you are a “Volunteer Manager”

And you, as that person “looking after the vollies” have a fresh supply of newly minted volunteers that you can produce at the click of your fingers.

And your job must be easy.

And that’s all you do.

And this is story often retold to me by many people in this role throughout the years. I’ve experienced it and countless of others still do.

This is why I continue to advocate for our profession. We need to be able to articulate the professional story of volunteer management.  And often it is the very word “Volunteer” that leads to an unconscious bias held about the worth of volunteering and those that lead them.

There will be those who want to go back to normal – I am not one of them.

As I write, it is the second day of winter here in Australia. It is morning and I have just returned from a walk. The air was crisp this morning and only a few white wisps wandered across the blue sky. I love winter. Growing up and living in Ireland for 25 years I have never managed to get used to the humidity of Queensland’s long summer. The summers have gotten hotter. When I first came to Australia I did love the storm that would inevitably come in the afternoon after a warm and muggy busy day. I would watch the dark clouds form and sit on my balcony to watch the light show that would follow and then the downpour of rain. That smell of rain when it first hits the shrubs, the earth and the trees is a beautiful one. Sometimes, if it was a really hot day I would run out and embrace its relief. The drop-in temperature would be immediate. We don’t get these storms on a regular afternoon anymore. Something is not normal.

Now we are living in what many are calling “The New Normal”. Working from home. Social distancing. I hear people say they can't wait to get back to normal. I can. In fact, I don’t want to go back to normal. I don’t want the world to go back to normal.

Normal at the office

Politics at work. Hierarchal attitudes. Those who think they have status and power and exert it at work. They tend to spend long hours at work because outside of it that status normally disappears. Meeting lovers. Those who love the noise and bustle. The workplace bully. The plotters and schemers. The gossips. The people who define their lives by their presence in the office. Those who strut the strut, talk the talk but who never walk the walk. For some reason, they are loudest at their keyboards. Those who walk by others in a corridor without a greeting because you are not important to them. Those who are addicted to coffee down the street. These people will be desperate to get back to normal. I won't.

Normal Government

Back to being in a 24-hour election cycle even though there may be years to the next election. Politicians spinning lies and mistruths. Abhorrent behaviour in our houses of parliament. Rorts. Cover-Ups. Gotcha moments. Travel expenses. Awarding themselves pay rises. Brown paper bags. Power. Government assassinations. Leadership spills. Hubris. Leaks to the media. Dog whistling. Creating fear for votes. Protecting our borders. Locking humans on islands – out of sight out of mind. Promises. National debt. Two-party systems. No real action on the existential crisis of our lifetime – Climate Change.

“Governments don't want a population capable of critical thinking, they want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation.” – George Carlin

Normal society

Fear of the other. The subjection of the minority. Welfare that barely keeps people alive. Justice for the rich. “The upper class keeps all of the money, pays none of the taxes. The middle class pays all of the taxes, does all of the work. The poor are there just to scare the shit out of the middle class. Keep 'em showin' up at those jobs.” – George again

Us versus them. War on terror. War on drugs. War on each other. ‘The more you can increase fear of drugs, crime, welfare mothers, immigrants, and aliens, the more you control all of the people. That’s the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody’s going to be against and everybody’s going to be for. Nobody knows what it means because it doesn’t mean anything” - Chomsky

Profit before people

Corporates sacrificing the health of the planet and its inhabitants for a bigger bank balance. Turning a blind eye to the consequences of their destructive, exploitative practices. The worst of them are committing atrocities that go beyond the realm of objectionable into criminal, dumping toxic chemicals without regard to public health, and employing child labour.

I don’t want normal back.  I want change. Change for my children. Hope for theirs.

The protesters across the United States do not want to go back to normal. The climate activists around the globe do not want to go back to normal. The poor and the marginalised don’t want normal. Refugees seeking safe shelter around the world do not want normal.  People are waking up. People are mobilising.

The normal world is getting afraid.

“The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.” Che Guevera

The 5 advantages of working from home during COVID

No walk up interruptions

I can be too polite. At the office, people often walk up to my desk to have a chat. It could be a question about volunteering. It normally is. But there is an expectation that I answer it straight away. During these times, I still get questions. But it is usually via email now. It gives me time to consider the question. And after some contemplation I believe that I am giving a better answer.

Travel Time

I spend two hours on a train travelling to and from work. It never really bothered me in the past. I would read a book or listen to music. But now I am valuing these two hours more than ever. In fact, I feel that I am more productive with these two extra hours spent planning and strategizing!

Volunteer Engagement

With thousands of volunteers scattered across an enormous state it has always been tough to engage with people. Travelling to places help. Meeting people on the ground has always been important for me. But travel can take a lot of your time and also it can be expensive. Now, videoconferencing seems to be the norm and I love it. I have met more volunteers in “lockdown” than I have met in normal times!

Finances

I have more money in my pocket. I am not buying as much coffee. The train costs have gone. Although I used to try to take lunch to work, too often I would forget and get lunch out.

The Hustle and Bustle

I work in a CBD. I also work in an open office space. It is always busy with people coming and going. There is noise. There is much movement. Right now I am not missing that. I am appreciating the silence that surrounds me. I still love my music. I can still work on projects with headphones on listening to the easy listening and classical music that I have always loved. But I am loving the lack of chaos around me.

To conclude, I do acknowledge that I am very fortunate that I can work from home during these times. I wake up each morning truly grateful that I still have a job. But I also believe that I have never been as productive as now. And also, I have fallen into the trap of working 10 or 11 hours of work a day without a decent break! I am trying to address that!

So how has the experience of working from home been for you?

The top ten worst colleagues you may encounter as a Volunteer Manager

1. The one who thinks your job is so easy they can’t believe you get paid.

I was new to a job once when someone from the organisation I had not met yet asked me “Who did you sleep with to get this job?’ Some colleagues will think that you have an easy job. After all anyone could coordinate volunteers.

2.       The colleague who hates your success and the attention your program gets for it.

 They may just be working as hard in their department whether it is marketing or fundraising but not getting the accolades.

2. The suspicious 

3.       The people that are deeply suspicious because you turn up to work every day in a joyful mood because you love your job.

They are usually miserable in their jobs and expect everyone around them to be too.

4.       The Bully

The may be even more empowered thinking that the Volunteer Manager is on one of the bottom rungs of the organisational chart and therefore an easier target.

5.       Those that think volunteers are only nice to have but not necessary

I was once told by one of these people that because they believed in this they believed my job filled the same criteria

6.       The new CEO

Always looking for short cuts to trim the meat. The Volunteer program can look like an easy target for cost cutting.

7.       The firm traditionalist

Will resist any innovation in volunteering. “This is the way we have always done it” Can be a staff member or volunteer.

8.       The Volunteer Demander

This is the colleague who rings you up and asks for 50 volunteers to help them with their prohect in the morning. They think there are ready made volunteer stored in the fridges to be taken out at will

9.       The misguided volunteer defender

They will fight against your decision to release a volunteer. They believe it would be unfair to fire the volunteer who has stolen from the organisation 3 times. They argue volunteers cant be fired

10. The HR specialist or business partner.

   They think they know far more than you when it comes to the field where you have expertise. You to them are the person who “looks after the vollies” only but need their advice on everything from legislation to conflict management and to procedures that are applied to volunteers.

 My next blog will be on the best 10 colleagues you may encounter as a Volunteer Manager

 

 

 

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.