Image of Volunteering

An important international event on the global volunteering agenda kicked off 2011: the 21st World Volunteering Conference in January, sponsored by the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) and hosted in Singapore. The conference marked 10 years since the world celebrated the United Nations’ International Year of Volunteers (IYV), so the UN is calling the 10th anniversary “IYV+10.” The Singapore event explored the changes that have occurred over the past decade and looked ahead at new trends.

As always, e-Volunteerism hit the ground running at the conference, covering the event. In this Voices, e-Volunteerism staffer Andy Fryar provides a photographic montage of some of the conference highlights and also shares his own thoughts on what he calls "the most well-run conference event I have ever had the opportunity to attend." Fryar also presents an audio interview from the conference with Laurence Lien, CEO of the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre in Singapore.

One of the most basic and vital types of volunteering is citizen involvement in democratic political processes. All the elements of volunteering and volunteer management are here: recruitment, volunteer leadership, supervision, volunteer motivation, etc. Guest contributor Debbie Macon is uniquely qualified to help bridge the perceived gap between citizen involvement and volunteering. She has had 10 years in public service as an elected official, and is a 20-year member of the League of Women Voters. In addition, she is a member of the Association for Volunteer Administration (AVA) and a member of the adjunct faculty of Wayne State University as co-instructor for "Managing Volunteer Programs" in the Nonprofit Sector Studies program.

This month’s Research to Practice takes a slight detour from reviewing research to report on an article that tries to take a completely new view on some well-known volunteer issues.  The article, called “It Ain’t Natural: Toward a New (Natural) Resource Conceptualization for Volunteer Management,” is written by Jeffrey L. Brudney and Lucas C.P.M. Meijs and published in the April 16, 2009 edition of the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. Steven Howlett explains that in their article, the authors ask readers to consider what would happen if “we draw our eye from the need to recruit volunteers all the time and start to focus on retention?” So far not so new, Howlett admits, before adding that “the authors think they have a new way to describe how we should think of volunteers.  We should look on them as a natural resource, and one that can be exhausted or managed sustainably.” Instead of reviewing research, this popular e-Volunteerism feature may just trigger some research of its own as the authors attempt to extend this new way of thinking into implications for management.

When it comes to describing volunteers and the volunteer community, attention tends to be focused on social or human services.  In fact, case studies, examples of volunteering, and vocabulary choices disproportionately assume that the volunteers are "solving problems" or "meeting community needs."  So we hear a lot about mentors, friendly visitors, tutors, care givers, and other similar roles − all of which makes people who work in the cultural arts feel like stepchildren.  This Keyboard Roundtable presents an international panel of volunteer program managers in the arts, who share their views on what it’s like to lead volunteers in the cultural arts and how they cope with feelings of being ignored by their social service colleagues.

In December 2005, an assault on three volunteer surf lifesavers led to violence and what are now known as 'the Cronulla riots.'  In the aftermath of these events, a number of parties (including the Australian Government, Sutherland Shire Council, Surf Life Saving Australia, Surf Life Saving NSW, and various other groups) representing Muslims proposed a program which would attempt to bring harmony back to the Cronulla beaches. Ultimately, this program has seen almost 20 young people of mainly Lebanese Muslim background undergo the arduous training to become volunteer surf lifesavers. But is this mere tokenism or a genuine attempt by those involved to make a difference?

A few years ago, we reprinted an excerpt from a long out-of-print book written by Ivan H. Scheier in 1980 called Exploring Volunteer Space.  We noted then that this volume contained ideas far ahead of its time – which is exactly what we’d come to expect from Ivan, one of the true pioneers of our field.  We also promised to periodically reprint other sections and so we offer here the chapter entitled, “From Observation to Action.”  You’ll find it thought-provoking, as Ivan explores “a relatively neglected area of volunteer space”:  “a form of indirect participation in which what you see is what you give.”

Over a year ago, Steve McCurley sent Susan a gift from a local library book sale. It was a copy of the 1966 novel for teens by Alice Ross Colver, Vicky Barnes, Junior Hospital Volunteer: The Story of a Candy Striper. Steve was right that Susan would like this sample of volunteering folklore. How could she not, with dialogue throughout the 171 pages like this:

“I’m accepted!” she breathed. “At least I’m to appear for an Orientation Course next week Monday. Oh, Mother, I’m so terribly happy!” She stopped and ended with a wobbly smile on her face. “Here’s my report card. I got all A’s.”

“And that, if I’m not mistaken,” her mother said smilingly, “is an anticlimax.”

This Voices from the Past shares more of Vicky’s adventures as a volunteer as well as other references from older books for children and teens that shaped all our impressions of what volunteering is and who does it.