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Volume I, Issue 4, July 2001
The Profession

The Impact of New Technologies on Volunteer Management


Keyboard Roundtables
Moderated by Deborah Witmer
Participants:
Jayne Cravens, Ami Dar, Nan Hawthorne, Juston Ho, Vivien Neal and Sheri Wilensky Burke

As volunteer managers, communicating with current and potential volunteers can be one of our most frustrating, ongoing challenges. We send newsletters, write thank you notes, produce brochures, make phone calls, and write training manuals. One of the most frequently asked questions on message boards for volunteer professionals is: "Does anyone have good ways/methods of getting volunteers to report their hours?" More and more frequently, we are turning to new ways of communication offered by computer technology and the Internet to help us stay in touch with volunteers.

With the advent of computer technology, our communication toolkit has expanded possibilities, but not everyone agrees on how, when and why they should be used. Such tools as Internet recruitment, e-mail communication, virtual volunteering and online training may well have a major impact on the way we recruit and manage volunteers. However, some critics argue that not everyone has equal access to this technology, and even its use can be a barrier itself to those not technically inclined. How do we move forward and make good use of these new tools, without leaving behind those with no access or desire to use new technology?

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Comments

Nan Hawthorne, participant in Roundtable

September 30th, 2001, 6:34pm

Interesting observation Deborah made about the "frugality" (my word, not hers) of the conversation on this Roundtable. I put to you that we are the advanced users of the Internet and therefore one can see in us the future users of the tool. We on the Roundtable use the Internet constantly. We have developed habits of frugality with the tool. We are what most people will be when use of the Internet becomes as second nature as mail and phones.

Rob Jackson Royal National Institute for the Blind Volunteer Development Officer, London England

October 30th, 2001, 6:33pm

A general comment on the whole subject of the impact of the Internet on volunteering. If you haven't read it already, chapter thirteen of Robert Putnam's "Bowling Alone" provides a fascinating insight into the potential impact of the net on social capital, including volunteerism. He draws many parallels with the telephone and television and puts forward some interesting arguments around the whole area of technology and the decline in social capital in the US in the last fifty years. I make this suggestion as some interesting background/further reading for anyone interested in this whole area.