History

In his later years, Ivan Scheier finally learned how to use e-mail (at least in a sparing fashion) and to dabble in other parts of Web communication. He was definitely not a techie and probably not even comfortable with being a Web person, but you’ll still see his traces online, many created and sustained by his friends and admirers.  In this Along the Web review, we cover the Mother Lode of online Ivan material, along with a few of the less obvious sources of information. Both areas relate to his professional work on volunteer management and a few of his other interests.

In the 1970s, many in volunteer management were concerned with making the field more professional by adopting and adapting personnel practices from private business.  Ivan Scheier believed this was not only wrong-headed but almost the opposite of what we should be doing.  Instead, Ivan preferred and promoted a way to develop roles for volunteers that he called “The People Approach.”  In this article, Rick Lynch explores the application of Ivan's People Approach to designing roles for volunteers in the present-day world.

Ivan Scheier was many things to many people – a colleague, a presenter, a mentor, a clever writer – but he was always one unquestionable thing to everyone he met: one of the true American pioneers of the field of volunteerism.

 In this collection of first-person stories, people who knew Ivan best reminisce about this remarkable man and the impact of his work in volunteerism. They talk about his Challenge Think Tanks and Mini-Max training process, along with his quiet and unassuming manner and the near genius of his ideas. In this unique tribute, it’s easy to see why Ivan is described as the one person who always saw the volunteer profession from 35,000 feet above the ground.  Ivan Scheier, according to those who knew him, always saw the big picture.

One of Ivan Scheier’s unique contributions to the volunteer field was his multi-day retreats for experienced practitioners, which he called “Challenge Think Tanks.” He hosted these retreats in various places across America during the 1980s and 1990s, whenever he could find a host organization. Ivan led the Think Tanks as a facilitator, not an instructor. He constructed the program to make people think and provided plenty of time for small group discussions and individual reflections. Most attendees remember their Think Tank opportunities with gratitude, and many credit them with changing the course of their careers.

The Challenge Think Tank approach is remembered in this article. It includes examples of  different retreats and explains how elements of the program continue today in events like the annual Australasian Retreat for Advanced Volunteer Management. Several colleagues share impressions and memories from their Think Tanks, as well as ideas for keeping the concept alive today and in the future.

The Association of Volunteer Bureaus (AVB) celebrated its 25th anniversary in Kansas City, MO., in 1976, coinciding with the American Bicentennial.  A gala celebration on the theme, “Volunteers:  Our Finest Natural Resource,” brought together the leaders of what are now called “volunteer centers” across the United States. In this Voices from the Past, we excerpt from the Proceedings book that AVB published, and see what has changed or stayed the same from 1951 to 1976.

International youth exchange programs have been around for as long as most of us can remember, arranging for teenagers to spend time in a foreign country living with volunteer “host families.”  Over 50 countries are engaged in this sort of exchange, through dozens of organizations.

In this Voices from the Past, we’ll examine the unusual histories of two such programs:  AFS (formerly American Field Service) and Youth for Understanding (YFU).  AFS evolved from its origins as a volunteer ambulance corps during World War I. YFU began as an effort to hear the wounds of World War II by bringing teenagers from war-torn Germany to the United States to live with a family and attend high school for a year. Read how these organizations grew to expand their missions and international reach.

In 1983, Jane Mallory Park wrote one of the early books on volunteerism: Meaning Well Is Not Enough: Perspectives on Volunteering.  In this book, Park discusses the legacy of volunteering that shaped what volunteers were doing in 1983, provided some solid, practical management advice, and looked to the possible future of the field. 

In this Voices from the Past, we’ll excerpt sections from one of Park’s chapters, “Vision Volunteering.” Here, Park proposes “What if?” scenarios and speculates about such intriguing concepts as “promoting volunteer liberation” and “appealing to enlightened self-interest.”

For all sorts of legitimate and prejudicial reasons, a lot of organizations debate whether or not they want to welcome volunteers younger than age 14 (or even 16 or 18).  But history provides many examples of how even the youngest of citizens have had an impact by taking up a cause and working for its success.

This article presents a wide range of examples of volunteering by children in the United States and around the world over the last 200 years.  Learn about Juvenile Anti-Slavery Societies, the seven million children who became “Modern Heath Crusaders,” drives to collect rubber during World War II, and much more.