Image of Volunteering

Sabotage!

The very word conjures up images of old war movies – silhouetted black and white figures blowing up railway lines in the midst of the night to prevent enemy advance. Indeed, sabotage is in fact a very real tool of war. Sadly it has also been a tool of some corporations who have used the technique to delay competitor success, while some individuals also deliberately sabotage the lives of their colleagues, families and even themselves in some bizarre notion of personal victory.

Sabotage is also at work within the volunteering sector. It is not too difficult to find volunteer administrators who, through poor work practices or a lack of a true understanding of their role, are unwittingly sabotaging their own volunteer programs. This results in a weakening of the value of volunteering in the eyes of their line managers, program volunteers, and the general public, as well as an undermining of the whole profession.

Martin Cowling warns us to be aware of the five 'lethal factors' of sabotage that can easily sneak into our management practices, describes how to confront them, and suggests how to deal with each in a decisive manner.

Whilst research and interest in all aspects of volunteering and the third sector generally have grown exponentially since the 1990s, both internationally and in Australia, Australian historians have been ‘missing in action’ – they have not generally been part of this explosion of interest. Sociologists, social workers, economists, lawyers, accountants, political scientists, environmentalists, business managers, information technologists, those interested in sport and tourism – the list is endless - are part of an evolving multidisciplinary approach to what is now labelled as the ‘third sector’, ‘voluntary sector’, or ‘non-profit sector’, depending on your national preference. Public debates and discussions over issues of social capital; global initiatives such as the United Nations International Year of Volunteers in 2001; and the rise of peak organizations such as Volunteering Australia, have all brought volunteering to the fore.

But volunteering and voluntary action, the history of the non-profit sector and its relationship with government, are largely neglected topics in twentieth century Australian history. Whilst volunteering and voluntary action are integral to our western democratic traditions and both have played key roles in the development of Australian society in the twentieth century, our national histories remain largely silent. Where are the stories of volunteers, volunteering and the voluntary principle in our national histories? They have largely been ignored. They are part of our ‘invisible histories’.

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Read the keynote address delivered by Melanie Oppenheimer at the 10th National Conference on Volunteering, held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on 2 June 2004.

 

Through several years of working in public relations (PR) and journalism, I've heard many publicity officers of social and sporting clubs and PR officers of non-profit organisations complain they are not getting 'enough exposure': 'I sent a release to The Times last week, and they didn't publish it' or 'I e-mailed a three-page letter on the annual general meeting two days ago, and the radio station didn't put a word of it to air'.

Having studied both public relations and journalism, I know that newspapers and the radio/television media, especially outside of capital cities, are always on the lookout for good local items of interest. I also know that there are rules that the media themselves must follow, in order to meet their own time lines.

If we learn to submit a press release using the right procedure, and if we do it right, it will go to air or be put into print. That is the basis of this article.

You can tell the age of the book, The Citizen Volunteer , by the pronoun in its subtitle: His Responsibility, Role and Opportunity in Modern Society. The really ironic part is that the book was copyrighted in 1960 by the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW)!

 

NCJW produced the book as part of the celebration of its 65th anniversary. They signed on Nathan E. Cohen, the Dean of the School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University as editor and he, in turn, asked seventeen different writers to contribute chapters. In this article, we examine what these social observers were thinking about volunteering just before the turmoil of the '60s decade - and how right or wrong they were in the last section of the book entitled "Looking Ahead."

One of the most fascinating things about volunteerism throughout history is that it represents the basic human response to "can you help?" It also reflects the culture, values and state of the times in which it occurs. What kinds of things are people willing to do to meet needs outside of their own? What does this tell us about our values? Our worries? Our hopes and fears?

In this issue we will share some of the original ways in which people both ask for volunteers as well as volunteer. We will also invite readers to share their own examples of wild and wonderful volunteer opportunities around the globe!