The 2011 Wish List

January 16, 2011

The 2011 Wish List

Two weeks into the New Year and I’ve still got a bunch of good wishes to deliver.  Happy New Year!

I have never been one to make Resolutions at this time.  Not worth the effort when I know any vows about getting fit, losing weight or any other self-sacrificial pledge will be down the tube by the end of the month.

So I have idle thoughts instead, about other things that might happen this year.  Speculation is not a sound recommendation for investment on the economic front, and buying a Lotto ticket is another form of wishful thinking.  Well, I keep on hoping.  This year I am hoping a few more managers of volunteers can make a better deal for volunteers and their organisations, and specially for themselves.  And if you already have a good deal going for you as a manager of volunteers, my wish is for you to reach out your hand to help others learn what they need to know.

Here is what I am wishing for the coming year:

• For all Managers of Volunteers to have the opportunity for professional development – to access training opportunities and mentoring or supervision as an employment right, not as a favour.  In Kiwi country that means spreading information about what is available.  We are very good at village pump communication – let’s get it formalised and around the traps, and tell people why it is important.
•  I want to hear less about managers floundering in their role, struggling to find help.  In most places there is plenty of help at hand, and maybe my concern reflects too many examples of Managers of Volunteers trying to be all things to all people.  Which is saying a lot about a need to clarify my role and function for myself, and then to negotiate practicalities with the organisation.
• It’s IYV+10, so it should not be expecting too much to get some acknowledgement from Government, and from organisations, to include a nod to the Managers of Volunteers who keep Volunteering keeping on.  2011 is just the year to rattle a few cages with management teams and boards, and with the government agencies that call the shots for many of our organisations.  After all, good relationships and regular communication are stock-in-trade for our work with volunteers, so why not with all those non-volunteer parts of our communities. 
• And, being really ambitious, I would like to see progress towards strengthening our status as professionals.  This means we have to come out of the closet, demonstrate we can pass muster in terms of recognised entry qualifications, point to a set of performance benchmarks, and to wear the badge of our professional association.  The VNZ conference in May is designed to spur some action. 

These are pretty modest wishes, and while they are not properly translated into operational plans with defined performance expectations, they are likely to form the bones of ongoing blog-commentary.  There are plenty of sub-text issues to talk about, and no doubt there will be other topics flying in from left-field.  2011 is all Green-to-Go!

 For more on 2011 Wishes, Resolutions and Great Ideas go to http://djcronin.blogspot.com/2011/01/hopes-and-wishes-for-our-sector-for.html

My last great wish, which is also first on my list, is for a disaster-free year.  We’ve earned it I reckon, not just in New Zealand and Australia, but around the world.  From Haiti to Pakistan, from Iceland’s volcano to winter blizzards – 2010 has been a very bad year, the worst in more than a generation they say.  Right now there are two words for flood-recovery in Queensland: Go volunteers!

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