June 25, 2017
The Week that Was (2017)
New Zealand’s National Volunteer Week finished up on Saturday, a week-long shout out, partying, praise and awards for volunteers. If you have not seen enough of the events, the press releases, videos and social media interaction there is a grand collection on Volunteering New Zealand’s FB page.
It’s the one week of the year that volunteers get public notice and due recognition – and even the Prime Minister chimed in this year at the function hosted by the Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector. Though if an organisation knows what is best for it there will be plenty of regular in-house appreciation for volunteer work throughout the year.
The theme for the week celebrated volunteering as a way of life that builds communities; that enables sharing your time, energy and skills; and that creates friendships and happiness. And you can have a lot of laughs along the way – volunteering has to be fun!
Yes, there were lots of numbers quoted in the public declarations – numbers of volunteers and their monetary value. Yes the platitudes about ‘making a difference’ and ‘we couldn’t manage without you’ were still paraded in the press releases. And a grand opinion piece in the Dominion Post about benefits of volunteering was undermined by the accompanying image of ‘Volunteers Needed!’
But it was evident that more effort is going into genuine recognition for the work achieved by volunteers. For example:
- Handing out high fives for generally keeping the country ticking
- Listing the benefits newcomer and migrant volunteers bring to organisations
- “The more we continue to grow this spirit of helping others, the stronger our communities will become “
- “Volunteers create connected communities by bringing families together”
- “Volunteers help us to do more, and in return for their hard work and efforts they are able to step forward, act on the issues that affect them and take ownership of changes they want for themselves and their community”
- “We’re [working on] ways to improve our volunteer experiences, including improved communication, ensuring greater diversity among our people, more accessible clinical training and better fatigue management”
- Sport brings communities together through parent volunteers who organise and manage teams, coordinate transport to ensure kids get to and from games and training sessions, cutting up the half-time oranges or washing the team shirts. Others contribute as coach, referee or umpire, by drawing up rosters, being part of committees or organising fundraisers.
The best tribute to volunteering around New Zealand is found here, starting off in Taranaki and including photos and extra stories (filtered through all the ads and inserts of online newspaper publishing). ‘Volunteer efforts help keep New Zealand communities afloat’ the headline says.
It seems churlish now, after all the good news stories, to ask what happens when volunteers do not enjoy the experience of living, laughing and sharing in their work. They leave, give up volunteering in disillusionment. They can damage an organisation’s reputation in an instant, through casual remarks to friends and neighbours. And they may miss out forever the opportunity to belong to a community, creating a sense of well-being and a strong Civil Society.
And that’s why well-organised and respected professional management of volunteers are as important to organisations as the volunteers. Right?
Management4Volunteers Blog 