November 30, 2017
International Volunteer Day 2017
All hail to volunteers on this day. May you enjoy being feted in various ways, and feel real warmth in the thanks and appreciation that is showered on you. Of course, I would like to think you get the respect you deserve throughout the year, and not all at once.
For the past seven years I have paid tribute to volunteers and volunteering through this blog, and railed against the platitudes of ‘couldn’t manage without you’ and ‘you help us make a difference’ and ‘volunteers are the life-blood of our organisation’.
I have also written about the benefits of volunteering – to national economy, to social well-being, and to all the community-based organisations offering services around people and animals and the environment and all the rest of human activity. And of course I have bleated and challenged and pounded the table on best practice in leading volunteers – to the point where I begin to repeat myself. Now it is time to bring a full stop to my blogging, and this post is my last.
For this IVDay I give thanks and appreciation to volunteers for what I learned from them, and for what I gained in my time as a manager and leader of volunteers.
I did not ‘own’ volunteers or refer to them as ‘my’ volunteers. I was not their best buddy, and never a ‘nanny-manager’. But the office door was ever open, to say hello and thank you, to be the support when volunteer work wasn’t going well and to listen when there were grievances that were getting in the way of their work. I loved the recruitment process of discovering new talent, new enthusiasms, and helping the shy and nervous to blossom.
Working with volunteers affirmed my faith in human nature. Their energy and commitment and their collective action showed me how community spirit is still alive and well. They gave freely without expectation of reward – and then discovered all the intangibles that make volunteer work a reward in itself.
To volunteers I have worked with, and to those all over who contribute so much to social well-being I give my sincere appreciation in a paraphrase of an oft-quoted saying: “I have forgotten much of what you said and did, forgotten names and perhaps what you looked like, but I still remember how great it was to work alongside you.”
Ten years ago I wrote the short personal essay which follows. For me it reveals fundamental lesson – I wonder if it rings bells for other leaders, managers, coordinators of volunteers?
My Season for Hugs
I left paid employment as a manager of volunteers some two years ago. Didn’t miss the work routines a jot, nor the morning and evening lemming-rush of commuters. There were a few regrets for the loss of warm relationships with people in my workplace, but these passed as I became re-tyred and got a new life as far as I wanted to travel. Until there was a call to fill the vacuum created by my successor’s extended sick leave. I had to go back, because the organisation was not yet ready to cope with leaderless volunteers.
What I do not foresee is the welcome I receive on my return. There are greetings and smiles close to cheers from the paid staff. There is a big bear-hug from bear-like Brian who has been a stalwart volunteer forever. I am spied by Jane and Stephanie whom I met first as diffident and anxious volunteer applicants. They are now accomplished in their supportive roles with clients, love their work and are well-liked by staff. There are cries of delight and acclamations at seeing me again, and more close hugging. Later in the day another Jane, who wears shyness wrapped round her like a muffler, becomes more animated than I have known before: she too is pleased I have returned.
I know how rapidly the waters close over the departure of a staff member, no matter how well respected. I’ve spent much of my life in community volunteering, social working and counselling and never paid much attention to my inter-personal contribution in the roles I have undertaken, despite knowing about its impact in communication and relationships. This welcome from staff and volunteers is over-the-top, I think. Then I remember one of the quotes I used to jot down from books I have read, the sentences that leap off the page, representing perhaps small coinage in the currency of my life at the time. In Brazzaville Beach William Boyd writes “You are the last person to understand the effect you have on other people”. Now I know this truth. I am honoured and humbled in the way I have been greeted in my brief return to the workplace. I wish I could unravel the code of the effect I have on others, so that I may not always be the last to know.
………………………..
International Volunteer Day is an annual event held on December 5. The global theme for 2017 is “Volunteers Act First. Here. Everywhere.” – recognising volunteer efforts around the world, as well as a tribute to the support volunteers provide in times of instability, disasters or humanitarian crises. The banner photos are showing off New Zealand Emergency Services.
October 25, 2017
The Great Big Shout-Out
On November 5 we will celebrate International Volunteer Managers’ Day, as we have done in various ways since 1999. This year a global effort is attracting pledges for action from leaders of volunteer programmes from north and south, east and west. There is also an opportunity for bloggers to share perspectives and ideas about being a voice. Here is my contribution.
I’m going to shout out about how the role of leading volunteers and managing a volunteer programme is where personal interests and attributes, professional standing and political commitment are rolled into one.
The Personal
It has become a truism that you need to be a ‘people person’ to lead volunteers. You like working with people and communities. You are good at building supportive relationships and developing people’s skills and confidence. Communication is everything in leading volunteers, from public speaking and facilitating group meetings to writing newsletters and the intimacies of 1:1 conversations. You know a lot about your community and its resources, and the value of networking. You are pretty self-aware, of your human frailties as well as your strengths. You recognise the importance of seeking out further training and support from your peers, or a mentor.
The Professional
There’s a set of professional standards you have set yourself, even if they are not written down. In the old-fashioned meaning of ‘professional’ you can declare what your values and beliefs are and these are demonstrably evident in your behaviour. That’s the essence of ‘being professional’.
You learn quickly about the knowledge base for leading volunteers: the processes for recruitment, training and placement, the level of support required and how to maintain their involvement. It is not an exclusive body of knowledge like the professions of medicine and law, but you know if you don’t get these things right then neither volunteers nor your organisation will be happy, and you could be missing out on meeting objectives and fulfilling organisation purposes. You know about ethical principles too, about privacy and confidentiality, as well as compliance with all the legal obligations placed on the sector. All the commitment to Professional Ethics in Volunteer Management is laid out for you here.
The Political
We may not be successful yet in establishing strong professional associations for strengthening the status of our role. Nor do we hold collective power to bargain for better pay and conditions of work. But that’s where Being the Voice and becoming political comes in.
To be effective as a leader of volunteers, in managing volunteer programmes, you need to get active – on several fronts. You need to shout out about the nature of volunteering and its significant contribution within organisations and to communities and society at large. You need to make sure organisation executives and the Board (volunteers themselves) ‘get’ volunteering. That means being strategic in building relationships and communicating effectively and often with all parts of the organisation. There may be misconceptions that need to be broken down, to avoid the divisive professional / amateur distinction between paid staff and volunteers for example.
And you do not need to go it alone. Volunteers can be encouraged to speak up about their interests, to present their case to senior management. (Of course they could have been invited in the first place, as a means to engage with the volunteer workforce and to enable their integration into the organisation.)
Another important strategic step is to join with other leaders as peers, for a learning opportunity and for mutual support. Meeting with others also encourages debate and collaboration on common issues. That’s where you could go public, as an independent group speaking about the relevance of the leadership role and the value of volunteers. Social media, opinion pieces, community newsletters – there’s plenty of opportunity to make the public voice of volunteer managers heard loud and clear.
There you have it, a tautology that says the Personal is the Professional is the Political. Of course this may not be you right now, but that’s where you can be heading, with your beliefs, your standards and your power. Let’s make sure our Voice is heard.
May 22, 2017
Under Pressure
Queen’s song Under Pressure came out in 1981, recorded in collaboration with David Bowie. It’s got a rhythm and words that echo the 1979 Pink Floyd album The Wall. Remember these music and movie hits? Sort of dystopian nihilism, speaking a kind of truth about power and injustice:
It’s the terror of knowing What this world is about Watching some good friends Screaming ‘Let me out!’.... Pressure on people – people on streets.......
Thirty-five years later we could be screaming even louder for inequalities of income, homelessness, the cost of housing, polluted waterways and environmental threats to indigenous flora and fauna. There’s a long list of pressures on our quality of life.
And no ending to pressures on non-profit organisations:
- funding shortfalls and contract compliance;
- a shortage of qualified paid staff, and a fall-off in volunteer numbers;
- a significant rise in demand for services;
- limitations on speaking out to government; and
- time pressures – deadlines to meet, reporting requirements, events to organise.
What is really coming into focus is the social disarray in our communities.
Government responses over the past month range from denial of a crisis in housing (“there has always been a homeless population”), or in mental health (“look, we’ve increased funding by 18% over the past few years”; and claiming that a community submission came from “left-wing anti-government protesters”). Two new government agencies established for ‘social investment’ and ‘vulnerable children’ look more like data-processing enterprises than innovative service providers.
Ambulance services need double-crewing of trained paramedics, as well as volunteer support. “Why on earth is such an essential service centred around the begging bowl?” asks one executive. “Providing emergency help to seriously ill or injured people”, says a newspaper editorial, “is one of the core duties of the state”. The role of the state is a debate that is sorely needed.
When it comes to the environment the government recently redefined optimal water quality to gloss over the parlous state of our rivers and lakes. Our 100% Pure image went down the drain a long time ago. No government department is more constrained than Conservation, to the extent that it relies on volunteers to protect wildlife and the environment.
So how can the non-profit sector push back against these pressures?
Those organisations providing services under government contracts are particularly constrained from speaking out. Social housing agencies, for example, are virtual servants of government. But if they are representing a community, or focused on a need for services then isn’t speaking out a fundamental tenet of democracy? ‘Shooting the messenger’ is political point-scoring of a dangerous kind, particularly in this election year. We need government agencies and communities to work together in true partnerships, not behind barriers of bureaucracy or prejudice.
Instead of following the trend to become models of modern business practice, non-profit organisations could be developing alternative models appropriate for their mission, in tune with the interests and needs of their community. That will mean being adaptable and inclusive, being solution-focused and not solution-limited, like putting boundaries on service provision.
Achieving this end will undoubtedly involve volunteers. And to involve volunteers will mean understanding the nature of volunteering and what it can offer, so their contribution can be properly appreciated. It will mean developing innovative recruitment strategies that indicate what volunteer work entails, why it is important and valued, and what can be gained in the process. Please, abandon notices that cry ‘Volunteers wanted, or needed’.
In a few weeks New Zealand will resound with National Volunteer Week, an opportunity to showcase what volunteers really do, to demonstrate to Government how volunteers are a force to reckon with, and most of all to celebrate and acknowledge the power of volunteering.
Take heart, take notice, and Live, Laugh, Share – Volunteer from June 18, helping to build stronger more vibrant communities. That is the push-back that will safeguard the work of organisations and the communities they serve.
April 22, 2017
Community & Voluntary Sector: What Do We Mean?
The collective noun of Community & Voluntary Sector is widely used. The words trip of the tongue whenever we want to make a point of how important the sector is, or to argue the significance of volunteer contribution to organisations and communities. Or to point out that this or that organisation is getting a raw deal.
Trouble is, ‘community’ invokes anything from my local neighbourhood, to a particular set of organisations or particular groups of people, and then links with the broader term of Civil Society. It’s a blanket word used so loosely we risk drowning the distinctions – and the voices – that are collectively represented in ‘community’.
You can read all about the facts and values of ‘community’ in Raymond Plant’s Community and Ideology: an Essay in Applied Philosophy (1974). (OK, it’s an oldie but still a goodie.) Plant argues there is no overall definition of community because there is always a value element implicit in using the word: when we talk about what a community is we are also inferring what a community ought to be like, and we may be talking about several different forms of community at the same time. Forty years later we can add ‘networks’ to the meaning of ‘community’, and ‘online communities’ and even global ones.
The Community & Voluntary Sector is also beset with a number of non-titles, like NGOs, NPIs, NFPs, or it is an also-ran as Third (and sometimes Fourth) Sector. Then there is the legal status of organisations: registered charity, incorporated society, or simply a non-entity, a neighbourhood group that organises an informal street clean-up. Or you can categorise organisations by their field of activity, and there are twelve fields according to New Zealand definitions for the John Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project (2009). You could also say organisations contracted to provide services on behalf of government are yet another category, one that tends to dominate conversations about the sector.
I wish we could find another way of expressing a ‘community’ voice that does not lump us all in together, obscuring all the myriad services and groups catering for human diversity and their interests.
Now think about ‘voluntary’, another word used loosely, and then some. Yes, there is a fundamental applied definition of ‘work that is freely given without expectation of reward’, but then count all the different ways of volunteering, the different sectors of interest – and vested interests – and the diversity of volunteers and their motivations. No wonder we run up against people and organisations that do not ‘get’ volunteering, that do not understand the word’s real meaning.
Volunteering is both a verb and a philosophic concept. Our beliefs about people and our community relationships will flavour the sort of volunteering we undertake and why we volunteer. Yet too often organisations engaging volunteers have not thought beyond ‘unpaid labour’. There’s a lot more behind ‘working for free’ than donating one’s time.
Consider the different forms of volunteering:
- Volunteering can be both formal (engaged with an organisation) and informal (helping people outside family obligations).
- Volunteering can be regular or episodic, short- or long-term.
- Volunteering can be undertaken as part of Corporate Social Responsibility by employees.
- Volunteering includes activism for social or political change.
- Volunteering as obligation, a civic duty.
And the roles undertaken by volunteers:
- Governance
- Personal support, befriending
- Team leadership
- Event organisation and participation (including fundraising)
- Administration, from reception and clerical input to accounting
- Pro bono professional services
- Research
- Exploring new approaches to service delivery – innovation
Or the drivers for volunteers:
- Supporting a cause
- A desire to connect, to belong in a community, to be useful
- Gaining work experience (for Interns and unemployed people)
So next time a report is issued on numbers of volunteers, the hours they contribute and the $ value of their contribution to the organisation (or to GDP), start asking a few questions about what the volunteers are working at, and what they achieve. Think about just what sort of difference they make, and exactly why ‘you could not manage without them’.
And then do some hard thinking about how you talk about ‘community and voluntary sector’. Is its purpose to contribute to GDP, or to social well-being and community cohesion – to be part of a strong Civil Society? Or is this sector largely the ambulance-at-the-bottom-of-the-cliff of economic and social inequity?
February 26, 2017
Thinking about Altruism
Over the holiday period I gobbled up a number of books, fiction and non-fiction. Well – what else do you do when it’s supposed to be summer and the wind and rain keep pouring into my city? And there was a fair bit of Googling as well, checking out New Year prognostications arising for the non-profit sector. And trying to comprehend developments in “the new world order”, the term applied here to the reign of the new US President.
I sense a swell of concerns in the voluntary and community sector that have been simmering for some time: competition for funding; changes in government commitment to service provision, forcing organisations to close their doors; a fall of volunteer numbers and increases in paid staff; and in some quarters, a lack of public confidence in non-profit organisations. As always, there’s a refrain, singing for better recognition of volunteers, and for management of volunteers.
There are some other strands emerging too. They’ve also been around for a while, but I’m reluctantly taking some notice of the rise of ‘social enterprise’, a revival of ‘social investment’ (and what impact that might have on existing services), and a movement called ‘Effective Altruism’ promoting ‘how to help you help others, do work that matters, and make smarter choices about giving back’.
Its champion is William MacAskill, and in his book Doing Good Better he offers a disarming self-help manual on how to decide best career choices when you want ‘to make a difference’, what cause to focus on, which charities offer the best outcomes. It’s hard to argue against his reasoning, except that it’s a long way from my basis for making choices when offering to volunteer or to respond to calls for $ donations. His utilitarian approach has been well-critiqued, not least for ignoring the sticking plaster some charities put on injustices perpetrated by capitalism.
In simple terms, MacAskill advises that ‘the market will make it all work’. Donors are investors seeking the best return for their money (ROI). They might also get their name in lights as a worthy philanthropist. What bothers me is the absence of any attempt by MacAskill to define ‘altruism’ beyond the basic ‘giving’. There is scant attention to other values and moral codes that can influence decisions, and he offers several examples of choices that have made little or no ‘difference’. The only mention of volunteering implies that giving money is a far better option than giving time:
As a volunteer, you’re often not trained in the area which you are helping, which means the benefit you provided might be limited. At the same time you’re often using up valuable management capacity. For that reason, volunteering can in fact be harmful to the charity you’re volunteering for. Anecdotally, we have heard from some non-profits that the main reason they use volunteers is because those volunteer subsequently donate back to the charity.
Hands up those who reckon volunteers are more trouble than they are worth!
There is more. Another book picked up by chance is by Nic Frances, a leading supporter of social enterprise. He outlines in The End of Charity how the divide between money-making business and doing-good charities doesn’t really make the world any better. This view is echoed by Don Pallotta who highlights business practice discrimination against non-profit organisations. Frances argues we need to stretch financial values to include social and environmental values, and for business to incorporate these elements into their operations – to take Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) seriously. Well, yes, but is there any guarantee the outcome will not be like a corporate takeover of the non-profit sector? The ‘end of charity’, indeed.
Let’s go back to that word ‘altruism’, a loaded value-word, and values are notoriously debatable though highly significant in shaping thinking and behaviour. In simple terms ‘altruism’ represents a genuine concern for the well-being of others, and according to a cluster of researchers, altruism is also an integral part of human nature. Altruism can also bring benefits to ourselves – as volunteers well know and evidenced in research.
OK, science is divided between arguments on Darwinian competitiveness and the kind of mutualism (collaboration and coordination) that contributed to human evolution, but genuine altruism is right up front in Volunteering New Zealand’s definition of volunteering:
Work done of one’s own free will, unpaid, for the common good.
So I will not be jumping ship and buying into non-profit organisations becoming models of utilitarian business institutions. I will be thinking long and hard about what would be lost, like the passion for a cause, the spirit of community, and the rewards of volunteering. I shall be asking where the ‘common good’ has gone, and whether I still have free will.
Because we have been slow to appreciate the impact of change over the past thirty years. Contracts with government, rules and procedures for funding applications, formalised reporting and accounting for the spending of funds have upped the game of running a community organisation – and lifted standards of transparency and accountability. The shift from grass roots advocacy and action to formalised volunteering has introduced better practice in ‘using’ volunteers, aided through the professional development of volunteer management. In doing so, we have allowed a great divide to open between formal and informal volunteering.
According to altruists we have become corrupted by the modern money system, “an unnatural transactional mentality which establishes competitive relationships, overemphasises individualism, erodes society and fuels consumerism”. At the same time we protest loudly at the lack of recognition, of the true (non-monetary) value of volunteering and the work of community organisations.
While MacAskill and his colleagues preach ‘effective altruism’ I shall continue to beat the drum for the gift economy and relationships based on respect, empathy and cooperation. Without a strong volunteer presence, without thousands of organisations and people serving their communities through sport, arts and leisure pursuits, health and welfare support, emergency response, environment advocacy and all the stuff that goes on under the radar, the world would be a poor place to live.
That’s why we keep on volunteering, and doing the right thing in managing volunteers. Right? What actions would demonstrate our true worth?
January 15, 2017
Avoiding the New Year Blues
Call me a Pollyanna if you like, but I am keeping away from reflections on the trials of 2016 and the foreboding intimations for 2017.
In this no-news-summer-holiday time of the year I am indulging in stories about Local Heroes, the Kiwibank awards made every year all around the country, and announced in November. We’ll get the New Zealander of the Year in late February, and that’s a different order, along with Young New Zealander, Senior New Zealander, New Zealand Innovator and Community of the Year. How we like to ensure all bases are covered.
Local Hero awards turn up a range of stories about the Kiwi’s who are making a difference in our communities. Awarding local people honours the best of us, and reminds us how ordinary people are doing exceptional things, every day. Not all of them are volunteers, but it’s their community involvement and initiatives that we want to celebrate. Not everyone is engaged in a formal organisation: sometimes the hero’s effort is a time-limited local initiative. Some efforts are social enterprise projects.
All sectors of our communities are represented – though that is not a criterion for selection. Details for all regions are available here, showing how wide and how deep is the range of programmes, services, and initiatives.
There are projects supporting people in poverty; programmes for women (and I noted one for men too); a range of health and disability services; a lot related to sports and sporting activity, and even more for youth, from outdoor education camps to teaching water safety. Mentoring for Pacific communities, and cultural programmes for Māori feature in the lists. Arts, Culture and Heritage groups win their share of Heroes, and so do Conservation and Sustainability. There is plenty to be proud of in projects that illustrate the best of Advocacy and Innovation.
Of course many people are awarded medals for their long service, particularly in emergency and service organisations. Many others are acknowledged for the breadth of their community involvement, especially in small rural towns, some with a lifetime of engagement. Professional people are recognised for going beyond their clinical or business responsibities in serving their communities.
More than the facts of the awards are what the heroes have to say about their involvement:
Because volunteering is what ‘community’ is all about – sharing our talents.
Belief in goodness of people, and possibility of organising our economy and society around values that drive our communities: generosity, collaboration, trust and compassion.
I was inspired by a documentary on child poverty.
Because no one should walk the road to recovery [from sexual abuse] alone.
I want animals in our care to have an opportunity for a bright new future, and to educate people about animal welfare.
And what they gain from their work:
Seeing people gain confidence in talents they did not realise they had
You really can’t beat the feeling of knowing that you helped someone else today.
I really enjoy being part of a supportive club that encourages you to challenge yourself.
Seeing strong, long-lasting friendships develop; watching parents learn and grow in confidence.
Putting a smile on people’s faces and happiness into the lives of others.
Among the stories of hero achievements there are two I think worth remembering.
“Uncle Bill’ has supported and cared for his community and its people for most of his nearly 80 years. He has encouraged and helped young people to further their education and get their lives back on track. His passion for dealing with the harm of gambling led him to be part of the first kaumatua-led problem gambling organisation in Tairawhiti, Te Ara Tika. He continues to mentor young people struggling with their life journey. This citation tells only part of a lifetime of helping so many quietly and without fuss, changing many lives along the way. Read Uncle Bill’s story for a slice of East Coast history and how things happen in small towns and rural communities.
The second story is about a private property which included a long beach in a pristine part of New Zealand. When it was put up for sale two men were inspired to start a fundraising drive to buy the property, so it could be retained for public enjoyment. It became a project of national significance, creating a community spirit across New Zealand. The project captured the public imagination and reminded every Kiwi that no matter how small a donation, they can make a difference to the country’s future. The total of $2 million (with a chip-in from Government) secured the beach for the benefit of future generations. Social investment does not come much better than that.
The Kiwibank Local Hero Awards offer a positive measure on the health of our communities and the potential to keep on making them a better place. I shall be looking out for more volunteer and community sector successes as 2017 unfolds.
December 10, 2016
Volunteers’ Day in the Sun
There wasn’t a lot of sun around on Monday last week (December 5 2016) in New Zealand. International Volunteer Day seemed more muted than usual. Yes, there were tea parties and picnics and presentation of volunteer awards around the country, but fewer media statements from previous years and less shouting-out on social media.
A very big thunder rolled across our sky when the Prime Minister announced his intention to resign, taking too much of our airspace. And the coach of our Phoenix football team resigned too, after losing a match which took them to the bottom of the table.
On the other hand there was a great news story about the rescue of 340 campervans and rental vehicles stranded in Kaikoura after their renters had left town – by ship, helicopter or plane in the aftermath of the earthquake. About eighty volunteers from the NZ Motor Caravan Association put in a ten-hour day, travelling by bus to the town, and returning in convoy over a road that still has some hairy spots to negotiate. Pity there wasn’t a mention that the first journey took place on International Volunteer Day.
But there was enough during the day to give me a glow, and a deal of pride in the value of volunteering. Here is my hit parade:
For starters, the United Nations’ theme for the year Global Applause – Give Volunteers a Hand is well captured in a video which also reminds us of the role volunteers play in working towards UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Our Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector commended the volunteer workforce as ‘major contributors to New Zealand topping lists of the world’s best places to live’.
Over the previous weekend more than 800 Flight Centre staff gave 2,200 hours of volunteer time to community projects around Auckland, as part of their ‘Giving Back’ conference. A big tick for corporate volunteering.
Volunteer Centres did their stuff, from a library display to a reminder that New Zealand boasts the highest rate of volunteering in the OECD with kiwis spending an average of 13 minutes a day volunteering. (The global average is just 4 minutes a day.) Volunteer Waikato’s message on Facebook went like this:
“Thank you is not really enough… without you guys there would be a lot less happening in communities throughout New Zealand… and all over the world. You are not just awesome… You are FREAKIN’ AWESOME (with a Unicorn!)”
There were some great one-liners too:
From a volunteer: ‘I think I needed volunteer work as much as volunteering needed me’.
‘While on this day we think of you we recognise that you have been thinking of others all year.’ (Salvation Army)
‘We acknowledge that there is nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer.’ (St John New Zealand)
In New Zealand our theme for the day was Together we Can, a tag-line which could be incorporated into a photo of volunteers at work. Here is Gisborne Volunteer Centre’s effort, and incorporated in their message is the best line of the day:
Together we can! Together we DO!
In this era of external constraints and funding cuts, a day to understand and appreciate the work of volunteers is a small candle for the community and voluntary sector. Volunteering is never going to disappear, but the future of many organisations looks uncertain. In this last week two long-standing telephone counselling services reported on loss of funding: Lifeline now needs its own lifeline and Youthline will have to reduce services, or even close down. It seems decisions are made with little thought to flow-on consequences.
I am looking for better things in 2017, and I have found a couple of encouragements. In her latest Hot Topic Susan J Ellis reminds me:
When things seem dark and cloudy, history tells us that volunteers can be the bolts of lightning that can turn things around.
For managers of volunteers out there you could start singing the Twelve Pearls of Wisdom, coined for a Thoughtful Thursday post.
And I shall hang on to this quote from John Berger: Remember that hope is not a guarantee for tomorrow but a detonator of energy for action today.
………….
For now, I am stepping off my soap-box to enjoy a festive season and summer holidays. Best wishes to all readers.
November 20, 2016
Skyfall
Of course the sky is not falling! Chicken-Licken got it wrong. But the Brexit-Trump phenomenon sure has spiked a lot of fall-out. We’ve had our week of it here in New Zealand: there are wags who reckon a 7.8 earthquake is part of the flow-on effect from the presidential election in the US. Then the sky really did fall, sending a weather-bomb to Wellington and causing extensive flooding which has added to our disarray and dismay. It’s a hard time at present, here and in many other parts of the world.
When the earth growled and shuddered, throwing down landslides, uplifting a railway line across a main highway, and closing Wellington’s CBD for the day emergency services swung into action to restore a bit of order. And we learn again about the personal and community resilience built through previous experience and training.
Once again, the immediate and spontaneous volunteer response in such circumstances has been impressive. A huge drive for food supplies is organised; people offer accommodation to those displaced from their homes; Takahanga Marae at Kaikoura has served up hundreds of meals, helping stranded tourists and supporting locals. No one asked them: they just got busy caring for everyone who needed it.
Volunteering Lives! Long live Volunteering!
I note how this sort of volunteer response is informal, outside the formal structured process of voluntary sector organisations. I note also, the rise of informal volunteer support groups involved in community gardens, or making lunches for kids in low-decile schools, or meals for new mums (for example). Could these ventures explain the concurrent fall in volunteer numbers engaged in formal organisations?
The community and voluntary sector has been riding storms and enduring the uncertainty of change for decades now. We continue to struggle to be heard, to raise funds, to provide services to the highest standard. Expectations and demands rise, for accountability and better outcomes, for increased response to community needs. Regulations for privacy, health and safety, client protection (as in police vetting of volunteers) increase the pressure on administration and management. And still we carry on.
Perhaps it is not surprising that this past week has thrown up a raft of ideas for keeping ahead of the game, or to revitalise flagging spirits. Bloggers and columnists and social media commentariat are full of encouragement in the face of perceived political mayhem. Here’s a pastiche of the contributions I have been reading:
- Advocacy – keep pressing the cause: it’s part of the organisation’s mission. Articulate beliefs at every opportunity.
- Inspire people with a vision for change and a world we can believe in. Make sure organisation decisions are consistent with the vision.
- Collaboration, across causes and fields. We are in this together folks – we need to push back…. Find strength in linking arms.
- Lift the capacity to communicate, across all channels, with consumers and donors and stakeholders, and make sure you are listening (really hearing the messages) too.
- Build relationships, make strategic connections with local and national networks. Find the stories and broadcast them.
- Understand responsibilities of citizenship – and practice active citizenship. Stand up for the community and promote a strong civil society.
That’s a fairly weighty to-do list, and there’s nothing there we have not canvassed and promoted in the past. With the emphasis on speaking out and promoting a vision it looks more like a ‘post-truth politics’ position: you know, find the right slogan and everybody will hit the like button.
Nevertheless – and whatever the state of national and international politics – volunteering and the community and voluntary sector has been forever political, whether giving an hour a week in a helping role, or making the tough calls at board level, or presenting a case to funders and government.
Or joining a protest march when we want to be heard, when we want our stories to be told.
October 27, 2016
The Holes in Volunteering
ComVoices, a network of national organisations in the tangata whenua, community and voluntary sector has just released a new State of the Sector Survey. In a press release Scott Miller, current Chair of ComVoices (and Chief Executive of Volunteering New Zealand), writes about the growing holes in the safety net provided by the community sector.
Yes, we’ve seen this coming for a long time now: the increased demand for services, greater complexity of community needs, and government exacting greater compliance regulations every year. “No-one appears to be listening”, says Scott.
So the ‘inequality’ debate is not only about wealth distribution – it’s also about unequal weighting placed on the community sector to deliver services to stressed communities: a load of expectations without realistic resources to meet them.
And just when you might argue that volunteers will fill the gaps in organisation capacity we find an international decline in volunteer numbers.
Trouble is, we’ve talked up the ‘voluntary sector’ for years, assuming volunteers will pick up the pieces and do what communities do, looking out for each other. Volunteers got organisations going, like Plunket and IHC and Parents Centre and Play Centre, and Surf Life-Saving, and all the local sports teams. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) were volunteers responsible for gaining New Zealand women the vote in 1893; volunteers raised funds to build school swimming schools in the 1940s and 50s; volunteers spoke out loudly on domestic violence and rape, till the government offered funding, in return for a more muted voice.
These days, volunteers are much less likely to be life-time devotees to a cause. It’s not just because we are time-poor: we are preferring the short-term stint that offers a real job to do. Organisations face competition in attracting volunteers, and there is a great deal more these days to managing a volunteer programme than getting the numbers on board. At the same time the spread of volunteer opportunities has widened: from beach clean-ups to work experience, from ‘getting to know the community’ for new settlers to volunteering for English-speaking practice, from supporting a community garden to making breakfasts or lunches for the local school.
Mainstream organisations have become non-profit businesses, focused on employing professional staff and building relations with key funders as well as government. There is a sense that volunteering has become professionalised as well, given the structure and maintenance needed to ensure a well-functioning volunteer programme. (Though note how the manager of the programme is not worth nearly as much (salary-wise) as the Funding and Marketing manager.) Of course the “we could not manage without you” platitude is real, but the roles offered to volunteers are too often for amateurs, pitted against the professionals. I wonder how many of those volunteers are otherwise engaged in professional careers.
Volunteering is not going to disappear any time soon. But the symptoms outlined in the ComVoices report are as damaging to volunteering as they are to the organisations. A collapse in service delivery does not bear thinking about. And we cannot rely on volunteers (nor expect them) to pick up the pieces. We have moved a long way from the roots of the organisations that are now in thrall to government contracts and philanthropic grants.
Early next week Volunteering New Zealand’s conference will focus on the links between vision and action. Promoting, supporting and advocating for volunteering is the mission, ensuring volunteers are engaged effectively, that volunteering is visible, with sound leadership.
Volunteering lives. Let’s keep it that way!
August 21, 2016
The Next Big Challenge
There is something going on in the business world that looks awfully like the principles of volunteer management.
I’ve been reading stuff on improving paid staff engagement, on increasing employee diversity (instead of hiring a bunch of clones), on how more people are placing importance on values and company purpose in their job-seeking than on the size of salary or climbing a career ladder. And when employees quit research is showing it’s mostly because organisation goals and action plans have got out of kilter with its vision and mission. Employees also want recognition and appreciation that isn’t just a monetary bonus for reaching pre-determined goals.
How come business is usurping all the best practices the volunteer industry has been developing for decades? And how dare they, without acknowledging this important intellectual property!
I congratulate those businesses that recognise employees are people before economic inputs, and that ‘work’ is not simply labour in exchange for pay. And this is where I see opportunity to get recognition for volunteers up where it belongs.
For years we have struggled to get organisations and stakeholders to ‘get’ volunteering. In recent times we have encouraged strategic development of volunteer programmes and management as a way to achieve full recognition of volunteer contributions. Now I think business interest in people development over labour units provides an opportunity for a real alignment between volunteering and organisation structure, policies, practice and culture.
This move may involve a bit of a seismic shift, because the role of manager of volunteers will either change dramatically, or be disestablished. Please read on before you rain down hellfire and damnation for such heresy.
At least two large volunteer-involving organisations in my city have changed their ways. Both have diverse spheres of work, with paid staff engaged in different operations. Both no longer have a position for a manager of volunteers directly responsible for the volunteers, and volunteers are directly assigned to different operational teams. So the team leader is expected to engage, train and oversee the volunteer in his/her charge. Here is where integration and a unified approach to the work of the organisation can begin. Here is where to find the embedding of volunteers into a people-centred culture. And the bricks-and-mortar strength of this culture goes a long way towards achieving organisation mission and vision.
When volunteers are an add-on, a nice-to-have extra assistance for the organisation’s services there’s a distance between volunteer work and the real stuff undertaken by paid staff. Yes, volunteers can be essential for successful fundraising and promotion events, but these aren’t really the main events for the organisation. It’s like the volunteer programme is a parallel universe to the real life of the organisation.
Yes, I know all the arguments about volunteer management being different from human resource management. Yet increasing regulation in recent years says volunteers are tied to more rules than they faced in the past – think police vetting, health and safety legislation, and even codes of conduct and signed agreements.
Change of the magnitude I am suggesting brings resistance and anxiety for paid staff, not to mention grizzles about additional responsibilities. Organisation change is unsettling at any time. In this case it is more about staff inexperience in leading volunteers, and volunteers may lament the loss of their friendly go-to manager who could move mountains and do anything. Everyone is obliged to develop new relationships.
But think of the opportunities! For team development, for collaboration and integration of different ways of working; for volunteers to step up to leadership roles in support of paid staff. Think of the potential for relationship-building, improved people-management, and the intrinsic rewards for both paid staff and volunteers.
I reckon this future is like investing in Lego – you know, those colourful interlocking bricks that are endlessly creative and that hold together, no matter how many add-ons. When volunteering is embedded into a well-structured and solid organisation there’s a better chance that both volunteers and paid staff will flourish.
Management4Volunteers Blog 