Profession/Field of Volunteer Administration

For 30 years, Kate Hanson pursued two passions: growing vegetables and herbs in her organic garden and studying the complexities of working with others. Until recently, she viewed these passions as two completely different and separate areas of her life. But in this creative, delightful feature article for e-Volunteerism, Hanson asks an important question: “Could the basic principles of an organic approach to gardening also serve us as approaches for organizing and supervising volunteers?” Hanson provides the answer to this question and explains why the lessons she’s learned from her gardening can definitely be applied to working with others. You may never look at a tomato plant the same – and you’ll certainly never again plant a tomato beside a cabbage.

Paula J. Beugen, an active leader in the field of volunteerism and volunteer resources management for more than three decades, has observed legislation passed in her home state of Minnesota from the 1980s to the present. In this e-Volunteerism feature, Beugen asks why the needs of community volunteer programs and volunteers seem to be the lowest or last-to-get priority in policy conversations – and what the field of volunteer resources management can do about it.  

Beugen begins with the story of how she worked to raise the allowable volunteer mileage tax deduction rate, including her testimony at a Congressional hearing on volunteerism in 1980.  She then details public policy strategy carried out first by the former Minnesota Office on Volunteer Services and more recently by the Minnesota Association for Volunteer Administration. Finally, she discusses 2009 legislative advocacy efforts around both the resurfaced mileage deduction issue and the Serve America Act. Throughout her important story, Beugen elaborates on lessons learned through this timeline and history, asking readers to think about their own  volunteerism public policy experiences. She urges more advocacy to strengthen the infrastructure and capacity of volunteer programs and volunteers, stating, “We can and must come together.”  She poses some provocative and timely challenges to the field – both inside and outside the United States.

Research To Practice takes its eye off research about volunteers in this issue and instead takes a look at that other vital resource – the people who look after volunteers. Call them managers or coordinators and any one of the myriad of other names that become attached to people who are responsible for volunteers. This summary report is based on a global survey from 2008, one that drew responses from 851 people who are responsible for volunteers and who answered questions on their status, responsibilities and levels of support. This Research to Practice also reviews how the survey highlighted issues that managers identified as important to further their own skills and their profession.

In 1996, Ivan Scheier wrote a series of articles for the “Grapevine” newsletter which challenged volunteer administrators to consider the pros and cons of using the term 'volunteer' in describing the work that our profession undertakes. In the article, titled “Volunteer Administration: An Emerging Misnomer” (http://academic.regis.edu/volunteer/ivan/sect01/sect01b.htm), Ivan suggested that those of us leading volunteer resources were often guiding the work of many people not readily identified as volunteers. He believed we were working with both a credit gap and an identity gap in the sector and often sought ideas about how we could overcome these shortfalls.

In the ensuing decade, our profession has continued to grow. We now involve even more volunteers from areas not traditionally associated with volunteering, while involving people whose motivations are less and less altruistic by the day. We have also continued to debate whether the term 'volunteer' is outdated and needs a complete revamping.

This issue of Research to Practice takes a look at something that isn’t a typical research report and was written almost 30 years ago. Exploring Volunteer Space: The Recruiting of a Nation was Ivan Scheier’s greatest work – an exploration both of his own mind and of the universe of volunteering.  In this report, Ivan outlines much of what volunteering can be and a great deal of what would happen in volunteering in the future. While Exploring Volunteer Space is a highly conceptual work, it has great and continuing relevance to practitioners who think about the development of their volunteer programs.

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 wall between church and state in the United States often extends to a wall of separation, ignorance or avoidance between secular and faith-based volunteering. In this deeply personal article for e-Volunteerism, author Karen Kogler encourages the dismantling of that wall. She describes the world of faith-based volunteerism, and gives practical help to secular volunteer managers on how to build partnerships with faith-based organizations.  She notes the challenges in pursing this goal, and describes the benefits to both sides in working together.  Writes Kogler, “As I see it, both the faith-based and secular worlds of volunteerism would benefit from the demolition of the wall that often separates us.”

In this Research to Practice, we look at the latest survey of volunteering for England and Wales, with an emphasis on how volunteers view the organisation of volunteering. This survey, called Helping Out, looks once more at some questions from a 1997 survey. Some of the results may surprise you, but others will reinforce what we already know about the ways in which volunteers and prospective volunteers view how volunteering is managed.