United States

In 1980, VOLUNTEER: The National Center for Citizen Involvement (predecessor of the Points of Light Foundation) published Exploring Volunteer Space: The Recruiting of a Nation, by Ivan H. Scheier. As has been the case so often with Ivan’s writing, the book was way ahead of its time and unfortunately is now largely unknown. It is a joy to be able to use this “Voices from the Past” feature section of e-Volunteerism to reintroduce new readers to the very-much-still-relevant pages of Exploring Volunteer Space. In the Introduction, Ivan says:

The further cultivation of volunteering is the theme of this book; intensifying, energizing, and expanding it, working out from today’s career leadership of volunteering. The core is the director, coordinator or administrator of volunteer programs, plus resource people and organizations at local, state and national levels. These leaders number an estimated 70,000-80,000 people in the United States today…Without this leadership, there would be no significant volunteer movement for anyone to analyze here. Nevertheless, this leadership seems thin on the line, because the volunteer helping army is far larger than we suppose, and visible leadership, however, talented, shrinks drastically in relation.

In the excerpt presented here, we share Ivan’s thoughts on “Thick and Thin Leadership” – “Practical Issues in Career Effectiveness.” Over time, we’ll revisit Exploring Volunteer Space and give our readers more excerpts. And, since Ivan is Consulting Editor for this journal (/team/scheier.php), we may even hear from him directly in response.

Have you ever wondered where researchers find the statistical data that allows them to determine the long-term effects of volunteering on one's health or on one's career?  Or questioned how frequently the Independent Sector or the Bureau of Labor Statistics conduct surveys on volunteering among Americans? Or, more to the point, have you ever wondered why the research that is published about volunteering never seems to really answer the questions that most concern you as as a manager of volunteers?

The RGK Center on Philanthropy and Community Service, a Center at the University of Texas at Austin, unveils the first of its Investigator series of Fact Sheets to e-Volunteerism readers in advance of release to the general public.  Designed to encourage graduate students and others to consider research in volunteerism, the first issue in this quarterly series identifies some of the more commonly used survey instruments that collect data on the volunteering behaviors of Americans.  The Fact Sheet provides information about the type of questions asked, the frequency with which these questions are asked, and how to secure the findings from these instruments.  Developed by economist and Ph.D. student Mark Pocock, in collaboration with Dr. Sarah Jane Rehnborg, the director of the Center's volunteerism initiative, the Investigator series will address topics important to volunteerism at the University level.

A never-before published draft excerpt from Carol Weisman’s upcoming book, Raising Charitable Children: Kids Who Give as Good as They Get (anticipated for publication in late 2005). The chapter previewed here explains the concept – and how-to’s – of a “Joy and Sadness Meeting” as a technique of helping parents and children discover the possible causes on which to focus their charitable attention. The written material is accompanied by an audio interview with Carol, as she shares three real-life examples of how to encourage family philanthropy.

Once in a while, a volunteer is injured, or injures someone else, in the course of his or her work. Sometimes, it is just an allegation that the volunteer injured someone else; whether or not the allegation is true, a legal defense still is required. In many cases, the cost of the incident is greater than the volunteer's own ability to pay, which is why insurance protection for volunteers should be part of every nonprofit organization's risk strategy. Even so, prevention is better than cure, and there is a lot you can do to prevent accidents from happening in the first place.

In this article, we will describe the circumstances involved in the claims we see in our Volunteers Insurance Service (VIS ® ) program, and offer guidance to help you minimize the chance that such claims might happen to your own volunteers.

Injuries caused by volunteers to themselves or to others tend to fall into a few common claims scenarios which we'll cover in this article by the three types of volunteer insurance coverage that respond:

• accident medical reimbursement
• personal liability
• excess automobile liability
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  • Read more about Volunteers' Most Common Accidents - and How to Avoid Them

Larger all-volunteer organizations frequently have one or more paid staff to support the work of the association's officers, at least at the regional or national level. The relationship between the association's president or chairperson and the top employee is critical to furthering the work to be done. But just as these leaders have grown accustomed to each other's styles, talents, and quirks, everything changes and a newly-elected board takes office.

How do organizations handle the transition period when the baton is being passed from one president to the next? From practical tips to poetic musing, this article tries to help.

By Mikey

I am a 13-pound Shih Tzu with long silky black and white fur. I am very, very friendly and I enjoy people and like to make them happy. My pet person is married to a nationally known trainer. He and I have helped with view graphs, talks and books on how to manage volunteers, so we knew what to look for as we headed out to volunteer. I am the one writing about our experiences while sitting on my person's lap to protect both the guilty and the innocent. See what you think of the things that happened to us.

Getting Started, Sort Of

Our volunteer adventures began a few months after my pet person retired. My person and I decided that we would like to visit the elderly and sick, particularly Alzheimer's patients, so I could play with them and bring a little cheer into their day. At the same time my person decided to help out at a Science Education Center in the area. Since he is a Ph.D. scientist, he thought that his skills could be useful teaching science to children and the public. That has proven more frustrating than our experiences together, but more on that later.

 

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."