United States

We read a lot about volunteer engagement and leadership from the perspective of agencies who have paid Volunteer Managers – those who oversee, manage and coordinate the efforts of the volunteer team who are committed to support the work of their agency. In those conversations, it’s often easy to forget that the vast amount of volunteer leadership occurs in ‘all volunteer’-led organisations, where there is no paid staff member to take control and where the challenges can sometime be different from having a single person designated to that leadership role.

As we slowly continue to transition from the pandemic, we are seeing increased and open demonstrations of anger, rudeness and other uncivil behaviours.^[i] These go even further beyond the norm than those we have seen in societies around the world over the last two years^[ii] and certainly beyond what we would typically anticipate experiencing pre-COVID.  

The beginning of a new year . . .  A blank slate and a golden opportunity to start fresh and embrace big shifts and new perspectives . . . The chance to dig deep and create real changes, in ourselves and throughout our profession . . . 

So what’s stopping us? Well, to be blunt, we are. No, not Erin and Rob! But all of us as Volunteer Engagement professionals.