Recognition

Is an attitude shift in order as we consider the value and individuality of Volunteers?

While intentionally spelling Volunteer with a capital “V,” Marlene Beitz poses this question and raises many others in Voices, asking readers to think about the conscious and subconscious ways we regard the Volunteers who are often called the “heart and soul” of our organizations.

From her personal viewpoint as a Volunteer as well as a Coordinator of Volunteers, Beitz opens a window into Volunteer experiences and ponders the sometimes surprising (and disappointing) effects of common Volunteer management approaches. But in a positive shift, Beitz explains that organizatons can more fully meet objectives if they break down ingrained expectations of Volunteers as a group, and build up a renewed sense of engagement and partnership with Volunteers as valued individuals.

In this issue, guest author Emma Corrigan shares resources that enable volunteers to summarize meaningful information about their volunteering experience – and turn it into great material for their CVs or résumés. Corrigan, a Volunteer Coordinator for the housing and homelessness charity called Shelter in England and Scotland, presents this step-by-step activity as a way to support, thank and provide development for volunteers.

Granted, many volunteer resources managers do not necessarily see the daily, frontline work of volunteers – a reality that makes Corrigan’s training design all the more useful. Corrigan’s simple yet innovative design highlights how easily others in the organization can share responsibility for recognizing volunteers' contributions. And by helping volunteers turn their experiences into résumé-building narratives, Corrigan shows how an organization can provide a very individual "thank you" to each volunteer. 

Want to elicit an “ah-ha!” moment from people who think too narrowly about what volunteering is and who does it?  The “Personal Volunteer History” worksheet provided in this Training Designs article is the core of a training exercise that will do just that. It will help:

• Demonstrate to paid staff or members of the general public that everyone has been (and probably still is) a volunteer in some way, although that label might not be applied to the activity. So it’s a great way to start an introductory workshop or course about volunteering, particularly the issue of vocabulary making much of volunteering invisible.
• Guide a screening interview – of both volunteers and employees – to gauge the candidate’s personal understanding of volunteering.
• Structure volunteer orientation sessions and even recognition events, putting the service that volunteers do for your organization into personal context.

Generally the hardest part of the exercise is getting participants to really think back on what they have done over their lives (the older the respondent, the more they need to remember!). But the worksheet’s greatest value is in the reflection and discussion it can generate, which is something e-Volunteerism readers can appreciate.

How does the depressed global economy translate into something positive for volunteering? In this e-Volunteerism feature, Marzia Baldassari, a member of the Volunteering Ireland Team and Coordinator of the Dublin City North Volunteer Centre, answers this question. With Ireland as her backdrop, Baldassari explains why volunteering and civic engagement are vital during times of shrinking financial resources and growing unemployment. Her description of Dublin City Volunteer Week, a recent celebration of volunteers and volunteering, shows why the old adage “every cloud has a silver lining” can be true for volunteering efforts during a harsh economic downturn.

During this economic downturn, volunteer experience and accomplishments may be pivotal to getting a foot in the door for a paid job interview.  It's important that volunteers know how to present relevant volunteer experience in a "business light" on a resume — whether it's a student seeking that first real job, a retiree looking for part-time work or someone actively job hunting after a layoff. In this e-Volunteerism feature story, we review resume recommendations and four resume examples to see how job seekers incorporate their volunteer experiences into stronger resumes.

Formal volunteer awards are designed to acknowledge the extraordinary achievements of extraordinary individuals, those volunteers who’ve extended themselves beyond expectation and contributed their services to an issue, project or cause. But it’s not easy to jump into the award nomination process. Criteria vary widely, nomination deadlines don’t always coincide with a particular time of year, and awards aren’t always well publicized. The good news, however, is that award opportunities for volunteers are increasing with the growth and accessibility of the Internet. And there appears to be a growing appreciation and understanding of the value of nominating volunteers for individual awards.

In this Training Design, we review how to avoid existing road blocks when nominating a volunteer for an award. We’ll also highlight the multiple benefits that come from seeking formal recognition for volunteers. Training Design materials include the development of a nomination timeline, award do’s and don’ts, and techniques for writing a winning nomination. This training will inform participants from start to finish on the process of nominating a volunteer for a formal award. And it will emphasize the benefits and value of tackling such a process by answering, “Why should our organization nominate a volunteer for an award?”

In this Keyboard Roundtable, we’re casting a wide net to explore a number of volunteerism issues from the diverse perspectives of people involved in volunteering.  “From Whose Perspective?” will include a discussion of such important issues as:

• Employer-supported volunteering: Is it volunteering if people are paid to volunteer with time off from work? From whose perspective?
• Pro bono service: Is this volunteering?  From whose perspective?
• Do we draw the line on rewards/incentives in volunteering? From whose perspective?

We’ll engage a few corporate and community sector volunteer managers, a public sector volunteer manager and a volunteer to help us gain multiple perspectives in this next Keyboard Roundtable.

Surveys in different countries show that people often choose to volunteer in the sport and recreation field.  During 2006, Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) commissioned research to look at how to motivate and recruit more volunteers, and successive SPARC studies show how important volunteers are to sport in New Zealand. This edition of Research to Practice considers how this detailed research can be applied across all volunteer-involving organisations.

South Australia boasts the highest volunteering rate in Australia, celebrates a strong level of government support for volunteers and even has volunteer involvement featured in the state’s ‘strategic plan’. The northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia’s capital city, has often been viewed as a hot bed for volunteerism, and so there were few surprises when a strong volunteer management sub-committee was formed as part of a broader initiative, called the Northern Collaborative Project (NCP).

A key problem tackled by this working party was the question of how to encourage more volunteers to undertake the training required of them by their organisations. The solution was that the group developed an annual training conference for their volunteers called ‘Volunteer Fest’.

Now gearing up for the third event, this article shares the experiences of the volunteer leaders who, through this forum, have revolutionized volunteer training in their local area.