Recognition

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.

Whilst research and interest in all aspects of volunteering and the third sector generally have grown exponentially since the 1990s, both internationally and in Australia, Australian historians have been ‘missing in action’ – they have not generally been part of this explosion of interest. Sociologists, social workers, economists, lawyers, accountants, political scientists, environmentalists, business managers, information technologists, those interested in sport and tourism – the list is endless - are part of an evolving multidisciplinary approach to what is now labelled as the ‘third sector’, ‘voluntary sector’, or ‘non-profit sector’, depending on your national preference. Public debates and discussions over issues of social capital; global initiatives such as the United Nations International Year of Volunteers in 2001; and the rise of peak organizations such as Volunteering Australia, have all brought volunteering to the fore.

But volunteering and voluntary action, the history of the non-profit sector and its relationship with government, are largely neglected topics in twentieth century Australian history. Whilst volunteering and voluntary action are integral to our western democratic traditions and both have played key roles in the development of Australian society in the twentieth century, our national histories remain largely silent. Where are the stories of volunteers, volunteering and the voluntary principle in our national histories? They have largely been ignored. They are part of our ‘invisible histories’.

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Read the keynote address delivered by Melanie Oppenheimer at the 10th National Conference on Volunteering, held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on 2 June 2004.

On a recent visit back to the United States, I heard very different opinions about volunteerism from two good friends. The first said that she will never volunteer again...she tells why. The second friend said she couldn't get enough of volunteering...and she tells why.

These two testimonies regarding volunteerism make me wonder if the organizations these two assisted are aware of their feelings. And so I ask volunteer managers reading this to consider: What would people who have volunteered with your organization say about their experience?

Do you know? Do you care?

If anything, these two episodes have made me realize yet again the value of surveying volunteers about their experience, and how easily this can be done using e-mail.

I began work as a Coordinator of Volunteers in 1964. A year later I started writing poetry and haven't been able to stop since. I only hope this is not another occupational hazard in a profession already well supplied. Still, it's true that poetry can say some things hard to express in sober declarative text, as demonstrated by the wonderful lyrics to "The Volunteer Song" by Paul Horrisberger, an outstanding volunteer coordinator and musician, which I share below. Plus several other of my poems.

Here is a medley of three song parodies to popular Beatles songs that you can use for volunteer recognition. Although the songs are written to follow in sequence you might want to use them individually. You can be as simple or as elaborate with your presentation as time, budget and talent allow. A whole theme could be built around "The Sixties" if you really want to get into it. A quartet of "mop tops" could sing this although I think a whole chorus wearing Beatles wigs would be great. You might want some accompaniment since Beatles songs are a bit harder to sing than they look. Feel free to make these your own by altering words to suit your particular volunteers. Whatever you do, have fun!

One of the most frequent questions on listservs for volunteer program managers is: "What is the value of volunteer time?"

Since we're really tired of reading both the question and the responses, we decided to provide the definitive list of places to learn far, far more than you ever wanted to know about this subject. We've organized this into four categories:

• No theories, I just want a number
• Esoteric theory about what volunteers are really worth
• Statistics on what entire countries of volunteers are worth
• Using this information to make your program look good
  To read the full article

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