Volunteer Management and The Art of Letting Small Bad Things Happen
How can an organization and its volunteers get more done for the people and the communities they serve? In this article, Graham Allcott, the former CEO of Student Volunteering England and the author of the new book called How to be a Productivity Ninja, combines his love of volunteering with his passion for productivity to discuss how productivity techniques can help organizations, volunteers and volunteer managers be more productive. One secret? According to Allcott, it’s learning the art of letting small but bad things happen.
As the new editor of the Training Designs section, Sue Jones shares her perspective on the importance of training in volunteer management. In her first column for e-Volunteerism, she notes that training is not the same as learning, and that leaders of volunteers need to recognize all the opportunities to increase the skills and understanding of every volunteer. In fact, she makes the case that concern for learning is vital to each stage of a volunteer’s experience, from newcomer to veteran. After reading this Training Design, we predict you’ll look at training from a whole new viewpoint and become more intentional in daily training activities. 
How many of you have actually taken the time to create a strategy for your own professional development? Have you considered what you would like to achieve professionally over the next year or the next five? So many of us discuss the need to professionalize volunteer management so that our organizations will value volunteers and the work we do, leading to greater investment in volunteerism and viewing us as internal experts. But for that to occur it must start with each of us. 
This Training Design presents a thought-provoking, high-level exploration about the volunteer management field and its future. According to those who attended the recent presentation of this material by author Katherine H. Campbell, Executive Director for the Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration, it is not for the timid! Come prepared to challenge the status quo and examine the complexities of titles and the nuances of duties. Use this Training Design to provide an opportunity to talk with colleagues about how we define and influence the collective work we do as volunteer professionals.
The next time you have a few volunteer program managers together, here’s an interesting exercise question: “How many of you have volunteers working side-by-side with you to do what’s needed for successful volunteer engagement – beyond helping with clerical work?” When we ask this in workshops we run, it always amazes (and dismays) us how few hands go up.