ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA – 3/6/2006

Well back home again and I never cease to be amazed at how fortunate I am to have the opportunity to travel and observe volunteer management issues around the world as a part of my work. As always, I have had the opportunity to meet and work with many wonderful people on this trip, and I have learnt many new things along the way.

A special thank you to CSV in London who I worked for across the UK and who sponsored a lot of this trip.

My site report tells me that many of you have again enjoyed following my travels this trip and as always it has been a great pleasure to share my experiences with you.

...until next time

HONG KONG – 31/5/2006

I decided to break up my trip on the way back to Australia with a stop over in the wonderful Asian city of Hong Kong - somewhere I had not had the pleasure of visiting before. Hong Kong is an amazing mix of thousands of years of asian culture and its more recent colonial heritage. The harbour area with its huge array of skyscrapers is truly breathtaking.

While I didn't do any volunteer related work in Hong Kong, I have been watching the development of the sector there from afar for a few years. The main driving force in that country in relation to the development of volunteerism has been the Hong Kong Agency for Volunteer Service who appear to be doing some really positive developmental activities in the Hong Kong area.

Beautiful Hong Kong harbour

CARDIFF , WALES – 26/5/2006

Martin and I have spent the last two days conducting the final training session of the ‘volunteer magnet tour’ here in Cardiff to a small but really enthusiastic group of volunteer program managers. Amongst the participants were staff from the Welsh Council for Voluntary Action. WCVA is the voice of the voluntary sector here in Wales whose mandate is to represent and campaign for voluntary organisations, volunteers and communities in this country. Yesterday afternoon we also took some time out to visit majestic Cardiff Castle – an amazing historic facility right in the heart of the city, where a Castle of some description has stood for the last 2000 years.  

1. Some participants at the Cardiff workshop

2. Time out at historic Cardiff Castle

LEEDS, ENGLAND - 23/5/2006

Well our tour has now moved onto Leeds in the north of England, where we have spent the last two days training around 18 more volunteer program managers from a wide variety of organisations (pictured below). It was interesting to learn more today from participants about the role of volunteers in England's police force. You can read all about the Special Constabulary (who incidentally are nearly 200 years old) here.

LONDON, ENGLAND - 20/5/2006

Thought I'd throw in a fun event I ventured along to with some friends recently when I managed to catch a concert by Richard Ashcroft - formerly of the band 'The Verve'. The show was at the Brixton Academy - arguably one of the best venues I have ever had the pleasure of going to. It was also great to witness Oxfam volunteers busy amongst the crowd recruiting new members.

LONDON, ENGLAND - 19/5/2006

The past two days has been an amazing second session of the 'Turn your organisation into a volunteer magnet' series, here in (sometimes) sunny London. We have been joined by around 30 volunteer program managers over the past two days from organisations as diverse as the Pre-school Working Alliance, the National Childbirth Trust, Age Concern England and Amnesty International. Below are some photos of participants in action. Next stop Leeds...

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - 16/5/2006

Well today marks the competion of the first two day seminar in our series on the topic of 'How to turn your organisation into a volunteer magnet'. We were joined by 14 participants here in Scotland who were all very engaged over the course of the two days we were together. For those who have never been to Edinburgh, it is the most beautiful of cities (of all the cities I have ever visited it is actually my favourite) with the castle standing tall over the surrounding city and country side. We also took some time out to visit with Claire Stevens the Director of CSV Scotland who I met last year while training in Glasgow. It was nice to again have the opportunity to connect with Claire and learn more about the important work CSV are doing in this part of the world.

Photos below are:

1. Workshop participants debating the finer points of volunteerism in Edinburgh

2. Beautiful Edinburgh Castle

3. You can tell I am not in Australia --- they actually drink Fosters here! :O)

LONDON, ENGLAND - 12/5/2006

Another interesting day for me as I had the opportunity to catch up with colleagues at CSV Consulting (Community Service Volunteers). CSV are the largest provider of volunteer management training across the UK and the sponsors of our volunteer management training tour across the United Kingdom over the next few weeks.

Following my visit to CSV I visited SCOPE, where I took the opportunity to take a tour of their wonderful operations and even volunteered my services in helping the organisation to shortlist candidates for their vacant 'Head of Volunteering Strategies' position. Scope is a national UK based disability organisation focusing of the needs and rights of people with Cerebal Palsy. If you are not familiar with the excellent work Scope has done with the rights of volunteers with disabilities take a look at their excellent report - Tackling Disablism

Photos of my visit and volunteering effort at Scope

BLACKPOOL, ENGLAND - 11/5/2006

Today was spend working at a conference for Volunteer Centres North West on the theme of 'Change. No Fear!' which investigated the theme of change in the not for profit and voluntary sector. The conference examined ways that volunteer management professionals and voluntary organisations can progress through the constant processes of change without being fearful or reactive to those situations. Attended by around 120 delegates it was a terrific event which I enjoyed very much.

Pictured below are the trainers involved in the conference (l-r) Martin J Cowling, Jody Delichte, Kerry-Lyn Stanton-Jones and myself

DUBLIN, IRELAND - 8/5/2006

I spent today conducting a full day training session here in Dublin on the topic of what constitutes 'advanced' volunteer management - or more particularly what make a VPM an advanced practitioner. The day was hosted by Volunteering Ireland, and was a great success with participants from all parts of Ireland, Canada, Tanzania and even Russia in attendance.

Following the workshop I took the opportunity to have dinner with the CEO and other key staff of Volunteering Ireland to discuss a range of issues relating to volunteerism both here in this country and further afield. I also managed to sneak into a late tour of the Jameson Whiskey distillery   ...but don't tell anyone :O)

Workshop participants hard at it in Dublin

LONDON, ENGLAND - 6/5/2006

A quick update on my exploits in London this week. It's been both a busy yet relaxing week here, and while it has largely been scheduled as a period of 'down' time, I have taken the opportunity to catch up with some good friends and leaders in the UK volunteerism scene.

In particular it was great to spend a day with UKVPM's founder and Volunteering England Regional Development Manager Rob Jackson during the week. It was also fantastic to have an opportunity to share a meal and re-connect with Fraser Dyer, who many of you will remember from his national tour of Oz last year. I've also caught up with Kate Power who is about to take on a new post as International Coordinator of Volunteers with Greenpeace International, ex-pat Nikki Squelch the National Volunteer Manager from Age Concern England and Kerry-Lyn Stanton-Jones who is one of only a few people in the world authorised to run training on Susan Jeffer's well know publication 'Feel the fear and do it anyway!' Kerry-Lyn and her colleague Jody Delichte will be working at a conference in Blackpool with us next week.

On top of all that I managed to also attend a fundraising 'curry night' party to raise money towards Parkinson's Disease research - luckily I managed to avoid wearing my punjabi suit!   ...more soon!

ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA - 28/4/2006

I'm about to embark on a training tour with good friend and business partner Martin J Cowling across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. I'll be working with Volunteering Ireland in Dublin and the Bolton Volunteer Centre in Blackpool before conducting a series of two day 'Turn your organisation into a volunteer magnet' workshops with Martin in Edinburgh, Leeds, London and Cardiff.

As always I am looking forward to the trip and to learning more about volunteerism in the UK region. I am also looking forward to sharing the experiences I learn along the way with visitors to the OzVPM site.