Responses
to April 2008 Hot Topic
Personal
Power in Volunteer Management
Response
posted on 29 May 2008 by Jayne Cravens, Bonn, Germany,
Services for Nonprofits/NGOs/Civil Society www.coyotecommunications.com
And
the crowd goes mild... can't believe I'm the first
one responding to this.
I, too, think the sense of powerlessness that seems
to dominate volunteer management culture is illusory.
By contrast, new advocacy groups that don't call their
participants "volunteers" (even though they are) and
don't call those that support the volunteers "volunteer
managers" (even though they are) seem fearless. Their
answer to everything seems to be "why not?" They don't
know about traditional volunteer management conferences
and retreats -- and I suspect they'd be quite bored
by them.
I am not just a volunteer management consultant --
I am also a manager of volunteers. In that latter
capacity, I come from the it's-easier-to-ask-for-forgiveness-than-permission
school when it comes to volunteer management, and
so far, it's been a great strategy! For instance,
I don't wait for the board to ask me for an update
on volunteer involvement -- I put one together and
give it to the executive director to be submitted. I
bring up volunteer involvement in staff meetings,
regardless of whether or not I'm asked. I update the
web site regarding volunteer involvement and encourage
everyone to have a look after the information is up.
Why shouldn't I act just like any other manager at
an organization? And this attitude has always paid
off positively -- it's not aggressive, it's not threatening,
and everyone else just assumes that this is how volunteer
management is done.
Let's
hear what you think!
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