Responses
to March 2006 Hot Topic
A
sure recipe for success
Response
posted on 7th March 2006 by Jayne Cravens, Bonn, Germany
I
think that by talking about and trying to involve
only those kind-hearted, "nice" volunteers
who just want to help from a place of complese selflessness
excludes some of the most exciting, innovative and
results-driven volunteer programs around. For instance,
many advocacy groups do an incredible job of channeling
some very angry people with very selfish ideas into
productive volunteer activities. Many open-source
movements are doing ground-breaking work in involving
and retaining online volunteers in time-intensive
assignments. But I never see any of these nontraditional
groups' volunteer managers at volunteerism conferences.
How are they recruiting these volunteers, screening
them, supervising them, re-directing their energies,
and rewarding them? There's so much we could learn
from these organizations, but they aren't usually
invited to the table. In fact, they are largely unaware
of volunteer management as a field of practice.
And
I've talked to so many friends who have wanted to
volunteer, but have been utterly turned off at the
way they have been treated by an organization has
treated them -- they've actually wanted a formal,
professional process, and what they've gotten in too
many cases is a hodge podge of uncoordinated responses
and staff that treats volunteers as an afterthought.
I fear that many of them now roll their eyes at calls
for volunteers, per their past experiences.
I
love working outside the parameters of established
boundaries when those boundaries don't make sense
to me, or seem to stand in the way of an organization's
mission. I've learned much in the last few years about
effective volunteer management and future trends from
discussion groups and articles focused outside the
traditional volunteer management world, such as readng
about trends in telecommuting, human resources management,
facilitation, advocacy, online discussion groups tied
to television shows, online gaming, and political
organizing.
Response
posted on 5th March 2006 by Steven Wolf, Intern /
Volunteer Coordinator, Probation and COurt Services,
Wheaton, IL, USA
What’s
cooking?
I
don’t always get a chance to look at the hot
topic, but really enjoyed this one. I struggle with
how we have our program set up. I am lucky in that,
outside of a posting on 1800volunteer.net, I don’t
really have to recruit volunteers. They find me through
the internet or word of mouth. I have the opposite
the problem of the movie “Field of Dreams”.
Instead of building it and they will come, they come
and we need to build it.
People
generally come to me, I interview them to find their
interests then I run around looking for placements
for them. I have always thought it would be easier
if the Department would recognize where we need volunteers
and to have specific positions that I would fill.
On the other hand, sometimes I get some fantastic
ingredients for which we don’t have a particular
recipe. The true joy for me (as a master chef) is
getting creative, taking those ingredients and creating
something that satisfies a particular “hunger”
within the Department. I take the ingredients; bake
them just right and make sure that wonderful smell
wafts through the agency and creates hunger.
With
the demise of the AVA, some people have challenged
the need for a professional organization and, for
that matter, professional managers. You’re analogy
helped me to put into perspective the need for good
chefs to create recipes not only to satisfy identified
hunger, but to create enough healthy food to strengthen
our agencies.
Bon
appetite!
Response
posted on 3rd March 2006 by Rosanna Tarsiero, Giannethics,
Italy
Hello
Andy,
Funny
how I liked this topic and your comparison with cooking.
Just on Sept 2005 I was diagnosed with a very rare
disorder that basically obliges me to cook everything
I eat. Well, you ’ re right: no two cakes come
out equal. Yet, there is a profound lesson in that.
Life is not a recipe. Life is not a 100% controlled
situation, a lab, in which we can “ make ”
stuff.
Implication
for the profession is, as much as we like to represent
volunteer management as project management stuff,
it ’ s not really that way. Recipe (project)
is the same, cake (goal) is the same, but eggs and
flour (volunteers) are not. So, we have to adapt situations
to people, NOT the reverse.
Let's
hear what you think!
Its
not too late...
Let's
hear what you think!
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