There will always be a group of
volunteers that want to be involved in face to face
work and make or have the time available. As the future
trend in volunteering tends to predict a decline in
this number of volunteers, virtual volunteering will
become an accepted and maybe preferred form of volunteering.
As adaptable, creative Managers (Coordinators)
of Volunteer Programs, I am sure that we will be able
to move forward with the times, maintain appealing
volunteer positions, identify the risks involved in
virtual volunteering, and implement strategies to
manage, as we do now and have in the past.
Thanks
Andy for keeping us challenged with your "Hot Topics"
Posted
on May 10, 2004 by Carol Spencer, Volunteer Coordinator,
Sydney, Australia
I
just wanted to say thank you for such a thought provoking
and far reaching hot topic. The reality is that while
we really don't know where volunteering will be in
the next twenty years, it is commentaries like this
one that starts us thinking about some of the possibilities.
Posted
on May 5, 2004 by Jayne Cravens, Online Volunteering
Specialist, United Nations Volunteers, Bonn, Germany
I've
worked with online volunteers since 1995, and have
been promoting online volunteerism to others since
December 1996. With all due respect, this editorial
is full of misconceptions about online volunteerism.
"Volunteer
managers needing to adapt to leading two distinct
groups of volunteers - those they can see, touch and
feel and others they will never meet in person - ever
!"
This
is not true. Online volunteers and onsite volunteers
are NOT two distinct groups.
The overwhelming majority of online volunteers as
*also* onsite volunteers, often volunteering both
ways for the same organization.
Also,
many online volunteers -- maybe most -- are seen in
person by the organization. Yes, there are people
who volunteer for organizations on the other side
of the world from them -- but the majority volunteer
for organizations just down the street.
No
one is choosing to volunteer online instead of onsite.
No one is saying, "wow, online volunteering is great,
and I'm going to do it and stop doing onsite volunteering."
No one.
Involving
volunteers via the Internet is becoming a necessity
for volunteer managers. Even if all volunteers make
their contributions onsite, volunteer managers are
finding that communicating with these volunteers online,
creating online forums for these volunteers to share
with each other, and using the Web to both recruit
and recognize volunteer activities is becoming absolutely
essential, to:
-- demonstrate that the organization values volunteers'
time
-- better support volunteers undertaking activities
on behalf of the organization
-- provide more opportunities for inclusion of volunteers'
ideas and suggestions.
The
challenge that involving volunteers online is bringing
to volunteer managers is that it requires such managers
to be much more responsive, much more dynamic, and
much more interactive with volunteers -- and, in addition,
it raises the profile of an organizations volunteer
activities and can actually increase the number of
people wanting to volunteer onsite. This is not something
many volunteer managers are used to nor prepared for.
I
do not believe we are facing a shortage of volunteers.
Rather, we are facing a changing demographic that
thinks about volunteering in a very different way.
The "old school" thinking of volunteers was "I volunteer
because it is my duty to give back." The emerging
way of thinking of potential volunteers is "I want
to volunteer because I want to make a
difference in a cause I believe in." The former group
is much easier to "please", in terms of volunteer
activities, than the latter, who may balk at spending
hours stuffing envelopes without a healthy dose of
more "hands on" activities.
People
are increasingly hungry to connect and hungry to make
a difference.
Volunteer managers can take advantage of this by evolving.
Or, they can complain that times aren't the way they
used to be, and watch their volunteer ranks shrink.
