It Starts With You ...The Volunteer
Administrator
By Jeanne H. Bradner
From The Journal of Volunteer
Adminstration, Spring 1993, XI:3, pp. 20-22. Originally
presented at the 1992 International Conference on Volunteer
Administration. Posted with permission.
Introduction
We
know how important our profession is. Yet we are often frustrated
in trying to communicate its significance to our bosses, our
board chairs, our funders, the not-for-profit and government
community and, even, our families and friends. How we cringe
when someone says, "we ought to start a volunteer program"
and turns to someone on staff and says, "in your spare
time, won't you look after the volunteers?"
We cringe, too, when we see that
fundraisers, on the average, are paid almost twice as much as
volunteer administrators when we know that volunteer administrators
are responsible for generating $176 billion in in-kind human
resources--the equivalent of nine million full-time employees. (Source: Independent
Sector, 1992, Giving and Volunteering in the United States.)
We know that our jobs take the
most delicate and sensitive skills in human resource management
because we must give our human resources a "motivational
paycheck" that keeps them coming back. The thesis here
is that in order to build the kind of respect we want for our
profession, 'It starts with us ... the volunteer administrator"-we
need to think about ourselves and how we advocate forcefully
for the profession and its integral role in helping to meet
the many needs in our society.
The things we can do are:
- Acknowledge our skills
- Be proud of our job description
- Be a spokesperson for our ethics
- Renew our competencies
- Advocate for our profession
Acknowledge our Skills
Workshop
participants looked over the following list of words. Very quickly
we checked any that seemed appropriate in describing our work,
and we also felt free to add any that were left out:
- Resource Developer
- Manager
- Human Resources Director
- Leader
- Coordinator
- Motivator
- Communicator
- Psychologist
- Community Organizer
- Trouble Shooter
- Buffer
- Advocate
- Planner
- Consensus Builder
- Needs Assessor
- Trainer
- Evaluator
- Matchmaker
- Lobbyist
All agreed that these words are
appropriate, and a few more words were added, including Negotiator
and Mediator.
We then all agreed that this is
a significant list of skills that we have developed in our jobs-many
of the same skills that are necessary in top manager /leader
positions.
Be Proud of Your Job Description
We
then reviewed a job description for a volunteer administrator
which I had written years ago. This came about because a friend
of mine was a new volunteer administrator. She called and told
me how much she loved the job but said, "you never told
me how difficult it would be." With my tongue slightly
in my cheek, I wrote this want ad for a volunteer administrator
and sent it to her:
WANTED: A manager and developer
of resources valued at millions of dollars.
Good communications skills,
oral and written, are required, as well as a thorough knowledge
of community needs and services. Applicant must have an understanding
of marketing principles to promote exchange of implicit and
explicit benefits. Applicant must have an understanding of
psychology, participatory planning, motivation and human values.
Applicant must possess the ability to lead and inspire others;
be able to delegate authority; survive ambiguity; and be innovative
and creative. Applicant must strive for the highest standards
of human dignity, personal privacy, self determination and
social responsibility.
Be a Spokesperson for Your
Ethics
We then discussed
the need to articulate the ethical framework in which we manage
our program. Some items to be included in our ethical statement
are:
- Our philosophy of volunteerism
- Concern about human dignity:
volunteer/paid staff /recipient
- Self determination: involvement
of paid staff, volunteers and recipient in decisions affecting
them
- Respect for privacy and confidentiality
- Enhancement of volunteer/paid
staff relations
- Equal opportunity/cultural
diversity
We then discussed how when we
have developed and articulated our ethics, we are able to be
spokespersons for them in our organizations, thereby gaining
more respect for volunteerism and our own roles.
Renew Competencies
We
reviewed the AVA summary of competencies and acknowledged the
need for joining support groups of peers.
Advocacy
We
then broke into small groups and discussed things we could do
to advocate on behalf of our profession. Some items mentioned
were:
- Join professional associations
- Compute the dollar value of
volunteer time; give to the board of directors regularly
- Ask to serve on your agency's
long-range planning committee
- Have a board member serve as
your volunteer development chair
- Find out the dreams of board
and staff implement some through a volunteer program
- Work for legislation that promotes
volunteerism
- Encourage others to join the
profession through job fairs and career counseling
- Encourage funders to demand
proof of volunteer involvement in programs
- Network--not just with other
volunteer administrators, but also with journalists, fundraisers,
executive directors, foundation executives
- Give workshops and speeches
- Write articles and letters
to the editor
- Work on your CVA
- Encourage college courses in
volunteer administration
Conclusion
If
we can do these things, we will gain more respect for our profession
and ourselves. But, most important, we will build a stronger
vision of and commitment to the capacity volunteers have to
make positive changes in our society.
----------------------------
Jeanne Bradner is Region V
Director of ACTION, the federal domestic volunteer agency. Previously
she directed the Illinois Governor's Office of Voluntary Action.
She served as Public Issues Chair and Vice President of the
Association for Volunteer Administration.
For books on this topic in our bookstore,
click the
link(s) below:
Profession of Volunteer Administration
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________
Permission is granted for organizations to download and reprint this article. Reprints must provide full acknowledgment of source, as provided:
Excerpted from From
The Journal of Volunteer Adminstration,
Spring 1993, XI:3, pp. 20-22.
Found in the Energize website library at: http://www.energizeinc.com/art.html
