Hot Topics

All our Hot Topics are organized chronologically below.   They have also been cross-referenced by subject in our Resource Library.  It's never too late to join in the discussion by responding at the bottom of each Hot Topic's page!

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2008

• It’s Volunteers and Money - May
• Volunteering Is Bigger than the Nonprofit Sector - April
• California Governor "Pumps Up" Volunteering- March
• The Power of Difference - February
• So, What Do You Do? - January

2007

• Helper Triage: Volunteer Management in Emergencies - December
• Boards of Directors: Governing at a Distance? - November
• The Moral Obligation of Volunteer Recruitment Promises - October
• Volunteering We See but Don't Recognize - September
• The Big Merger: Many Unanswered Questions - August
• The More We’re Different, the More We’re the Same  - July
• Technology Acceleration:  Grab Hold and Hang On - June
• Make New Friends But Keep the Old...  - May  podcasting began; all subsequent Hot Topics recorded
• I'll help with that, but don’t ask me to lead it! - April
• Marking a Special Birthday - March
• Voluntourism – Pros, Cons, and Possibilities - February
• Should Volunteer  Program  Managers Be Volunteers, Too? - January

2006

• Together We Stand:  Volunteers and Volunteer Resource Managers Connected - December
• Encouraging Entrepreneurial Volunteering - November
• The Middle Management Barrier - October
• What’s in a Name…or a Title? - September
• Start Early:  Teaching Students about Volunteering, Not Simply Doing It - August
• "I Don't Have Time" - July
• Wouldn’t It Be Nice to Really Know…. June
• Online Spying Can Improve Your Volunteer Management Skills - May
• Why a New Association Should Serve the USA - April
• A Call to Action on Behalf of Our Profession - March
• The Fair Labor Standards Act and Other Obstacles to Progress - February
• The Implications of History - January

2005

• Charity Burnout?  How to Cope with the Impact of Mother Nature in 2005 - December
• Strength in Numbers: Engaging Volunteers as Partners in Program Development - November
• Volunteers Just Want to Have Fun - October
• The Silver Lining of Disaster - September
• Still Tilting at Windmills - August
• Save a Life, Win a Car! When Do Incentives to Volunteer Cross the Line? - July
• Mobile Volunteers – ‘Tis the Season - June
• Why Be Boring When You Can Celebrate in So Many Ways? - May
• We Can Model True Collaboration - April
• Recruitment Maxims - March
• Why Can’t We Make Progress on Public Perceptions about Volunteering? - February
• Keeping an Eye on Things in the Year Ahead - January

2004

• Chicken or Egg: Why Are Our Professional Associations Weak? - December
• Interns: The "Acceptable" Volunteers? - November
• Watching, Helping and Learning from China - October
• Workplace Volunteerism: Have We Thought this Through? - September
• Applied Futurism: Putting Trends to Work Today - August
• Should We Ask Volunteers to Give Money on Top of Time? - July

• Does It Matter if Volunteers Work in a Nonprofit or a Government Setting? - June
• Shaping Public Opinion: Volunteering, Government, and News Reports - May
• Making Volunteer Management Happen: A Proposal for AmeriCorps - April
• A Great New Report to Praise, Criticize, and Use - March
• Government, Politicians, and the Use of the Word “Volunteer” - February
• Economic Development, Internet Technology, and Volunteers -January

2003

• The Need for Institutional Memory - December
• Educating Other Professions about Volunteers: Starting at the Source - November
• Universal Standards vs. Your Own Situation - October
• Beyond Common Sense: Volunteer Management as a Specialty -September
• One Step Further: Volunteer Services and Agency-wide Education - August
• Turning a Gift into a Powerful Tool: The Internet’s Impact on the Volunteer Field - July
• Raising Money through Volunteer Labor - June
• What We See…or Don’t: Volunteers in Television, Films, and Novels - May
• War and Volunteers: History Repeats Itself - Apr
• Marketing Savvy – Our Field’s Blind Spot - Mar
• Making an Impact When You Spend Money - Feb
• The Hot Topic Is the Hot Topic - Jan

2002

• United Way is Not the Way for Volunteer Centers - Dec
• A Utopian View of Volunteerism Professional Organizations - Nov
• The Great Divide: Leaders Who Are Paid and Leaders Who Are Volunteers - Oct
• A Medal for Volunteer Service - How to
  Measure Success? - Sept
• The Missing Link: Where are Volunteers at the National Level? - Aug
• What's Hot, What's Not - July
• Reacting to the Critics - June
• Spring Cleaning: Take a Fresh Look at Your Volunteer Program - May
• Don't Call Me a 'Senior'! - Apr
• The World According to Volunteer Experience - Mar
• Mixed Messages from Government: Lessons from Minnesota - Feb
• Moving on from 2001 - Jan

2001

• It's Time to Start Counting Volunteers Seriously - Dec
• Tackling Causes Not Symptoms: New/Old Roles for Volunteers - Nov
• A Volunteerism Perspective on the Days
  after the 11th of September - Oct
• Advocacy for Volunteer Involvement: The Role of Funders - Sept
• Evaluating by Comparisons: Watch out for the Traps! - Aug
• Faith-Based Initiatives: What Might This Mean? - July
• When a Volunteer Transforms into an Employee - June
• Money is No Object - May
• National Volunteer Week: Does Anyone Care? - Apr
• Purity and Reality: For-Profit Consulting in Volunteerism - Mar
• "Youth Involvement" in Our Field - Feb
• Who is Celebrating IYV? Connecting the “Streams of Service” - Jan

2000

• On Being a Dream-Catcher - Dec
• Unskilled vs. Differently Skilled:
  Maximize Volunteer Differences - Nov
• A Proposal for IYV2001:
  The Look Back to Look Ahead Project - Oct
• Be Careful What We Wish For!
  The Cost-Benefit Analysis of Volunteering - Sept
• If Not Your Home Page, Then Where? - Aug
• The Volunteer Generation Gap - July
• Enough Formal Banquets!
  Let's Transform Recognition Events - June
• Mixed Messages:
  What Do We Really Think about Young Volunteers? - May
• Some Truths Revealed about Nametags - April
• Warning! We're about to Waste an Opportunity! - Mar
• Volunteering in For-Profit Settings:
  Exploitation or Value Added? - Feb
• Wishes and Resolves for the New Year - Jan

1999

• Once in a Millennium Opportunity - Dec
• Statistics, Bikinis and Volunteers: The New Independent Sector Study on Giving and Volunteering - Nov
• Philanthropy, Civic Engagement,
  and the Lessons of Volunteering - Oct
• Trend Watch: Are You Ready? - Sept
• The Wall of Executive Indifference - Aug
• Mystifying Data:
  Can America's Promise Get Away with It? - July
• Volunteer Managers and the Time Management Trap - June
• Staff Resistance and Highly-Skilled Volunteers - May
• Lessening Social Exclusion through Volunteering - April
• The Money Factor in Volunteer Management - Mar
• The Just-a-Volunteer Syndrome - Feb
• If the Whole World is Changing,
  Can Volunteerism Stay the Same? - Jan

1998

• What's the Mystery about Motivation? - Dec
• The Giving of Thanks - Nov
• The Limits of the "V" Word - Oct
• Reinventing Conferences - Sept
• Let's Commit to International Exchange - July/Aug
• Turbulence at the State Level - June
• Reaching Out to International Visitors - May
• The Presidents' Summit One Year Later - April
• Some Nagging Questions... - Mar
• Give Volunteers a Voice - Feb
• Let's All Resolve... - Jan

1997

• The Holiday Season:
  Going Beyond "Feel-Good" Volunteering - Dec
• Global Connections - International Volunteerism - Nov
• Redirecting Corporate Volunteering - Oct
• What's Gender Got to Do with It? - Sept
• Volunteers as the "Third Branch" of an Organization - Aug
• Is volunteer management really a profession? - July
• Why is it labor unions vs. volunteers? - June
• A proposal for five additional goals after the summit - May
• Is the challenge recruiting citizens to volunteer
  or making sure agencies are ready for volunteers? - April

Hot Topics from
Susan J. Ellis

The hot topics are written by Susan J. Ellis, a volunteerism expert and President of Energize.   Through her travels and interactions throughout the world, she keeps current on the latest issues in volunteer management field. Susan's Bio

Volunteerism News

Susan also reports on currents news in the field throughout the year.  Keep current on new developments by visiting the news page regularly.  (You can access the latest news from the left column of the home page or in the news archive page linked above.)

Australasian Hot Topics

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