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Submitted on 11 June 2004 by Mark Restall, Senior Information Officer, Volunteering England
There's a long history of volunteers working in the public sector in the UK. It has been a controversial issue in the past, but now I think it's something that's much better understood, and often welcomed.

There were fears from public sector workers that volunteers would be used to replace their jobs. That wouldn't just be a personal issue for a displaced worker - traditionally the public sector has been a key equal opportunities employer, so job losses would be disproportionately bad news for women, people from deprived areas and people from minority ethnic communities.

There were also fears that volunteers would be carrying out specialist 'frontline' services - physical care / quasi medical roles etc.

These fears were allayed through dialogue, and the active engagement of the volunteering sector with public sector employers and trade unions. This led to the creation of agreed principles underpinning volunteer involvement. See for example the 'Drain guidelines'(Guidelines for relations between volunteers and paid workers in the Health and Personal Social Services) - http://www.volunteering.org.uk/missions.php?id=637 - and 'At one with volunteers' - http://www.volunteering.org.uk/centre/docs/adss.pdf

As important as such guidelines has been actual experience -volunteers are involved in libraries, hospitals, social services departments, prisons, schools, police stations - the list is endless. They work in partnership with paid staff without displacing them, providing an added value that is often beyond counting.

Submitted on 11 June 2004 by Robin Popik, Volunteer Resources Supervisor, Plano, Texas
Just a small change. I don't think the majority of government staff are unionized but even if they are many are still concerned about working with volunteers for a number of other reasons. (These are actually assumptions made by the staff personnel):

• Staff are concerned they can lose their jobs to a volunteer
• Volunteers will see what they do/don't do
• Volunteers have to be managed and the person working with the volunteer isn't on a management level
• Staff have to delegate parts of their job to the volunteer - but which part is usually the question and how do they figure it out.
• Staff thinks volunteers are not going to show up or do a poor job that will reflect on them.

Government Volunteer Managers can help alleviate these concerns by being a liaison and sounding board for staff if they will let them.

Thanks for keeping the government volunteer programs in the forefront.

Submitted on 8 June 2004 by Jayne Cravens, UN Volunteers programm Germany
Great topic. Brings to mind this cautionary TRUE story about reporting the "benefits" of volunteer involvement in government: once upon a time, I was contacted by a state historical office. The staff there had been involving volunteers regularly and quite successfully. Volunteers could provide one-on-one help to those visiting the state historical archives, for instance, and were VERY enthusiastic about state history already (it's why they wanted to volunteer). The office submitted its budget for the next year to the legislature, and touted how much volunteer involvement would be "saving" the state. The legislators were quite impressed. And said, "Since involving volunteers will save us so much money, we're cutting two of your staff positions -- please find volunteers to do their jobs." Doesn't mean the office shouldn't have involved volunteers, but does mean they should have been more careful in how they talked about the "benefits" of such involvement.

Submitted on 4 June 2004 by Keith Butcher, Chief, Voluntary Service, New York City, USA
I am the Voluntary Service Program Manager at a Department of Veterans Affiars medical center in Brooklyn, NY. I've been managing the volunteer program here since 1987 and I can tell you that the experience of working with volunteers who donate their time to assist America's veterans has been extremely rewarding. As a manager of volunteers in the federal government we are subject to regulations and laws that restrict how we fund raise and our ability to advertise and promote what we do but, we have a great deal of freedom in creating programs, activities and volunteer assignments that benefit our staff, our volunteers and most importantly, our veteran patients. While our Board of Directors consists of the United States Congress and the senior management of our medical centers, the support and resources they provide negate many of the issues and challenges that face similar programs in the non-profit sector. The rewards from having this support and creative freedom are many - the burdens are few. It's a great place to work, to learn and to serve not only America's veterans but the community at large.

Submitted on 4 June 2004 by Sarah Jane Rehnborg, Ph.D., Lecturer and Consultant, Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX
For a variety of reasons, volunteering in the public sector has been a topic of considerable personal and professional interest. Recent research that we conducted in Texas showed that volunteer programs in the public sector are significantly better at record keeping and data collection than comparable programs in the nonprofit sector. We also learned that volunteers, once committed to a public sector issue actively create nonprofit organizations to support the public sector and are effective fundraisers to support causes in which they believe to support the effort of the public agency. Check out the research section of the the http://rgkcenter.utexas.edu/research/index.shtml website for more information.

Submitted on 3 June 2004 by Christine Nardecchia, Volunteer Services Administrator, Dublin, Ohio, USA
I am a volunteer administrator for local government with a comprehensive, centralized program. I spent years in the nonprofit sector as a volunteer administrator and have seen first hand the differences between the two. While I agree somewhat that our impression of volunteers lies in the nonprofit sector realm, that is largely due to the history of volunteers in those organizations. This article tends to have more of a state and federal focus, but let us not forget, that many local governments have volunteer programs (see: National Association of Volunteer Programs in Local Government - NAVPLG). And let us not forget, too, that there are several forms of local government: Council-Manager, Strong Mayoral, County, Township.

Consider these as counterpoints for thought:

1. NPOs vs. GAs: While local governments are governed by elected officials who direct policy, elected officials rely on the expertise of staff (including the volunteer administrator - not just the "volunteer administrator's boss"...ahem) to make decisions, have an impact on ordinances, policy direction and community relationship, etc. We are empowered as staff members to do so. This is particularly true in the Council-Manager form of government.

2. The article states: NPOs "can collaborate with whomever they wish...yet GAs are "limited to designated jurisdictions." Wrong. The strongest link in government is partnership. We do outreach programming to other communities through volunteerism, not just in our own. AND, we encourage employees to do the same. We partner with schools, the corporate sector, the nonprofit sector and all other governmental levels. The most significant of these partnerships is with the volunteers themselves.

3. The article is also off base about the "scariness" involving staff/volunteer relationships. I have worked for both NPOs and GAs; the staff/volunteer relationships are no different. In fact, in my local government, it is seen as a plus to have the ability to serve alongside those you serve. It is a relationship-building mechanism with your own citizen base, not to mention, with elected officials as well.

4. The article notes that NPOs are responsible for finding their own funding sources, but that government agencies are limited to tax revenue. Not true. I can seek sponsorship and grants for this volunteer program as a governmental agency. I don't have to stop at the tax revenue allocated to me. Frankly, I think there is a greater sense of financial accountability in GAs than in NPOs.

More than anything, I feel that in a local government, I am able to be more proactive in this sector than in the NPO sector. Our programs are not reactive; they are proactive and offer a great range of diversity according to citizen interest, need and initiatives.

Submitted on 4 June 2004 by Sarah Elliston, President, Cincinnati, Ohio
I agree that the involvement of volunteers in government is hugely ignored except in cases like parks and recreation where their ab sense is obvious.

I started my career in this field as creator an manager of a volunteer program in city government, but as a United Way employee- talk about interesting funding. The city granted us a budget to manage their volunteer program. Most of the volunteers worked in offices although we recruited for the parks and recreation programs as well. As a result of our help, they hired volunteer coordinators of their own.
Where I came upon an interesting dilemma was in our evaluations, the civil servants were disinclined to say, "We couldn't do without them," about the volunteers because their managers didn't want it to appear that they couldn't do their jobs. It was a sticky spot because many supervisors of volunteers wanted to testify for the volunteer program at budget hearings and they were not allowed to since their department budget might then be lessened. That was the thinking. I hope it has changed.

Submitted on 2 June 2004 by Rita Hennessy, Outdoor Recreation Specialist, Appalachian National Scenic Trail, NPS, West Virginia, USA
I am a federal government employee, and serve as the volunteer coordinator for the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, a unit of the National Park Service (NPS). Although the overall differences of government vs. not-for-profit administration may be true, I believe when it comes to government regional and field volunteer programs the differences are greatly diluted. Yes, priorities change with administrations, but in my 15 years of service for the NPS, each administration has shown HUGE support for volunteer programs. How these programs are implemented, funded and promoted is up to the staff of each park unit. Some are better at it than others, just as in the not-for-profit sector.

I totally disagree with the statement that many public servants are afraid of volunteers voting rights. I would argue that a volunteer has more power with their single vote in a membership-based, not-for-profit organization then in a municipal or national election. Public servants also have the right to vote.

I realize that volunteer programs in the NPS may be different then in the IRS or in an urban city park. Maybe my view is different because I have the wonderful privilege of being only one of 8 government employees with active annual support of more than 4,500 volunteers. I would love to hear thoughts from other government employees, and I would bet that our hands and programs are not as tightly tied as portrayed in the article.

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