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Responses to:
Making Ongoing Volunteering Valued and Visible
Submitted on September 8, 2009 by Cheryl H. Barber,
BCS YES!,
Director of Development,
Valley Forge, PA USA
In addition to Susan’s insights, there is another that I wish to present for your consideration. ‘Traditional’ volunteers and those new to the volunteer movement, are increasingly being called on to observe the organizational structure in a way that many perceive as counter-intuitive to volunteering.
Volunteers are being asked for resumes and related job experience. They are being given volunteer job descriptions and performance evaluations. They are asked to sign either non-compete or confidentiality statements. They have a file in the organization’s Human Resources Department which may include criminal background checks and similar types of clearances.
In turn, the paid volunteer coordinator’s major focus is on ensuring adherence to organizational policies governing volunteers, rather than on facilitating the volunteer’s desire to provide organizational support with his or her unpaid time and talent.
This dichotomy has fueled the ‘rift’ between the paid volunteer coordinator and the volunteer leader. Volunteers must ‘embrace change’ in the self-same manner that paid staff are asked to do. The paid volunteer coordinator must likewise embrace the role of ‘facilitator of change’ while supporting and validating the priceless work of the volunteer.
Submitted on September 3, 2009 by Carla Lehn,
California State Library,
Library Programs Consultant,
Sacramento CA USA
Thanks so much for raising this important topic -- I like "event" volunteering as much as the next person, but it shuts out discussion of what committed on-going volunteers do every day! California libraries are working hard to gain visibility for their on-going opportunities on September 11 -- like a "Scrabble-Thon" for Literacy in Santa Barbara . . . but I also loved it when the Huntington Beach Library created a list of their ongoing volunteer activities for the week of September 11, as a way to highlight what goes on there every day.
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