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Weekly Volunteer Management News

Archive for 2006 July - December (Current News)

31 Dec: Just launched: Changing the Present (www.changingthepresent.org), an Internet service that allows users to learn about opportunities for charitable giving, and to make charitable gifts and donations. It is operated by ImportantGifts, Inc., a nonprofit corporation and a donor-advised charitable fund.

The site’s philosophy begins with: “Many of us don't need any more fruitcakes, toasters, or pen and pencil sets. Buying unwanted presents just isn't a fulfilling way of spending our money or expressing our love.”

While a number of online fundraising sites exist, Changing the Present offers some unique twists. For example, the organization recruited a diverse and knowledgeable board of advisors to select the most critical causes affecting the world today and site visitors can learn more about these.

The volunteer-connected component of this program is that each visitor can post a personal profile:

Consider asking volunteers who care about your cause to use this site.  Donors can also send personalized greeting cards to the honoree or gift recipient to memorialize their donations (the “gift” element of the site). Because the site only launched in early December, not all these features are available yet.

A summary of the various elements of Changing the Present can be seen at http://www.changingthepresent.org/about_us/story.

24 Dec: Charlotte’s Web, the inspiring children’s book classic about the friendship between a pig and a spider, has just been released as a feature film.  The F.I.L.M. project has released a youth development activity guide, Charlotte's Web: Become a True Friend.  It’s a free, downloadable resource that can be accessed at www.youthfilmproject.org/film/charlottesweb.htm.  It includes interactive group, individual, and partner activities for youth ages 8-12.   Friendship and service projects are two major themes.

The National Collaboration for Youth (NCY) and Heartland Film Festival’s Truly Moving Pictures formed F.I.L.M. (www.youthfilmproject.org), an acronym for “Finding Inspiration in Literature and Movies.” This literacy and film program encourages youth associated with NCY organizations to screen the featured films, read the books associated with the movies, participate in activities from the free, downloadable activity guides, and complete service projects that relate to the central themes of the books and movies. With its opportunity to reach over 40 million youth, F.I.L.M. has the power to influence “Hollywood” to create more movies with positive messages. Those youth who complete the three main components, which include viewing the movie and reading the book, doing the activities, and completing a service-learning project, can receive a certificate of completion from F.I.L.M.

17 Dec: The Metro Atlanta Corporate Volunteer Council (Metro Atlanta CVC), a membership organization comprised of corporate volunteer program managers, has announced two books as the recipients of the 2006 Carol D. Reiser Book Award:  Mother Teresa, written by award-winning children’s book author, Demi, and Makeovers by Marcia written by Claudia Mills.

The award was established to memorialize Carol Reiser, co-founder and past president of the Metro Atlanta CVC, and is a living tribute to Reiser’s lifelong commitment to community and volunteerism. The award includes a cash award of $1,000 to a youth-serving non-profit agency of each author’s choice.  Past and current winners are shown  at www.macvc.org/mc/page.do?sitePageId=38897 (a last-minute holiday shopping tip for the young people on your list!).

Reiser Book Award Chairperson Carin Wiggins of Georgia Pacific says,

Mother Teresa, published by Simon & Schuster, tells the amazing story of Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu and how she became Mother Teresa, inspiring children ages 7-10 to reach out to others and make a difference.  The 40-page hardcover book follows Mother Teresa’s journey and describes how she unselfishly devoted her life to helping others.  The colorful illustrations by the author accentuate the story and provide readers with a unique perspective of Mother Teresa’s life.  Since its release, Mother Teresa has also been an ALA Notable Children’s Book Nominee, and has won the Bank Street Best Books of the Year Award and the Skipping Stones Honor Book Award.

Makeovers by Marcia, published by Farrar Straus, tells the story of Marcia Faitak as she enters the eighth grade after having spent the summer with a broken ankle, causing her to gain five extra pounds.  Her goal is to improve her self-image and make the boy she likes invite her to the school dance.  When a school assignment challenges her to come up with an idea to serve in the community, she decides to offer makeovers to women at a local nursing home.  Because of her volunteering experience, she learns that beauty is reflected in more ways than simply through physical appearance and to value the more important things in life. 

The Metro Atlanta Corporate Volunteer Council (www.macvc.or) is a professional association of businesses that promotes employee volunteerism in the corporate sector and provides advice to companies interested in developing their own volunteer programs.  The Metro Atlanta CVC has been designated 2006 CVC of the Year by the Points of Light Foundation, a national non-profit, non-partisan organization.  The Metro Atlanta CVC includes more than 80 Atlanta corporations with employee populations from 10 to 32,000 employees. 

10 Dec: After weeks of planning and anticipation, the Congress of Volunteer Administrator Associations (COVAA) has ended…but the effects have just begun!  Ninety participants from across the United States convened in Denver last week and voted to form a new national membership association.  Most details, however, are still undetermined, including a name, so “COVAA” will continue to be the working name for now.  Read about the Congress at www.covaa.org.   This is also where news will be posted as progress is made on the next steps.

The new entity will be guided by goals developed by Congress delegates over 15 hours of intensive working sessions.  The preliminary goal statements are as follows, but all will be refined and reworded over the next several weeks by volunteer teams:

Meanwhile a Structure team is committed to “research and recommend a structure for a strong national membership association,” with the following elements:

• Membership criteria
• Entity name
• Fiscal, business plan
• Resource development
• Membership benefits
• Governance (bylaws, articles of incorporation, board development)
• Communication

The co-chairs of the Structure team are also the co-chairs of the new Steering Committee:  Rita Chick and Joanna Johnson. 

3 Dec: BoardStar is a new program of the Nonprofit Management Fund, a collaborative of foundation, corporations, United Ways, and funding projects that build the capacity of nonprofit organizations in the greater Milwaukee area.  Operating under the premise that “if we fix the Board, we fix the organization,” BoardStar has launched production of free weekly podcasts about matters of interest to nonprofit board members, ““BoardStar: On Being Board.”   Users can browse and listen to the current and past programs by going to www.smallpackageproductions.com/BoardStar/boardstarmain.html, or they can subscribe for downloads through iTunes or their preferred podcast aggregator.

Recent titles include:

• Boards Measuring Effectiveness: Caught In The Act Of Learning
• Boards Measuring Effectiveness
• Tips For Engaging Constituencies
• U.S. Constitution Creates Nonprofit Right Of Way
• Nonprofit Roots: 400 Years Deep

26 Nov: Skype, the popular VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) program that enables completely free voice communication anywhere in the world (www.skype.com), is an especially great tool for working with online volunteers handling virtual assignments. 

Macdonald Youth Services (MYS) in Winnipeg, MB, Canada, has developed a cutting-edge virtual volunteering program and generously shares its own learning with others in the field. 

Randy Tyler, MYS Volunteer Co-ordinator/Webmaster, has just announced the free availability of “How To Use Skype with Your Online Volunteers: A Free Video Tutorial,” providing an overview of how to download, install, configure and use Skype 2.5 for Windows.  (MYS extends their thanks to online volunteer Yu Cheng, who now lives in China, for creating the approximately nine-minute video.)

To download the PC-based Skype instructional video, which is available in both Windows Media Video and Flash formats, go to the following URLs:

• Windows Media Video (wmv: 3.52 MB)
• Flash Projector (exe: 10.9 MB)

As a reminder, all calls from Skype to landlines and cell phones within the US and Canada are also free until December 31, 2006.

Using a combination of Skype's voice, chat and file transfer features, Macdonald Youth Services demonstrates that such an application can be an effective and efficient tool to help any non-profit advance projects undertaken by their far-flung volunteers.  They have provided even more detailed and technical information on their Web site -- http://mys.ca/volunter/ -- and via podcasts and other free resources. 

To subscribe to the free MYS’s “Online Volunteering News and Announcements” e-mail list, go to: http://mys.ca/cgi-bin/media/mail_list.pl

19 Nov: As declared by the United Nations, International Volunteer Day 2006 will be celebrated on December 5 around the world.  For all the official information, downloads of logos and toolkits, and news of activities being planned, go to the World Volunteer Web site at www.worldvolunteerweb.org/intl-volunteer-day.html.

The site also gives news of an "International Volunteer Leadership Summit" to be held in the United States on IVD this year, under the sponsorship of the Brookings Institution and the Points of Light Foundation – although there is no other information to be found anywhere about this actually occurring (if more news materializes, we’ll share it here).  See the general intent in the materials describing the "Brookings Initiative on International Volunteering and Service," www.brookings.edu/global/volunteer/volunteer_hp.htm.  If such a meeting does occur, it will be the first time there has been an event scheduled for IVD in this country...except, of course, that the Congress of Volunteer Administrator Associations is synchronistically scheduled across that date as well!

12 Nov: Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP) -- www.icicp.org – works around the world to strengthen and develop national service programs as a solution to a wide range of social issues. ICP has worked with numerous universities, NGOs, national and local governments, and multilateral organizations in over twenty countries on six continents. It is guided by this mission:

ICP publishes Service Enquiry, a journal that documents and analyzes service and volunteerism in countries around the world. It also produces Service News Worldwide, a free monthly electronic newsletter with current news and events related to service, country information, and relevant publications and Internet resources, in addition to in-depth discussions of different types of service and the issues that accompany them. The archive of past issues is available on the site at www.icicp.org/index.php?tg=topusr&cat=131. ICP has just announced major revisions in its Web site and welcomes new visitors.

5 Nov: MDCharityMatch.com launched last month, is currently under construction, and is seeking postings of volunteer opportunities from organizations anywhere in the world.

The new site is designed to serve as a resource for “physicians in America seeking to donate their time and skills to worthy causes.”  MDCharityMatch is entirely free to both physicians as well as charities posting positions.   They have issued this invitation:

In the next few weeks, MDCharityMatch will promote this new site to every medical school and residency program in America and to as many of the private hospitals in the country as they can reach. “We aim to become the premiere, centralized listing of charitable opportunity for physicians in America.”

29 Oct: Celebrate IVMA Day!

Organizations and volunteer resources managers around the globe are preparing to celebrate the field and the practitioners on November 1, 2006.

Christopher Spence, CBE, Chief Executive of Volunteering England, endorsed the event with these thoughts: 

News and events are planned that will highlight the tremendous work of VRMs. The organizers point out that we can have a "CELEBRATION THROUGH EDUCATION":  "One way we can all make IVMA Day effective is to use the opportunity to educate others about what it is we do. So when planning your IVMA Day events - consider ways to educate at the same time."

For more information about the Day and how others are marking it in different places, visit www.ivmaday.org/.  And submit news to the site of your own celebratory activities.

Energize, Inc. says BRAVO! to all our volunteer management colleagues and hopes you will “hear” the enthusiastic round of applause we’ll be sending your way on the 1st!

22 Oct: The North Carolina Association of Volunteer Administration (NCAVA) in partnership with Southeastern Community College (Whiteville, NC) reminds everyone that they offer an online course, Basics in Volunteer Management. The course is offered each semester (Fall, Spring & Summer) and lasts 10 weeks each semester. The cost of tuition is $55, and anyone, anywhere is welcome! Course completers will receive continuing education credits from Southeastern Community College.

Topics include: policies; recording keeping; screening, interviewing, and placement; recognition; retention; marketing and recruitment; job development and design; trends and future forecasts; risk management; introduction to volunteer management; program assessment and evaluation.

Visit the NCAVA Website at www.ncava.net/basics_course.html for more information and a registration form. To learn more about other online education in the field, go to www.energizeinc.com/prof/classon.html.

15 Oct: The Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies has released an update on the UN Nonprofit Handbook Project.

Don’t let your eyes glaze over, but first here is a description of what this breaking news story is about:

For more information and to download the Handbook itself, go to: www.jhu.edu/ccss/unhandbook.

Now here is why all this matters to us in the volunteer community:  This is an international project, systematically recruiting countries (one by one) to study and report on their nonprofit sectors – including volunteer involvement.  Last month, Johns Hopkins released the Handbook Project’s second newsletter, reporting on new countries that have signed on to this work and on various developments regarding implementation.  It may be dry reading, but it is a window on the world and, uniquely, elevates volunteer-related data-gathering to an equal level with other statistics.

8 Oct: In a budget-slashing effort to save $1 billion, the Canadian government has announced sweeping cuts of programs they categorize into four groups:

• Value for Money:  Programs that the government concluded was not providing good value for money for Canadians;
• Unused Funds:  Eliminating funds that have not yet been spent within programs that are no longer supported by the government;
• Efficiencies:  Savings from streamlining select federal programs; and
• Non-core programs: Savings from eliminating programs that the government does not find core to its priorities or does not find to be the most effective way of achieving those priorities.

Imagine Canada, the organization that focuses on philanthropy, giving and volunteering, has posted this commentary at http://www.imaginecanada.ca/page.asp?current_policy_work:   

The full list of the cuts can be found at http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/media/nr-cp/2006/0925_e.asp.  It makes for sobering reading.

Volunteer Canada (www.volunteer.ca)  President Marlene Deboisbriand sent the following e-mail to colleagues in the volunteer community:

Voice your concern and express support for our Canadian colleagues in any way you can.

1 Oct: Millions of personal computers sit idly on desks and in homes worldwide. During this idle time, the mysteries of science and space continue to elude us. What if each of the world's estimated 650 million PCs could be linked to focus on humanity's most pressing issues?

That’s the goal of World Community Grid  (www.worldcommunitygrid.org), whose  mission is to create the world's largest public computing grid to tackle projets that benefit humanity.  As their homepage states:   “Our work is built on the belief that technological innovation combined with visionary scientific research and large-scale volunteerism can change our world for the better.”  Their success depends upon individuals collectively contributing their unused computer time to change the world for the better.

World Community Grid makes technology available only to public and not-for-profit organizations to use in humanitarian research that might otherwise not be completed due to the high cost of the computer infrastructure required in the absence of a public grid. All results of such research are placed in the public domain and made public to the global research community.

This July, the Grid completed a major, two-year “Human Proteome Folding Project,” identifying the proteins that make up the Human Proteome.  Phase two of this ground-breaking effort is ongoing.  Other current projects are aimed at improving the treatment of cancer with earlier and more targeted diagnostic tools and identifying candidate drugs that have the right shape and chemical characteristics to block HIV protease.  The Grid Advisory Board is looking for new research projects that can benefit from Grid technolgy and have a positive impact on humanity.

Grid technology is simple and safe to use. To start, you download and install a small program or "agent" onto your computer. When idle, your computer will request data on a specific project from World Community Grid's server. It will then perform computations on this data, send the results back to the server, and ask the server for a new piece of work. Each computation that your computer performs provides scientists with critical information that accelerates the pace of research!  The software and your membership are free, secure, and will not affect how you use your computer.  Learn the details at http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/viewJoinNow.do.

24 Sept: A first-ever federal report released by the Corporation for National and Community Service -- “Volunteering in America: State Trends and Rankings” -- finds that states vary  widely in how, when, and what percent of their citizens volunteer.  However, in every state women volunteer at a higher rate than men, and women with children and women who work have higher volunteer rates than other women.  

The study is based upon the most statistically significant study of volunteering ever conducted in America – an annual survey of 60,000 households begun in 2002 by the U.S. Census Bureau. The full report, including highlights, state-by-state rankings, profiles of volunteering in each region and state, statistical tables, and technical notes, is available at www.nationalservice.gov.

On a national level, 65.4 million or 28.8 percent of American adults volunteered in 2005, an increase of nearly six million volunteers since  2002. American volunteers spent a median of 50 hours per year volunteering, and gave a total of 8.2 billion hours of volunteer service in 2005.  

Among key findings, the study further reveals that:

• Women with children under age 18 volunteer at a significantly higher rate (39.9%) than do women without young children (29%), and women who work volunteer at a significantly higher rate (36.1%) than women who do not work (27.2%).

• The greatest percentage of volunteers serve primarily through religious organizations (34.8%).

• The highest regional volunteer rate last year was in the Midwest, at 33.3%. The largest growth in volunteering since 2002 has come from the South (2.4 million) and the West (2 million).

• The top volunteer activities by category are mentoring, tutoring, coaching, and refereeing (35%), fundraising (29.7%) and collecting, preparing, distributing, or serving food (26.3%).

• Adult volunteering generally follows a life cycle, with people age 35-54 volunteering at the highest rate, and rates subsequently declining as people age, particularly for individuals over 65.

• The states with the highest volunteering rates are Utah (48%), Nebraska  (42.8), Minnesota (40.7), Iowa (39.2), and Alaska (38.9) – all well above the national average of 28.8 percent.

• In general, volunteer rates for minorities (race and ethnicity) are substantially lower than non-Hispanic whites in most states.

A 24-page summary of “Volunteering in America: State Trends and Rankings” can be downloaded at http://www.nationalservice.gov/pdf/VIA/VIA_summaryreport.pdf.

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17 Sept: Photographers have until November 10 to submit images for the Volunteering Photo Competition 2006 sponsored for Northern Ireland by the Volunteer Development Agency there (http://www.volunteering-ni.org/newslink/#photograph).  This year the theme is "putting 'faces to places'."

Entries can be black and white or colour, digital or 35mm and you can enter up to two images. For further information and an entry form, go to: http://www.volunteering-ni.org/photocomp06main.asp

11 Sept: Advocacy does work!  It all started this spring when the Department for Work and Pensions in the UK issued a new interpretation of the rules (and a departure from long-established custom and practice) for people receiving public benefits.  In essence, salaried workers would continue to be allowed to claim back expenses for a lunch bought during volunteering, but someone on benefits with the same commitment to the cause would be prevented from receiving a penny.

In response, Volunteering England announced a “Right to Reasonable Expenses” lunch campaign, and set a protest week to start on August 14th.  The response from the volunteering community was enormous…and effective.  Just before the anticipated protest week, the Department of Work and Pensions made an unexpected u-turn with an announcement that volunteers on benefits will no longer have to bear the cost of their lunchtime meal.

Justin Davis-Smith, deputy chief executive of Volunteering England, said:

Congratulations! Read more at  www.volunteering.org.uk/lunch.  An object lesson for us all.

3 Sept: You’re Invited…
The Steering Committee overseeing International Volunteer Manager Appreciation Day (IVMA Day) invites you to join in a global initiative to recognize the valuable work of volunteer managers the world over!  On November 1, many will be taking time out to celebrate and acknowledge the work of volunteer managers – a global profession which facilitates and supports the work of millions of people – directly making our communities, countries and our world a better place in which to live …and we are excited!  Go to http://www.ivmaday.org/ to learn more.

While IVMA Day has been celebrated since 1999, it has always shared the day with International Volunteer’s Day on December 5. This year marks a significant change in direction. Not only will IVMA Day be celebrated on November 1 for the first time, the formation of a new international committee over the last year means the growth of IVMA Day into the future is entering a new phase.

The IVMA Web site explains the whole concept, articulates the values of our field, and offers articles to support the role of the profession in the success of volunteers.  You will also find logos, such as the ones shown here, which you may download and use freely.  And then tell everyone what you did to celebrate IVMA Day so that the “Ideas” section can grow.

27 August: Sometimes unsolicited e-mail – usually dismissed scornfully as “spam” – really does introduce you to products of genuine interest.  That’s what happened when GroupLoop (www.grouploop.com) announced its new service to us this week like this:

The free plan is good for groups of 25 or less – certainly a reasonable number for most planning committees or boards.  And because it’s Web-based, this can be used anywhere in the world.  We’ve started a test account to see how well it works, and wanted to share it with our site visitors so you can consider it directly.

20 August: The European Volunteer Centre (CEV, http://www.cev.be/) is a European umbrella association of currently 38 national and regional Volunteer Centres across Europe, that together work to support and promote voluntary activity.  CEV channels the collective priorities and concerns of its member organizations to the institutions of the European Union (EU). It also acts as a central forum for the exchange of policy, practice and information on volunteerism. It supports networking among its members and organizes conferences, seminars, workshops and other activities such as research.

In 2003, CEV issued its first Manifesto on Volunteering in Europe and has revised it for 2006.  The Manifesto explains why volunteering matters at EU level and what European institutions can do to recognize, promote, and support volunteering and networking.  In the document, CEV urges the institutions of the EU to act on 23 specific recommendations.  In concise form, this document gets to the heart of what “support” for volunteering by government really means.

The free report can be downloaded in English at http://www.cev.be/Documents/CEVManifesto_EN_FR_DE.pdf.  Translations are available in Italian, German, French, Dutch, Rumanian, Hungarian, Swedish, Danish, and Portugese at http://www.cev.be/manifesto_campaign.htm.

13 August: In a recent press release, Action Without Borders, the producers of the excellent international Web site Idealist.org (www.idealist.org), announced a new Language Project and its search for multilingual “Nonprofit Research Volunteers”:

As we prepare to make Idealist.org accessible to more people throughout the world, we will be relying on the diverse language skills of volunteers. Research volunteers will help us research the nonprofit sector in communities where Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Ukrainian are spoken. The goal of this project is to gather information about nonprofit support organizations, university programs, socially-responsible businesses, and other resources for each of these languages.

Nonprofit research volunteers will have the opportunity to learn more about the nonprofit sector throughout the world, be part of a multilingual community of volunteers, and help bring a valuable resource to communities where these languages are spoken.

We’re looking for volunteers with these characteristics:

• Advanced reading and writing skills in English and one of these languages: Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, or Ukrainian
• Strong interest and/or experience in the nonprofit sector
• Basic internet research and word processing skills
• Access to the internet

This is an ongoing volunteer opportunity with flexible hours. Volunteers can work online from home.  

For more information, contact joanna@idealist.org.
 

6 August: The profession of volunteer administration has many local, state, and regional associations of volunteer program managers (generic), as well as a number of field-specific “affinity” associations with national and local groups.  While these associations range in size and effectiveness, they clearly already formally represent a substantial percentage of practitioners in our profession.  However, most of these bodies have rarely collaborated or even communicated.  That’s why so much excitement is being generated by the announcement of a Congress of Volunteer Administrator Associations to be convened in Denver, Colorado on December 4-6, 2006.

Full information is available on the Congress’ new Web site:  www.covaa.org. Please note that the Congress is limited only to colleagues in the United States and its territories. 

Any existing volunteer management practitioner association is invited to send one official representative – with voting authority – to the 2½ -day Congress (funding is being sought to accommodate distance participation by phone or Web as well).  The immediate goal is to create a working network of associations with a designated steering committee to, in turn, carry any organization work forward.

There is a desire to reach out to all previous AVA individual members, colleagues who have chosen not to join their professional association, or those who do not have an association to join, and there will be opportunities for individual colleagues to be involved at some point.   In this preliminary stage, the Congress will begin with a clearly identifiable group of perhaps 75-150 people who represent probably 3,000 to 6,000 practitioners through existing associations.   Then, strategies can be developed for the engagement of individual leaders. 

As a first step, associations are urged to submit their profiles at www.covaa.org.  Interested individuals are also welcome to submit personal profiles on the site.  More specific details about the Congress itself will be posted to the site as they are available, including registration forms.

30 July: The United Nations Online Volunteering service (www.onlinevolunteering.org) connects development organizations and volunteers over the Internet and supports their effective online collaboration.  Organizations that meet the criteria (clearly explained on the site) may post opportunities for virtual volunteering assignments, but any organization can sign up for the very practical free monthly newsletter, which always contains useful tips for effective online service management.

The July newsletter announces a new functionality of the site:

UNV has pioneered international online volunteering and this Web site provides a model for any organization considering a program of its own.  Start at the host page and see for yourself: http://www.onlinevolunteering.org/hosts/index.htm.

23 July: Past subscribers to The Journal of Volunteer Administration have been awaiting word of what would happen to this publication once AVA dissolved.  It has been transformed into The International Journal of Volunteer Administration (IJOVA, www.ijova.org), a refereed publication of the Department of 4-H Youth Development and Family and Consumer Sciences at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC, USA.  IJOVA “seeks to provide an exchange of ideas and a sharing of knowledge and insights about volunteerism and volunteer management and administration, both in North America and internationally.”  

Apart from the name change, IJOVA will be published electronically only from now on.  IJOVA is continuing the volume sequence of its predecessor and has just published the first issue of Volume XXIV.  With financial support from IMPACT: A Fund for Change Through Volunteerism,  all four issues of Volume XXIV will be posted via public domain and available free of charge to anyone with access to the Web.  

Six full articles and two book reviews are available to read or download now, and complete details about the new publication, its editorial board, and future plans can all be obtained at www.ijova.org.

Beginning in 2007, The IJOVA will move to a Web-based subscription-only publication.

16 July: Started by a group of passionate young volunteer managers in Singapore, MOVE (Managing and Organising Volunteer Effort) aims to promote and develop Volunteer Programme Managers (VPMs) and to professionalize the role of VPMs.  MOVE was  officially launched on 13 July at a celebration kicked off by the Chairman of the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) of Singapore.  A new Web site has been started at http://www.move.org.sg/.

As their press release stated:

Michael Loh, the Founding Chairman,  MOVE, further said:  “In 5 years, MOVE hopes to be able to professionalise the role of Volunteer Programme Managers thorough a comprehensive programme with a University of repute.”

An ambitious agenda for the next two years has been formulated, including:

• Networking
• Mentoring Circle
• Advocacy
• Job Definition.
• CEO Breakfast Roundtable Discussions
• Training and ResearchRecognitionStandards
• Accreditation

9 July:  The Japan Times online is reporting a story headlined "Show biz exploits 'volunteerism' image in packaging of latest teen idol."   It tells about Rina Suzuki, 16, known as Japan's first "volunteer idol," who was discovered by The Works Co., a TV production company that creates variety shows and dramas.   Their latest show is a first -- a program about a "volunteer teen idol."  In real life, Suzuki is a Tokyo high school junior who plays trombone and dreams of becoming an actress.

Her efforts appear to be paying off, with indications that the public is taking an interest in her activities. The Works Co. hascollaborated with a number of firms doing volunteer work, and a clothing manufacturer has even outfitted Suzuki with a "volunteer idol uniform." 

The article also notes, however: "But for the aspiring entertainer, it's not strictly about philanthropy. She made her debut as a singer in April."

2 July: The Red, White & Green! Youth Action Campaign is a new joint project of the nonprofit and nonpartisan Civil Society Institute and Youth Service America, who have announced the availability of 60 grants of $500 each for young people, ages 15-25, to create community service projects that address climate change.  They have a new activist twist, too:  Applicants are expected to develop and implement a service-learning project about climate change that engages their community AND candidates running for election in November 2006.  Get all the details at http://www.ysa.org/awards/award_grant.cfm#nowavailable.

An ambitious three-year project, Red, White & Green! is intended to encourage widespread youth engagement on the issue of climate change leading up to the 2008 national presidential election. Grantees will bring their project results and their public policy recommendations to Washington, DC for a three-day Youth Summit in late 2007. The young participants will share the outcomes and next steps of their service ventures, hear from climate change experts, and present their policy recommendations to Members of Congress, the Administration, and to candidates hoping to capture the White House in 2008.

 

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