Susan's Pacific Adventure
Susan Ellis is on a 6-week tour conducting volunteer management workshops for leaders of volunteers in the Australasian region of the world. She is sharing her impressions, reflections, and some photographs here.
Susan's last posting is listed first.
Tuesday, 12 April 2005 - Philadelphia (back home again)
I returned to the office today after getting home close to midnight on Sunday night. Thanks to the International Date Line, I actually had two Sundays. The 24-hour trip and 14-hour time zone difference oddly negate jet lag. It's just plain confusing! Spring has arrived and the days are longer. Despite the huge to-do list awaiting me, it's good to be home.
It was an incredible trip and it will take me quite a while to decompress and sort through all my impressions. First I owe many heartfelt thank-you's to everyone who helped plan the tour, coordinated the 17 workshops, participated in the sessions, and made sure I played tourist as often as possible! It was so wonderful to transform keyboard colleagues into real faces and new friends.
As I thought about what I would write in this, my last posting for what was truly a "Pacific Adventure," I reflected on some of the themes that emerged in these weeks:
- No one in volunteer management is isolated any more. While we may still be the only person in our organization to focus on volunteers, we are not alone. The Web has made it possible for us to interact with colleagues everywhere and we are doing so with generosity and enthusiasm. Our exchange network grows as the world shrinks.
- We share a passion to "associate." Building on informal links already initiated, Singapore will be organizing its first volunteer program managers association during the next year due to agreements reached during one of my sessions there. AAVA (Australasian Association of Volunteer Administrators) emerged from the retreat in Canberra with renewed vision, determination, and commitments from several new board candidates. Volunteering New Zealand , the youngest national body in the region, is getting a new Executive Director as of May 1. But my workshop tour became a catalyst for cooperation among the regional volunteer centers and quite a bit of strategic, out-of-the-box thinking occurred during exchanges among key national and regional leaders. Being a midwife is a privilege and a blast!
- Despite recurring suspicion from some nonprofit folks, the tour proved again that for-profit consultants have a unique role to play in supporting volunteerism. OzVPM and People First-Total Solutions were able to reach across political, national, and turf boundaries to invite diverse players to a neutral table based on shared goals. But nothing could have happened had the two companies not been willing to invest huge time and energy in developing, marketing, and coordinating the trip, or taking the risk of sponsoring the unprecedented retreat without assured "funding." I gladly let Energize take the plunge with them into unknown waters. The success of the venture was a genuine contribution to the field, with the bonus of meeting the budget collectively through the costs shared by many. And Andy and Martin are now engaged in forming a Pacific Rim consortium (already including Hong Kong and Hawaii ) to keep the momentum going with future tours of speakers from a range of countries and specialities.
- Regardless of location, it is clear that we in volunteerism have mutual concerns. Some obvious ones include the aging of the world population, time-deprived and stressed workers, the desire of new volunteers for short-term projects, interest in corporate employee volunteering, and advocacy for student service-learning. Less expected was the universal issue of risk management, insurance coverage, and - as the New Zealanders mentioned in every session I ran - "health and safety" policies that pose barriers to volunteering. Also discussed was "crisis fatigue" from the long string of extraordinary natural disasters, especially the tsunami that hit this region so hard. Rebuilding will take many years, yet there is already evidence that the public is reaching its maximum ability to give money and time. All of these things drive the momentum toward professional exchange, as we all need to work together to find the best ways to adapt to what is happening around us and affecting volunteers.
I have one last oddity to share (hope you've enjoyed the humorous tidbits from early posts). The Sunday newspaper in Auckland on my last morning of the trip contained an article with a term new to me: chuggers . Combining the words "charity" and "muggers," the reporter noted the increasing aggressiveness of volunteers who work the street with donation tins. A Google search turned up a 2003 British use of the term in the Urban Dictionary . See http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=chugger. I just expanded my vocabulary along with my horizons!
It's been great fun to post my musings from this trip. Thanks for joining me on the tour. May you, too, have an opportunity for international adventure and professional exchange.
Friday, 8 April 2005 – Aukland, New Zealand
Today 60 people came to my sessions. This is the largest city in the country, with over a million people, and the workshop participants represented a wide range of organizations. One fascinating program is the “Walking School Bus,” which I just discovered is not unique to New Zealand. On the Web site, http://www.walkingschoolbus.org/, various country sites are linked and the program is described this way:
A walking school bus provides children with a safe and healthy mode of transportation to school. The idea is simple. The designated adult supervisor "picks up" each student, house by house, on foot. The group of students walk to school together along a set route, all the while enjoying fresh air, exercise and friendly conversation.
For more about the New Zealand version, plus photos, see http://www.pinnacleresearch.co.nz/WSB%20intro.htm.
On a more frivolous note, tonight when a group of loud, laughing women entered our restaurant, I learned about the Kiwi custom of “Hen’s Night.” This is a raucous female version of the bachelor or stag party, in which friends take a bride-to-be out on the town. But a requirement of the night is that the hapless bride must do anything and everything her friends demand during the evening! So I witnessed a grown woman wearing a short veil, fake tiara, blue lei, purple bloomers, and hair curlers! And the evening had just begun. Apparently (as was explained to me by my Volunteering Aukland hosts), activities might include having to rub a bald man’s head, kiss some man with red hair, or other embarrassing but good natured antics. When we left the restaurant, the party was gaily sipping drinks from straws shaped like male genitalia.
Thursday, 7 April 2005 – on the Overlander train from Wellington to Auckland, New Zealand
Hard to believe there is only one city left to visit on this long trip. Thinking back over the last weeks, I have so many impressions to sort through. On Monday in Christchurch I ran two half-day sessions, one on recruiting volunteers and one on using cyberspace in volunteer management; yesterday in Wellington I conducted the same workshop on volunteer/employee relations as I did in four Australian cities. Once again I was struck by how similar the participant reactions, questions, and concerns were to colleagues everywhere. A few things are quite different, of course. First, living in a country of only 3.5 million people does mean that there is a finite number of possible volunteers in the small communities that are spread out across New Zealand. Of course, there is a finite number of qualified/available paid staff, too!
New Zealand has decriminalized prostitution, enacted stringent anti-smoking laws, and is very tolerant of homosexuality. It’s a place that seems traditional and liberal at the same time.
I keep hearing about new “health and safety” regulations and this seems to be the New Zealand version of the same risk management – or avoidance/aversion – seen everywhere.
The
Māori tribes have always had a more successful relationship with
the European newcomers to New Zealand than native peoples elsewhere,
but it is only in the last decade or so that legal agreements have
been reached to reinstate the Māori language and cultural traditions
side by side with the dominant English culture. So today Māori
is being learned by many Pākehā (British/European)
people and it appears alongside English on signage in government buildings
and tourist sites (often shown first).
The Māori (who trace their ancestry to the Pacific Islanders who also populated Hawaii’i) are integrated into all levels of society including, of course, volunteer management. But formal, agency-based volunteer activities still seek ways to engage more Māori, who tend to view service to community as a natural and informal extension of family life. In fact, there is a strong “obligation” to serve – which is a rough translation of a concept that is more willingly accepted than reluctantly fulfilled. Recent immigrants to New Zealand, especially those from Pacific Rim countries, are visibly expanding the available pool of volunteers and the way in which service occurs.
Volunteer
Wellington invited board members, corporate representatives, government
ministers, and other community leaders to a “soiree” at
which I spoke about global trends in volunteerism amidst New Zealand
wine and cheese. Afterwards, Roger Tweedy (right) – a long-time
volunteer leader who is active in AAVA and IAVE – presented
me with a patu, a beautifully carved wooden implement that
is a Māori symbol of leadership. It’s both a piece of art
and a weapon. Roger actually researched whether it was appropriate
to give this gift to a woman and was asked: “Is she powerful
and strong?” Roger said yes and so I received this lovely token
in thanks for my efforts to support volunteerism in New Zealand. I
was truly honored.
Monday, 4 April 2005 - Christchurch , New Zealand
Yes,
New Zealand really IS this ruggedly beautiful! I arrived in Christchurch
yesterday afternoon and was met by Mary Woods, a board member of Volunteering
New Zealand and author of Volunteers:
A Guide for Volunteers and Their Organisations (sold online
in the OzVPM Bookstore). She generously spent the next five hours
driving me across the southern island to see the mountains, stopping
at various limestone boulder formations (one is pictured with Mary
below), waterfalls, Maori sacred places, and many breathtaking overlooks.
She also explained many fascinating things to me, such as the fact
that New Zealand has no native animals at all (the Europeans brought
whatever is here now) and therefore many of its birds were larger
and could barely fly (no predators). Also, the flowers in the mountains
are all shades of white so they will glow in the dark and be visible
to the moths which do the pollination here instead of butterflies.
Christchurch itself is a city with clear English architectural roots. However, the workshop today started with a traditional Maori welcome to me. This meant two tribal descendents speaking in the Maori language and then in English, the whole workshop group singing a Maori song, and then a kiss from the welcomers. Quite lovely. They also asked me where I was born and therefore what mountain and river I consider "mine." As I was born in Manhattan , I chose the Empire State Building as my mountain (which felt strangely right) and the Hudson as my river.
Happily, the workshop went well and I was once again confirmed in my observation that much more connects all of us in this volunteer field than separates us. I did commit one faux pas that I will not repeat in my next workshops: At some point in the afternoon I leaned against and briefly sat on the desk in the front of the room. Apparently the Maoris consider it offensive to sit on any table surface that might be used to serve food. My mistake was noticed by several people who excused my poor manners as I clearly was unaware of my transgression. I appreciated Mary's discrete note about it afterwards. Cultural differences 101.
Saturday, 2 April 2005 - Canberra , Australia
It will take a while to decompress from the intensity and delight of the retreat that ended last night. Everyone agreed that the 48 hours far exceeded even our highest expectations and that we had participated in something that would be talked about for years to come. We will be writing about the program in the upcoming issue of our journal, e-Volunteerism , along with audio "sound bites" I recorded of people explaining what made the two days an "advanced" experience. Andy has already posted some nice photos and a brief summary on OzVPM at http://www.ozvpm.com/training/retreatreport2005.htm . Here are just a few thoughts from me:
- This was the first time ever that those who self-identify with the profession of volunteer management in Australia met at a national event. There have been national conferences for volunteering , but never for volunteer management. So the opportunity to exchange ideas across state/territory boundaries was exciting to many of the participants in ways that I, as an American who is used to such networking, had not understood before witnessing it.
- Participants came from all of the Australian states and territories (although Tasmania was represented by someone who was born there but now works in another state), myself from the US , three colleagues from New Zealand , and one from Singapore . The Aussies and Kiwis have a relationship that is reminiscent of that between Americans and Canadians: while we recognize and even value our similarities, there is competition and resentment of the influence of the larger, louder neighbor over the less-populated, quieter one. At this retreat, the New Zealanders felt completely welcomed (they were) and initiated genuine dialogue about more ways to work together in the Australasian region. And Lam Moy Yin, who had been my primary connection during my week in Singapore , felt the retreat was "life changing" for her in expanding her personal and professional horizons.
- The still-fledgling Australasian Association of Volunteer Administrators (AAVA, www.aava.asn.au) was well-represented at the retreat by key officers and we gave them a seminar slot in which to present their goals and also get feedback from the group. This turned out to be a powerful jump past some perceived barriers and several retreat participants have now volunteered to serve on AAVA's board of directors while others committed to get involved in other ways. Again, this was a great learning opportunity for Moy Yin - with amazing timing since the decision to move forward on forming a professional association in Singapore had been made there during one of my sessions two weeks ago. So AAVA and retreat folks will be assisting Singapore as they start their network over the next year.
- The closing session of the retreat introduced the slogan: "Not just 50, not just 3." The strong sense of the group was that the retreat could not just be limited in its impact to the lucky people who had the chance to be in this first retreat, nor could it be deemed "over" at the end of the 3rd day. So it was decided to commit to a second retreat next year (thanks to Andy and Martin who are willing to take the lead annually), to a retreat-alumni-only special listserv through OzVPM (to which subsequent alumni will be added each year), and to a variety of quite specific actions to put into practice the ideas generated during the retreat.
Wow!
Andy, Martin, Moy Yin and I spent last evening together seeing Canberra by night. It's a truly beautiful place, planned for its visual effects. The most special thing we did, however, was visit the National Emergency Services Memorial - only the second monument in the capital's "triangle" area that is not connected to the military or war dead (the other is for nurses). At night the monument is ghostly and dramatic, constantly surprising the viewer with suddenly visible faces and emotional rescue scenes. It's worth a moment to read about it and see the daytime photo
s
at http://www.archmedia.com.au/aa/aaprintissue.php?issueid=200409&article=5 . Andy was privileged to be part of the committee that worked
for months to select the winner of the design competition, debate
the wording of the plaques, and make all the other small and large
decisions that go into this sort of project. The contribution of which
he is most proud is getting the word "volunteerism" included in a
list of key emergency response words carved all around the back of
the moment. Here's the photo I took in the dark.
Spent today doing more sightseeing in Canberra and then going to my first Australian Rules football game ("footy") with Martin. We cheered the North Melbourne Kangaroos to their victory over the Sydney Swans.
Thursday, 31 March
2005 – Canberra, Australia
I’m
writing this journal entry at the end of a very long but satisfying,
challenging and fun day. The 1st Annual Retreat for Advanced Volunteer
Management is at its half-way point. The 50 of us here have been deep
in provocative conversation and exchange about the philosophy and
values of volunteerism, key trends affecting the field, and the future
of volunteer management. We’ve also introduced Ivan Scheier’s
concept of “Support Circles” (anyone who participated
in one of Ivan’s Challenge Think Tanks in the 80s and 90s will
remember those): four colleagues meet together as a team for four
sessions, during which they rotate consulting with each other on a
personal question of each participant’s choice.
If you are wondering how the Queen and Prince happened to join us, they were part of a wonderful special event this evening at Old Parliament House here in Canberra, the capital of Australia. The Volunteer and Visitor Coordinator of this historic building, Jenny Morley, invited the entire retreat group to the historic site for a reenactment of, first, the visit of the Queen to the building in the 1950s and, second, a debate in the Parliament on conscription in the 1960s. Her Majesty (see above!) was wearing a dress that was embroidered with emblems of all her Commonwealth countries, with the Australian wattle (national floral emblem) stitched closest to her heart! A combination of volunteers and paid staff acted their parts beautifully, along with several of the retreat participants. Really a great program, both for enjoyment and as an example of creative volunteer work.
I do have one special item to report. Andy and I met Hugh Jackman at Canberra airport!! Yes, THAT Hugh Jackman. Andy recognized him despite the effective anonymity of a two-day beard, t-shirt, and baseball cap. I overcame a full body flush and actually went up and spoke to him. He was friendly and charming, and seemed genuinely pleased that I had seen him (and loved him) on Broadway in Boy from Oz. I can’t think of any other Aussie celebrity I would have rather met! Bliss.
Tuesday,
29 March 2005 – Adelaide, Australia
Did
my fourth workshop on volunteer/staff relations here today and am
ready to take a break from that subject! But we had a good group and
we were all rested from the Easter holiday. Martin surprised me with
my very own chocolate bilby. I snapped this photo so that you could
compare the real one below with the candy version. It was yummy, too.
Forgot to mention that Daylight Savings changed here on Sunday morning. But on this side of the globe it’s autumn, so the clocks “fell back” to standard time. When I return home to Philadelphia, we will have “sprung forward” into our Daylight Savings time. This really makes me feel upside down.
Monday, 28 March
2005 – Adelaide, Australia
I’ve
had a wonderful few days off over this long Easter break – Australians
get both Good Friday and Easter Monday as major holidays from work.
Thought you might enjoy knowing that the Easter Bunny is slowly being
replaced here in Oz by the “Easter Bilby.” Rabbits are
seen as pests here, endangering small wildlife and plants. The bilby
is a native endangered species that needs attention and so a movement
was formed to make it the replacement bringer of chocolates for Easter
(those remain the same foil-covered chocolate eggs and bunnies as
always). The picture to the left of a real bilby comes from http://www.ecobeach.com.au/activities/fauna.htm.
To read all about the movement “Bilbies not Bunnies,”
see: http://members.optusnet.com.au/bilbies/Easter_Bilby.htm.
Volunteers in action!
Andy
Fryar and his 11-year-old daughter Christie took me on a side trip
to the Grampians in Victoria. This is an absolutely beautiful mountain
area and national park. We visited The Wool Factory in Horsham, where
Christie snapped this fun photograph of an unusual sheep and sheepdog.
The Wool Factory, founded in 1983, is a remarkable example of innovative
community work. It was formed primarily as a jobs program for people
with disabilities and today is a world-recognized producer of the
highest grade wool. It’s still run by the volunteers on the
management committee. Read more at: http://www.farmindex.com.au/vertical.cfm?contentid=8352.
Just
so no one forgets they are really in Australia, you can take a picture
at the “Giant Koala.” Who could pass it up? That’s
Christie with me.
I had coffee this morning with Joy Noble, one of the true pioneers of volunteerism in Australia and co-author of several great books, including the original edition of Volunteer Management: An Essential Guide, which Andy revised in 2003. We traded stories of life in the field back in the 1970s and then observed how far the profession has come, even if there are lots of barriers yet to overcome.
Tomorrow it’s back to work here in Adelaide with the last of my four touring seminars. Then we’re off to Canberra for the Retreat on Advanced Volunteer Management.
Wednesday, 22 March
2005 - Adelaide, Australia
I have been out of Internet contact for a few days, but continuing
my trek around Oz. On Monday I gave a workshop in Brisbane in
the state of Queensland, which calls itself "The Sunshine State" and
has weather like our American Florida. Among the participants
in that session were two volunteer coordinators from the "Fire Ant
Control Project" (see http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/fireants/7284.html
for some details and click around to learn more about fire ants in
general), something that is unique to this area of the country.
When seeking the link to the fire ant program, I also found the "sea-grass
watch" project, which you all might enjoy, too: http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/news/NewsReleases/6965.html.
My local host in Brisbane was Volunteering
Queensland (http://www.volunteeringqueensland.org.au),
one of the "peak bodies" in this country that is doing some imaginative
work in connecting the concept of traditional volunteering into
community development efforts. To get some sense of what this
means, see: http://www.volunteeringqueensland.org.au/leadership/index.html.
I've already started talking to the VQ folks to generate an article
for e-Volunteerism about their work.
Today I conducted a workshop at Lyell
McEwin Regional Volunteer Association, where Andy Fryar is Executive
Officer. This is a thriving, innovative volunteer effort with
a number of unique programs. See http://www.lyellmcewinvolunteers.org.au/ to learn more.
For one thing, the Association is self-incorporated and runs a range
of services directly, though all in direct support of the Lyell
McEwin Regional Health Service. It's worthwhile to see how they
have set up their Web site to highlight their history, their data
and accomplishments, and how to get involved.
During the course of the morning, I learned
about a lovely project idea at Tregenza Avenue Aged Care Services,
a residential senior care facility in this area. For a month,
the volunteer program has been taking residents on a "cruise of
the world." Each Wednesday they have been setting down anchor
at a different destination port. Today it is Hawaii; last
week it was Ireland (for St. Patrick's Day). The volunteers
dress in appropriate costumes -- yes, a few are wearing grass skirts
today (sorry, no photos) -- and the lunch menu is also related
(pineapple and ham today). Later in the afternoon the volunteers
show a movie or pictures including views of the site being "visited."
Later this year they'll take the residents on a "bus tour" following
the same process. Residents and volunteers alike have a lot
of fun with this. I discovered the project after noticing that the
coordinator of volunteers at my session had a live flower
behind her ear. She welcomed me to share this concept with you.
Now I get a few days off for the Easter holiday period, with my next workshop scheduled for Tuesday in Adelaide, followed by the much-awaited Advanced Volunteer Management Retreat in Canberra. I expect to share many stories from that. Happy holidays to those of you who celebrate Easter and enjoy the weekend everyone!
Friday, 18 March 2005 - Sydney , Australia
Today was a true day off for me in this beautiful city, so I decided to give you all a break from professional musings, too! So here I am in the quintessential Sydney tourist photograph, showing the harbor, Opera House and bridge.
I also walked through the lovely botanical gardens and found their Welcome sign to be fun to share:
Finally, when Andy Fryar visited the US for the first time, he kept taking pictures of squirrels, which are unknown in Australia . On the other hand, white ibis birds are quite common throughout Sydney public parks, so I snapped their photo for my album. What I couldn't capture was the creepy sound of hundreds of furry BATS hanging upside down in the trees over my head! I thought they would be completely silent during the day, but they shrieked and often moved around (snoring?). Yuck.
The workshop here yesterday went well and I have the rest of the weekend off before training again in Brisbane on Monday. Hope you all have a nice weekend, too.
Tuesday, 15 March 2005 - Melbourne, Australia
Greetings
from Australia! Here's a photo taken just before the start of my first
workshop 
in
Melbourne . I'm with my hosts for this tour of Oz. On the left is
Martin Cowling of People First - Total Solutions ( www.pfts.com.au/
) and on the right is Andy Fryar of OzVPM ( www.ozvpm.com
). We had a busy day, starting with a breakfast meeting of the
"City Network" of volunteer programme managers in Melbourne and then
the full-day workshop session "From Resistance to Respect."
During the course of the day I learned something quite surprising. It's that "senior volunteering" is not a focus of the sector here. There are no government initiatives urging older Australians to volunteer (though, of course, many do) and no national organizations such as RSVP. But there's also a major obstacle to senior service and that is that Australian insurance carriers will not insure people over a certain age for any accident or liability incurred in any work or volunteering capacity. In fact, it is common for an organization to have to let long-time volunteers go simply because they reach the age cap! Even worse, the age of such forced retirement from active life varies from state to state. From what I was told, in some parts of Australia no one over age 65 can be insured. In other places agreements have been reached to permit volunteering to age 73. No one is "forbidden" from continuing to be active in service, but each person must decide individually whether or not to accept the risk of no coverage.
Given the global aging of the population, advances in quality of life at higher ages, and the research showing that volunteering is a key factor in maintaining physical and mental health, it is incomprehensible to me - as an American, of course - that the usually-civilized Australian service sector would have evolved this sort of mean-spirited, arbitrary, and counter-productive situation! The good news is that the volunteer community here is well aware of the problem and is fighting it, which is why the age has been set back a bit in some parts of the country.
Friday, 11 March 2005 - Singapore
I have just finished a full-day session with corporate employee volunteer program managers, most of whom are still in the early stages of developing their programs. But the issue of the day was a story on the front page of the main newspaper, the Straits Times (http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg). With the headline, "Chalking up charity points the easy way," the article dealt with public dissatisfaction with the "CIP" plan -- community involvement programme. I'd been told about CIP almost every day of my visit here, almost always in a negative way. The idea of mandating pre-university students to do community service was seen as antithetical to volunteering, though I was bemused to discover this terrible requirement was for only 6 hours a year! According to today's front page story, the requirement has now been "scrapped." This debate seems endlessly universal, doesn't it? But I can't help thinking that moving from advocacy of the idea to ending it entirely is something of an over-reaction. See what you think of the story.
It has been a busy week here and it has sped by for me. I have really enjoyed all my interactions and can see much progress here since my first visit in 2001 when the Centre ran the first-ever volunteering conference in Singapore. Enthusiasm is high for learning about volunteer management. I've been encouraging people to join in on OzVPM and CyberVPM, so I hope we'll all be able to exchange more ideas.
Wednesday,
09 March 2005 - Singapore
Just
a quick posting and a new photo today. The 2-day "Beyond the
Basics" workshop has been very interesting. The organizations
range from several Muslim self-help groups and even a mosque seeking
to do more formal volunteer programming, to the National Library Board
that wants to incorporate volunteers for the first time into the Singapore
library system. So it all sounds familiar...but with a twist!
Monday, 07 March
2005 – Singapore
My intensive week of workshops has begun in this bustling,
multicultural, tropical country. Today the National Volunteer &
Philanthropy Centre held an “NPO Forum” on “The
Latest Trends and Best Practices in Volunteer Management.” Over
150 people attended from a wide range of organizations, some familiar
to a westerner (YMCA, Hospice Care Association, The Salvation Army,
Singapore Red Cross Society) and others that are uniquely from this
part of the world (Thye Hua Kwan Moral Society, Here’s Life!
Community Development Ltd., Crisis Relief Society of Singapore, Realm
of Tranquility, and the World Toilet Organisation). Everyone in the
room, however, shared a common focus on strengthening volunteer engagement.
First we learned the results of the “Survey on Individual Giving 2004: Volunteerism Findings” – the third such data gathering since 2000. Volunteering rates have risen in Singapore over these past four years, and the trends here clearly are in line with the rest of the world: more desire for short-term assignments, lowest involvement from people over age 60, strong correlation between giving time and giving money. One interesting cultural twist is that – by a large margin – people here prefer to volunteer with family or friends rather than alone as individuals.
Apart from my keynote on international trends in the field, this was a day to launch the new book just published by the Centre: Best Practices in Volunteer Management. In it, eight organizations that have been successful in involving many volunteers are analyzed and described to help readers learn from the practices they employ:
- Asian Women’s Welfare Association
- Dover Park Hospice
- Fei Yue Family Service Centre
- Friends of the Museums ( Singapore)
- Lions Befriender Service Association ( Singapore)
- Singapore Children’s Society
- Singapore Indian Development Association
- TOUCH Community Services
The photo above shows representatives of the eight featured organizations surrounding a blow-up of the cover. Tan Chee Koon, Chief Executive Officer of the Centre, is immediately to the left of the poster. [News flash: I’ve already negotiated the right to sell this new book electronically in the Energize Online Bookstore! Stay tuned for details when I return.]
The Tsunami Relief
Experience
I have also been learning how the Centre played a vital role
in coordinating Singaporean relief efforts after the tsunami at the
start of the year. Singapore was spared physical damage from the disaster,
but its proximity to the hardest hit countries literally meant that
the crisis was close to home. Within days the Centre had established
a hot line for people seeking information on relief projects and set
up their Web site to answer questions and direct people to active
organizations (something they learned to do two years ago when the
SARS epidemic hit). As a neutral party, they convened weekly meetings
of all the relief groups to allow them to coordinate their efforts.
They responded to special collective needs such as securing warehouse
space to store the mountain of goods donated by companies and individuals,
and facilitated the movement of these items to the tsunami-affected
areas by matching items with needs and working with logistics companies
to move the items to the respective ports of call.
Any disaster elicits an outpouring of spontaneous offers to volunteer. The Centre fielded such offers, making it clear to callers that initially the need was mainly for skilled personnel, such as doctors, nurses, and construction engineers. The Centre explained that, as time goes on, there will be need for other sorts of support in the rebuilding phases, and so are keeping a file of the names and addresses of those people willing to be contacted later in the year. About 2,000 people contacted the Centre about how to volunteer within the two weeks following the tsunami.
The Centre is planning to document their experience in this crisis and produce a manual for disaster response, both for their own use in the future and to share with others.
4 March 2005 Seattle Airport
I am on the first leg of this marvelous trip, awaiting
the flight to Tokyo and then on to Singapore. It is fun for me to
think about journalling this trip for our Web visitors. I welcome
the opportunity to share volunteer-related news from other countries
and to reflect on my impressions as I go. This will be my third visit
to both Singapore and Australia, but my first to New Zealand.
Volunteerism is thriving in all three countries and I am always impressed
at the level of thoughtfulness our colleagues there bring to workshops.
They are always challenging for the trainer--in the best way!
You can learn more about my itinerary, if you wish, by checking out
these sites:
For Singapore (next week): http://www.nvpc.org.sg/
-- while you're there, browse around the site of the National Volunteer
and Philanthropy Centre to their wonderful, upbeat approach to our
field.
For Australia (the rest of March) for details of my workshops in Melbourne,
Brisbane, Sydney, and Adelaide, as well as a very exciting 3-day retreat
in Canberra, co-training with Andy Fryar and Martin Cowling (sponsors
of my tour) – see http://www.ozvpm.com
– another site well worth your time.
I end the trip with a week in New Zealand, doing workshops in Christchurch,
Wellington and Auckland: http://www.volcan.org.nz/events.htm,
http://www.volunteerwellington.org.nz/wkshop205.htm
Yes, I plan to get my rest on the long plane flights! More from
me next week....
Susan
