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The future of volunteer management as a profession is a hot topic on both sides of the Atlantic, if not in other parts of the world. As evidence, consider the fact that the inaugural issue (Fall 2000) of e-Volunteerism featured several articles dealing with this subject.

If our field is to have a future that managers of volunteers sign up to, then those of us working in these roles must engage in the debates taking place around us. This requires an ability to plainly convey where our field is now to clearly articulate a vision of the future.

As the management of volunteers has grown as a vocation, so has the diversity of roles and responsibilities we all undertake in our work. Unfortunately, no contemporary clarity has been sought to categorise these roles. The phrase "volunteer management" now covers such a large range of options that it does not describe any of them well.

In this article, Rob Jackson attempts to map a truer picture of what this profession includes, and the implications of this for career development in the field.

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This article was published in e-Volunteerism: The Electronic Journal of the Volunteer Community. Subscribe now to access all the articles.