Susan reflects on how volunteer management requires a special world view within a culture so focused on economic gain. Read her version of "Everything I Needed to Know in Life, I Learned from Working with Volunteers."
Now more than ever, we need to focus on root causes and prevention of new problems. Are we engaging enough volunteers, enough of the time, in advocacy and activism along with direct services?
No matter how long I work in this field, I simply will never understand why so few of our attempts at educating decision-makers seem to stick. Maybe funders have to add their clout to their money.
Perhaps the most unique thing about working with volunteers is our perspective on cash. We don't need as much of it as other departments do. This financial freedom allows us a different approach to the subject of funding.
April brings National Volunteer Week in the USA and, as I feel every year, I wonder if anyone cares. Certainly just about no one outside of our field has ever heard of National Volunteer Week. Why?
The phrase “streams of service” conveys the image of various forms of service, all starting from different sources, eventually combining into a mighty river. Or do we just have puddles? IYV provides a prism throught which to see our field.
Ivan Scheier's new book is about dreams that die while others live and prosper. And he shares how we can be both a dreamer or a “Dream-Catcher”--a person who nurtures the dream-chaser towards accomplishing the dream.
Guest writer Linda Graff points out: "When an organization says let's do a cost-benefit analysis on volunteer involvement, it seems a reasonable thing to do...[but] we don't know how to measure the value of volunteering." Provocative and important reading.
As more formerly nonprofit services become for-profit businesses, the question of whether or not volunteers should continue to give unpaid time in such settings deserves attention. The answer is not always clear.
Happy New Year and new millennium! Susan uses this milestone to envision her hopes for the future of professional development in our field, along with some move-it-forward resolutions.
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