BROADENING THE DEFINITION OF VOLUNTEERING
The term volunteering has become passé: to engage citizens
we need to promote active citizenship.
As next week is National Volunteer Week, it is important to take time and rejoice in Canada’s 6.5 million volunteers that make our communities better. It is also a week to reflect on the idea of volunteering and how more people can become involved. In this vein, I would like to propose a bold statement: volunteering is dead.
This statement may cause some people to be upset, others defensive, but before you put down the paper exclaiming, “rubbish!” hear me out. In its place, I propose that active citizen engagement is more effective. Now you might put down your cereal spoon and cry, “semantics!” However, the difference between volunteering and active citizen engagement is small - but very real. Volunteering refers to a structured donation of time, whereas active citizen engagement is a spontaneous, organic method of participation.
Communities must let go of the notion that only contributions made through structured methods of volunteering count. Ad hoc community action can often be, more powerful. For example, when asked if she volunteers, the women who helps her elderly neighbour by mowing her lawn and taking her grocery shopping, would probably answer no, even though her action is very imperative to societal well-being. Does this woman care less because she doesn’t formerly volunteer?
The danger with the mindset that, acts of kindness need to take place in a prearranged way, is that it may discourage people from contributing by discounting the spontaneous donation of time, and making it seem trivial. In reality, acts of participating in a community through joining sports teams, attending social events, taking an interest in the arts, donating to bottle drives and interacting with your neighbours are all ways that help grow neighbourhoods and extend citizens’ roots deep into the community. The more involvement there is in a community the safer and healthier it will be, as its citizens have a vested interest.
It is time for leaders in the Greater Vancouver area to promote spontaneous acts of involvement. In this era of fast-paced lives and dual-income households people will have a diminishing amount of time and energy for traditional methods of volunteering. We should not berate this but instead encourage more flexible forms of action. By expanding our conception and definition of volunteer to citizen active engagement all of us in Canada will benefit.
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Integrated Human Resources
It is the absolute beauty of the not-for-profit world that we have access to all kinds of human resources, all kinds of talent, all kinds of experience. The more people with specific experience and skills that we involve in mission delivery the more rich and thick and full the reach of the organization. So much more can be accomplished – and there are so many roles to play. Are we able to engage a large number of people with experience and skills to work with us?
Over the years not-for-profit organizations have grown to involve volunteers in two distinct ways: as members of the board and in service delivery. When we really examine that, it seems there must be more and better ways.
At Volunteer Vancouver, we think that one better way might be “Integrated Human Resources.” By that we mean that we recognize all the roles that organizations have to deliver their mission can be filled by a workforce of paid staff and volunteers. Every time we have a new idea and think of working in a different way, we must think about what skill sets we require and if it is best to have a paid staff position - or if the role can be constructed in a way that a volunteer can do the task. So as we examine our human resources, we construct a plan that includes all paid staff and volunteers. It is totally integrated. There are paid and volunteer staff members at every level of the organization, not only in the traditional places. The Integrated Human Resources Plan at VV includes how we maintain roles for some past Board members, how we react to volunteers with special skill sets that walk into VV, which volunteers we have (and also will require) to manage projects, which staff might be leaving, which might be potential maternity leaves, which volunteers are on advisory committees, which volunteers and which staff are acting as mentors, which staff know parts of the Executive’s role, which volunteers have traditional roles, what team volunteer opportunities we have, and which volunteers and which staff can be part of our extensive training and consulting team. It is about what skill sets we lack in both staff and volunteers – and where we lack diversity in the kinds of people that work with us.
Developing an Integrated Human Resource Plan is a task for the senior staff person, the Executive. It is that position that must wholeheartedly embrace volunteer engagement. The role must examine all the ways of delivering the mission - and that often means engaging many individuals that are more skilled than the Exec and many of the staff. That means, like a parent, s/he must be confident and secure – and willing to involve many people in the life of the organization to make it rich and viable. The Exec must be able to engage varied skills and much experience. The Exec must ensure the organization truly makes a significant and sustainable contribution to planet Earth.
Over the years not-for-profit organizations have grown to involve volunteers in two distinct ways: as members of the board and in service delivery. When we really examine that, it seems there must be more and better ways.
At Volunteer Vancouver, we think that one better way might be “Integrated Human Resources.” By that we mean that we recognize all the roles that organizations have to deliver their mission can be filled by a workforce of paid staff and volunteers. Every time we have a new idea and think of working in a different way, we must think about what skill sets we require and if it is best to have a paid staff position - or if the role can be constructed in a way that a volunteer can do the task. So as we examine our human resources, we construct a plan that includes all paid staff and volunteers. It is totally integrated. There are paid and volunteer staff members at every level of the organization, not only in the traditional places. The Integrated Human Resources Plan at VV includes how we maintain roles for some past Board members, how we react to volunteers with special skill sets that walk into VV, which volunteers we have (and also will require) to manage projects, which staff might be leaving, which might be potential maternity leaves, which volunteers are on advisory committees, which volunteers and which staff are acting as mentors, which staff know parts of the Executive’s role, which volunteers have traditional roles, what team volunteer opportunities we have, and which volunteers and which staff can be part of our extensive training and consulting team. It is about what skill sets we lack in both staff and volunteers – and where we lack diversity in the kinds of people that work with us.
Developing an Integrated Human Resource Plan is a task for the senior staff person, the Executive. It is that position that must wholeheartedly embrace volunteer engagement. The role must examine all the ways of delivering the mission - and that often means engaging many individuals that are more skilled than the Exec and many of the staff. That means, like a parent, s/he must be confident and secure – and willing to involve many people in the life of the organization to make it rich and viable. The Exec must be able to engage varied skills and much experience. The Exec must ensure the organization truly makes a significant and sustainable contribution to planet Earth.
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