The Association for Volunteer Administration (AVA) is no more. Susan muses on what we can learn from the demise of AVA to guide us in doing things better in the future and exhorts colleagues to take action.
There are some sterling examples of strong professional networks in our field, but they are sadly few and far between. Most are struggling. Why? Which came first: weak professional associations or a weak profession?
One of the most frustrating aspects of change in organizations is that too often newcomers initiate change simply out of preference without asking an important question first: Why and how did we end up where we are now?
The complete absence of discussion of volunteers in most professional academic curricula means many of our colleagues are unprepared to team with volunteers successfully. What can we do about it?
The volunteer world has been given a gift – unexpected but extraordinary. The gift is the Internet. Some of us have eagerly ripped open the wrapping and have been playing (quite seriously) with all the possibilities of this present.
At the risk of sounding like the Grinch, there is little to smile about this holiday season when it comes to the state of Volunteer Centers operated as internal programs of United Ways.
What are the roles of our field’s various professional societies and resource organizations, both in relation to each other and in terms of local, state/provincial, or national levels of operation? Susan examines the options.
After 27 years of true leadership in our field, the Minnesota Office of Citizenship and Volunteer Services has been summarily closed by Governor Jesse Ventura. How can this happen and what do the mixed messages mean?
2001 started with mixed reviews for the celebration of the International Year of Volunteers and ended with the efforts of volunteers responding to the terror of September 11th as a sign of undiminished community strength.
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.
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