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.
It is over two years since the United Nations declared 2001 as International Year of Volunteers. While this fact has been broadly publicized, many are rightfully disappointed in what is NOT happening.
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.
Here's a caution to all to examine the assumptions behind the “conclusions” reached by the new Independent Sector “Giving and Volunteering” in the U.S. study--or any other attempt to quantify volunteer activity.
PricewaterhouseCoopers' "Performance Measurement Study of Americas Promises Commitments" is breathtaking in its arrogance, trumpeting out activity data as if doing something is equivalent to accomplishing something.
Why are so many academic research studies on some variation on the theme of what motivates people to volunteer? They reflect researcher inexperience with real-life volunteers and an inability to frame more complex questions deserving of study.
Susan admits to dissatisfaction at the repetitive format of professional conferences that have a "sameness" that is increasingly feeling dull. What other options are there for producing great learning events?
Leaders of volunteers around the globe are making conscious efforts to connect with one another and we need to foster such communication more actively. Looking ahead to the UN's International Year of Volunteers 2001, we can take advantage of this pending event to create exchanges among the leaders of volunteer efforts -- beyond IYV. [This Hot Topic remained active through August 1998 to permit more responses from global colleagues.]
States were mandated to create a a "Commission on Community Service" to administer federal funds and several merged their Commissions with previously-established State Offices on Volunteerism. Caution!
A year after the Presidents' Summit, Susan evaluates developments from the volunteerism perspective. Some local activities have been wonderful, but the promised mobilization to help youth has not yet materialized.
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