Marking a Special Birthday

March 2007 brings Energize, Inc.’s 30th birthday!  All the clichés about “where did the time go?” definitely spring to mind, as does the thought: “Boy, I must have been very young to have had the audacity to set off on this adventure!” 

Milestones like this deserve celebration – such as a whole new make-over!  On March 19th you’re invited to the start of a virtual party when we unveil a fresh new look for Energize and this Web site, itself now 10 years old (which, in Internet terms, is positively ancient).  We’ll have a new logo, graphics, and color scheme – but be assured that all the content you value here will continue to be available.  As the year progresses, we’ll be introducing some new, free elements, too, including a podcast of the Hot Topic each month and some wonderful downloadable artwork.  It may be our birthday, but we wanted to give you some gifts!   (If you’re not already a subscriber to our free monthly e-Update, this would be a great time to sign up – you’ll get your personal invitation to the party and be kept informed about all the new things happening here.  Click here to sign up.)

One of the tasks the team at Energize set ourselves as part of the process of refreshing our image for 2007 was to re-articulate the mission statement of our company.  So, here is what we stand for:

Why These Words?  What Do They Mean to Us?

In 2002, when Energize celebrated its 25th birthday, I wrote a Hot Topic called “The World According to Volunteer Experience.”  Immodestly, I think it’s worth a second read today.  I focused then on the positives, which still vastly outweigh nagging doubts, minor irritations, and major sources of outrage.  However, the single biggest issue confronting Energize as a company and my personal career has remained constant despite 30 years of continuous attempts to improve it:  the pervasive ignorance of the true value of volunteers, resulting in lack of attention and resources to their support.  All of us tilt daily at the windmill of stereotypes and prejudice about who volunteers, what they do and why they do it.   And, until volunteers are recognized for their vital role in society, the people who lead volunteer efforts will not be valued either.

This is why our mission statement has strong words: empower and inspire; unleashing the power of volunteers.  Politically and ethically, we hold volunteering as a value critical to community life, social change, and personal growth.  Of course some volunteers are helpers by choice and some agencies relegate them to low-level tasks (while missing the irony of the governance authority of board volunteers at the other end of the spectrum).  But the type of volunteering that we at Energize hold most dear is risk taking, acting on the front lines, standing up to those in power by questioning the status quo – all the things that volunteers are especially able to do by the very nature of their independence and courage. 

Energize’s way of supporting volunteers, however, is to serve leaders of volunteers worldwide, both by providing  relevant, innovative resources in volunteer management and by consciously bringing recognition of the role they play in enabling volunteers to be the most effective.  That’s why we are determined advocates in educating beyond the volunteer management field itself.  We work to inform executives and key decision makers, as well as people in other professions who work side-by-side with volunteers daily.  We also reach out to those who do not necessarily self-identify as “leaders of volunteers” but who should, from college alumni directors to emergency response officers to pro bono services coordinators.  There are thousands of us mobilizing an incredible spectrum of community resources and we’d be stronger if we understood that we have more in common than what’s different about us.  For the same reason, Energize actively promotes international exchange – mindful, too, that volunteers hold the power of private citizens united by mutual causes, regardless of political and geographical boundaries.

Finally, we carefully chose the words creating and selecting the resources we provide to you.  Our goal is to discover and share the excellent volunteer management materials already out there, but with few distribution mechanisms.  We know that some of you still resist books in electronic format, but the ability to find gems from around the world and make them accessible to everyone is probably the biggest gift of the Internet to a small company like Energize.  This Web site is a portal by design.  We try to guide you to the best information we’ve found from as many different sources as possible.  Only when there are gaps in what’s already available do we create our own materials for the field, holding ourselves to high standards of quality.  Our journal, e-Volunteerism, furthers this goal by offering a forum for any colleague with something to share with others, globally.

This 30th birthday is less a commemoration than a fresh start.  There’s so much left to do and we want to keep doing it. 

A Word of Thanks

This is a good time to express my enormous gratitude to the staff at Energize for their hard work and devotion to our mission.  Particular thanks to our Webmaster Kristin Floyd, who has been part of Energize for 14 years and the behind-the-scenes architect of this Web site from the beginning.  I also appreciate the many colleagues with whom I work – and sometimes commiserate – regularly for being good friends well beyond our professional contacts.  A sailor may have a “woman in every port”; I often note that I have a “colleague in every city”!

Share the Changes You’ve Seen and Your Mission

Please celebrate our 30th birthday with us!  Come back on or after the 19th and get your free art gift, sign our greeting card, and see our new look.  Here’s what I’d like to know in response to this Hot Topic:

• How long have you been in the field of volunteer management and what has been the biggest change, or biggest surprise, or most important thing you’ve learned?
• How would you express your personal “mission statement”?  Why are you committed to this field and what do you want to accomplish in it?