Submitted on 03Sept28 by Tricia Passuth, Community Medical Center, New Jersey
USA
I strongly feel that Volunteer Management needs to be considered
a profession. Our field needs more credibility and awareness. I have worked
with
a large
hospital system for 11 years with 8 being the Volunteer Director. My program
consisted of 1,200 active volunteers. However with the healthcare crisis
rising our hospital, as many had to, resorted to lay offs. My position has
been eliminated
moreover proving that, as always, the person running the volunteer program
is expendable. I will continue my career in volunteer management at some
future time. Until then, keep up the fight and let the administrators know
this important
field's worth!
Submitted on 25Sept03 anonymously from British Columbia,
Canada
The issue of bringing
professionalism to our field has long been discussed. I believe in using
precise terminology to educate.
Over
the
years
it has become
obvious to me that the perception of "anyone can be a volunteer manager" has
come about from our job titles. Being a "volunteer program manager," "volunteer
coordinator," "volunteer administrator" or such implies that the position itself
is volunteer (unpaid). It in no way illustrates the expertise involved in running
such programs or departments. This is why we, here in British Columbia, have
chosen to use the title "Manager of Volunteer Resources". It defines
us as managers within our organization and conveys that we work within certain
guidelines and professional practices.
Once we start using professional terminology we will be taken seriously.
Submitted on 18Sept2003 by Suellen Carlson, Director of Volunteers,
Lutheran Social Service, New York State
What a great topic! I just finished an event with 300 + volunteers who
were all trained and supported. At the same event, and without my knowledge,
another
person recruited some of her own volunteers. Yikes! What on earth is someone
thinking to turn loose a teenager with an attitude and a cellphone? Also, a
young boy with a volunteer badge was found on the roof of one of our buildings
with three of his friends. The staff looked at me like I had lost my mind.
The volunteers who work here are second to none. They are professional, competent,
and involved. They range in age from 11 to 90+. They deserve to have a supervisor
who values them and their contributions. Volunteering is important work. In
the same way that everyone doesn't get a job here, everyone does not get to
volunteer here. I expect the same things from volunteers that are expected
from paid staff.
Submitted on 11Sept2003 by Hillary Roberts, President Project
Linus NJ, Inc. NJ/USA
"I encourage everyone to review your job description. Be sure
it reflects what you do, and punch it up with action words to
describe your duties. We can all do that-and it might begin to make a difference."
Excellent suggestion, I would only add that we then SHARE our job
descriptions with others and not file them away for review time.
Isolation can keep the wheels of insight from reaching important doorways!
As for experts, never met one. In any profession, shouldn't this
be a life journey, with education and opportunity a constant?
SHARE what you know, but never stop learning.
Submitted on 9Sept2003 by Marti Sowka, RSVP Director,
Portage County Department on Aging, Wisconsin
I agree that we need to change the language we use to change
attitudes about our profession. My position is considered program
director
within the agency. My job description says I have "primary responsibility
for planning, developing, organizing and administering a comprehensive
program of volunteer service opportunities for people age 55 and
over in Portage County. Responsibilities include: recruiting, training,
placing, supervising and recognizing volunteers; identifying and
developing volunteer opportunities; program development and evaluation;
budgeting and fiscal monitoring; writing federal and state grant
proposals, providing comprehensive volunteer management assistance
to community public and non-profit agencies."
Whew-no wonder I'm tired at the end of the day! I encourage everyone
to review your job description. Be sure it reflects what you do,
and punch it up with action words to describe your duties. We can
all do that-and it might begin to make a difference.
Submitted on 8Sept03 by Marsha Riddle, Retired, North Carolina
Volunteer Management has been my profession for over
38 years. I recently retired and have become a volunteer for a number
of organizations
in the local community. What an awakening. The management of volunteers
is truly nonexistent in many local organizations, even those whose
parent organization are national leaders. Managing volunteers is
more than common sense.....It is indeed a profession with challenges
like no other. The involvement of volunteers to successfully help
organizations reach their goals requires constant assessment,training
and involvement of staff and evaluation internally as well as the
recruitment, training, placement, management, motivation, and mediation
necessary to support the volunteer in their day to day roles. The
organization I am working with have no job descriptions and do not
keep records except for minutes of meetings. The hours of work done
is not valued, only the dollars I raise or the money I give.
Our greatest gift to give is ourselves and the management and recognition
of our time by professional volunteer administrators is truly
essential if the non-profit organizations are to remain healthy.
In the future, my money will go where volunteers are involved and
appreciated for more than fundraising and money.
Submitted anonymously on 4Sept03
from Washington, USA
I agree wholeheartedly. I have found in 25 years of working with
volunteers, recruiting, interviewing, training, placing and keeping
volunteers
that Non-profits want someone to handle volunteers in a way that
will implement their ideas without having the "Volunteer Coordinator"
be a part of the planning. Another thing I have experienced is, "It's
easy, people want to volunteer you just sign them up, don't tell anyone
no." I also see it as cost cutting, if we let the secretary
do the job we don't have to pay a professional.
Submitted on 4Sept03 by Merle Walker, Volunteer Program
Manager, Ohio
I agree with you and I also feel that volunteer managers are much
of the problem. I never look at myself as just a volunteer coordinator/manager.
I think of my work as personnel management for the unpaid employees.
This is also how my agency looks at it. Because so many of us started
in this business of managing volunteers without a clue or vision of
the scope of the job, many have made up things along the way not understanding
there is an art and guidelines to management and being a volunteer
manager. We have to re-think how we look at ourselves in management.
Submitted on 4Sept03 by Pat Gillis, Director Volunteer
Resources, Vancouver, BC Canada
Man! Susan once again you hit it right on! How many
times a week does this happen - disrespect for our role as professionals
and that of the volunteers themselves? I've lost count!
I am currently enrolled in a Masters Program - graduate level University
minds at work with experienced, intelligent middle managers - all
in health care!
During our online discussions one fellow discounts the use of volunteers
at the Information desk since "some of the information accessed
is of a confidential nature".
Since when does a paycheque make a person more respectful of 'confidentiality'?
Most breeches I am aware of occur with intelligent medical professionals
having indiscreet conversations in the middle of the hall or lobby
areas!
Thanks for the opportunity to vent.
Anonymously submitted on 4Sept03
Pray to God for guidance, patience and humility, and
don't get so hung up on these issues. I agree with many of your points,
but your tone is very defensive, even hostile. There are just as many
people out there who DO understand the challenges of volunteer management.
Perhaps you haven't met enough of them.
Submitted on 4Sept03 by Ben Young, Education and Research,
Scotland
Thank you for the guidance from everyone, especially Judy and Susan.
I am particularly grateful as I have been engaged to provide training
in volunteer management for a network of voluntary organisations in
China, and I wanted to be able to provide something more than generalisations
based on experience. The material on the Energize website is excellent,
particularly the Scheier archive. (Ben's earlier response is at
the end of this page)
If any of you want to send me Confucian-style wisdom on volunteer
management for me to include in the training I'd be really glad to
hear from you! (You could reply off list to ben_young@postmaster.co.uk.)
Thanks again; great discussion.
Submitted on 4Sept03 by Debbie Anderson, Coordinator,
Volunteer Resources, Niagara Health System, Ontario, Canada
The on-going battle to educate other employees within our organizations,
potential volunteers and other community members about our role as
VPM can be daunting. My philosophy is that I must present myself as
a professional to be regarded as a professional. We need to pave the
path to educate others. Take advantage of internal communication processes,
involve others from our organizations in our teams, advertise our
results - that's the way to spread the word. I manage more than 500
volunteers at 2 hospitals within an 8 hospital health system and raising
the profile of my programs and our dedicated un-paid staff is one
important responsibility of my position.
I also teach Volunteer Management, a post-diploma program at our local
college for those who are considering this profession as a career
or are already working in the field and realize that "related"
education doesn't cut it. In response to the comment about college
courses on volunteer management being "pretty cursory,"
I don't believe this to be true. In my opinion, these courses, if
facilitated by professionals working in the field, offer a new-comer
the required knowledge and skills to effectively manage a team of
volunteers in any setting. Continuing education, however, is key,
regardless if you have been a course participant or a facilitator.
Our profession is in constant evolution, and to be successful we need
to be prepared to be learning constantly too.
Submitted on 4Sept03 by Nancy Barros, Former Director
American Red Cross, now in Alaska
One way I got paid staff to appreciate and understand volunteer issues
was to "encourage" each one to give 4 hours of paid time
off per month to volunteer with another organization. They would have
to have their position covered (by volunteers) and they were required
to report back to the group what they learned. What happened was some
organizations did a great orientation, some did not; some found a
place for them to work, some did not; some treated them like staff,
some treated them like slaves. The lessons were endless. It gave each
person a unique perspective of how they might be treating their volunteers
or what they weren't doing. It was like managing by mirrors. The lessons
were obvious - which helped me as a Director to spend more time with
other issues, because the most important issue was being acknowledged.
Submitted on 3Sept03 by Judy Tymowicz, Executive Director,
Volunteer Centers of Michigan MI, U.S.
Ben, Thank you for asking the question. (See his response below.)
Because of your position, and your work area, it further corroborates
Susan's contention (not that she is ever contentious :-),of course)
that volunteer management is not recognized as a professional body
of knowledge and skills needing practitioners who read and study it
as a worthy professional interest. One of the issues is that organizations,
aside from some of the larger agencies, do not value volunteer management,
have no tradition to pass on and see it only as a cost-cutter. I have
been doing a lot of volunteer management training lately, and am ever
surprised by the eagerness that participants have to learn even the
very basics of the issues. Most often they are unaware of the literature,
have not heard of the most prominent researchers, authors and speakers,
and are not connected to listservs, electronic publishing, or national,
state or local organizations that serve our field. We must upgrade
the field by educating each other and insisting the people hired know
how to learn and where to find that information. Energize, Inc. and
others have been most generous in pointing out the directions that
our field must take. We all need to be just as generous in following
that lead and educating others, particularly board members. In the
U.S., Points of Light and the Volunteer Center National Network have
a new curriculum that many Volunteer Centers are using to teach the
basics of volunteer management. Check with your local Volunteer Center
by calling 1-800-VOLUNTEER, and ask when the next sessions are taking
place. Many colleges also offer a course (often pretty cursory, however)
that would help you know how to continue as a self-learner.
Note from Susan: Thanks for your
response, Judy -- I hope Ben finds it helpful (I'm also e-mailing
with him off-list). However, as he is from Scotland, I wanted
to make sure that he and any other non-Americans realize how many
resources on volunteerism exist outside the US. In fact, right
there in Scotland he has one of the best national volunteer centers
in Volunteer Development Scotland,
as well as the extremely active SAVM
- Scottish Association of Volunteers Managers. To see other
international resources, go to our Referral
Network area.
Submitted on 3Sept03 by Rosanna Tarsiero, Volunteer Manager
and Coordinator, Bipolar Dream
I think that one key factor of this attitude (ie: VPMs
need no particular expertise) is that everybody has human relationships.
Be they successful or not, people think that they are entitled to
advise and VPMs think they don't need training for the very same reason:
because "after all it's a matter of human relationships".
It's a tough topic, because nobody likes to be reminded that s/he
could not know enough about communication without feeling stupid.
So, many VPMs simply overlook the problem and blame it on a "difficult"
volunteer. Learning how to manager volunteers never ends and takes
personal introspective efforts, willingness to never stop learning,
exploring our limits, acceptance of our mistakes and seek for knowledge.
Unfortunately, if you don't have such a drive, it's a very hard job.
But if you have it, it's very rewarding.
Submitted on 3Sept03 by Brenda J. Greenberg, Director
of Vol. Services, Northern Services Group, Rockland County, New York,
USA
I think it is most important for volunteer directors
to keep our own supervisors informed on what we are doing. I do a
weekly report on my activities, a monthly report on contacts I have
made either via the Internet or responses to media releases and the
results of interviewing possible volunteers, a semi annual and an
annual report showing the types of volunteers I have recruited, their
placements and the dollar value of the volunteer hours served during
the various periods of time. The dollar value is based on the determination
of Independent Sector, and the totals become very impressive. This,
being a concrete measure, shows those who have doubts of the value
of volunteers, what precious material they have.
Submitted on 3Sept03 by Susan Peacock Reehl, Program
Director, WestArk RSVP (Retired & Senior Volunteer Program), Arkansas,
USA
Amen! It is disheartening to work with non-profits who
rely heavily on volunteers - but appoint the secretary to coordinate
volunteer activities. They never understand why they don't get the
volunteers they want - but they refuse to take the time to develop
volunteer job descriptions. They are appalled when volunteers leave
- but never consider asking volunteers for input on their jobs.
I've spent the last several months trying to arrange funding for specialized
training (Certified Volunteer Management training-CVM) for Volunteer
Coordinators - without success because the community doesn't see the
need. United Way prefers to train board members. If I raise the funds
for the training only half the organizations will take part because
the Executive Directors won't allow their Volunteer Coordinators 12
days of training within a year. We formed a local chapter of the Arkansas
Volunteer Coordinators Association attendance is great every
month but turnover rate is 50% among the volunteer professionals.
Locally we can’t seem to make people connect the dots. The need
for volunteers is greater than ever. I’ve got a corps of retired
professionals willing to volunteer and 25 requests from non-profit
organizations for someone to answer the phone!
Submitted on 3Sept03 by Christy Trudo, Lay Leadership
and Ministry Coordinator, Ohio, USA
As Coordinator of Lay Ministry for a Protestant denomination
I see this attitude strongly in the church. Pastors are not trained
specifically to deal with this unusual hybrid organization which is
not only "staffed" but led by volunteers. One assumption
which may contribute to this casual attitude applies to other organizations
as well: that when people volunteer, they are automatically motivated
positively, and are motivated to act in a way that accords entirely
with the organization's purpose. They thus simply have to be "plugged
in".
Larger churches which have a position of Volunteer Coordinator (which
is likely to go by a number of different names) will frequently not
hire a person with professional expertise, no doubt often because
of finances. The senior pastor often does not expect this staff person
to be a true colleague but simply to execute the church's plans. (It's
hard to tell which of these facts causes the other!) How much better
off churches would be to hire a highly trained person, if only part
time or as a consultant.
Thanks for your good work and "witness".
Submitted on 3Sept03 by Ginne Hendrickson, Patient and
Family Services Coordinator, Jamestown Hospital, Jamestown, ND
I agree with you , Susan. It is a constant battle to
educate EVERYONE on the special skills of volunteer management.
I'd like to add that one of the things we need to change, in my area
at least, is the title of Coordinator. Organizations want to call
us Coordinators. What does that imply? Why, we simply make sure this
person is here at that time and that person is there at that time.
That is all they think we do. Sadly, that IS all some organizations
allow their paid volunteer staff to do. With all the regulations like
HIPAA that we have to deal with, we are far from coordinators.
It is up to us to be sure we receive the respect we deserve. I'm working
on it and I hope others are too.
Submitted on 3Sept03 by Mary Ryan, Manager, Community
Resources, Southlake Regional Health Centre. Newmarket, Ontario, Canada
I totally agree with Susan's thoughts regarding "Beyond Common
Sense." In my four years as manager of a hospital-wide volunteer
program, I have come across this attitude both in and outside the
organization on occasion. I have chosen to try and positively affect
thinking regarding volunteers by continuously and consistently using
language and methods that align with human resources management expertise.
I have found that people in my organization can more easily relate
and understand to my role and the role of my department when asked
to think of us as an HR Department focused on our unpaid or unsalaried
staff i.e. volunteers. I have also found it helpful to develop a Scope
of Services document to enable staff to see the range of services
we offer but more importantly so that they are aware of what we are
not responsible for and therefore their duties and responsibilities
as staff. Sometimes it has truly been an "ah ha" moment
for people. My career in volunteer management has been relatively
short compared to some but I have found that the difference between
the role of the HR Manager and myself is that she does not have to
continually educate others re: her role - HR management is seen as
a legitimate and worthy profession - no explanations required! It
can get tiring but I believe worth the effort to persevere.
Submitted on 2Sept03 by Marjorie Moore, RISE Project
and Volunteer Development Coordinator, Radio Information Service for
the Blind and Print Handicapped, Illinios- USA
Like many other Volunteer Directors (or Volunteer Development
Coordinators as I am called) I fell into the position. I took another
position in our organization and the volunteers were added to make
my position full time. When I accepted the challenge, I had no idea
that I would be responsible for managing 150 people. I had no idea
that each of these people would want vacations or that they all had
different needs. I had no idea that the volunteer files had fallen
to shambles and would need to be completely overhauled. I didn't know
that we would need to constantly recruit to make up for our constant
turn over and growth.
I agree that volunteer directors need to be more educated, but it
was not until I spoke to another volunteer director that it even occurred
to me that there were resources and organizations out there for us.
Before that I stumbled along just doing it as we had always done it,
which come to find out was the wrong way, but we had survived for
30 years doing it the wrong way. Now we are flourishing with the right
direction, the staff is more responsive to volunteer involvement,
and we have created more volunteer positions and I believe our programs
are more fulfilling. I think a big thing is the network of volunteer
directors. I would have never known about the resources if a more
experienced director had not have mentioned it to me. I say seek out
novices and show them the information. If they are like I was, they
are too overwhelmed to begin looking for help.
Submitted on 2Sept03 by Ben Young,
Education and Research, Scottish Civic Forum, Scotland
I totally agree that having been a volunteer is not enough to know
how to manage a volunteer. But what more is involved? I had assumed
that the role of Volunteer Manager involved a combination of general
skills such as personnel management, conflict resolution and project
management. I did not think that there could be any skills specific
to Volunteer Management. After reading the article I feel ignorant,
as if I have found out about a new subject I wasn't previously aware
of. What what are the main principles of this subject, if they are
not the ones I listed above?
