seanc's blog

I happen to think that Volunteer Management is a profession. A profession in its infancy perhaps but a profession none the less. But then I would say that because I'm biased! But actually, am I right? Is there a big elephant in the room that we just don't want to see?

Is volunteer management a profession? Something that you need a certain set of skills that takes years of experience to perfect, that only a certain type of person could do? Or is it something that actually, anyone with a basic understanding of people skills (or even actually none!) can do?

Surely if we were a profession AVM, or something like it, would have been set up a long time ago and be akin to the CIPD or Institute of Fundraising by now?

Wouldn't a lot more CEOs have a volunteer management background as opposed to a fundraising or campaigning background? Wouldn't volunteers mainly be managed by people who know how to manage and support volunteers rather than junior members of organisations with little or no management experience? Surely organisations would ensure that volunteer management is properly resourced?

I started a new job towards the end of last year. In my new role, I've had the privilege to meet a number of organisations who involve volunteers in their projects. Without these volunteers they wouldn't be in existence. Google Haringey Shed, Cathja, Kensington & Chelsea Mental Health Carers and you can see the amazing work these organisations do.

These people transform lives. They are the embodiment of the spirit of volunteering. I bang on that the reason why we involve volunteers is to help our organisations do more. (I think my board are sick of hearing me say that!).

The Volunteer Rights Inquiry is keen to hear from a wide range of people with thoughts on and in interest in the issues of volunteer rights and redress.  Whether you are a volunteer; a volunteer manager; a representative of a volunteer involving organisation; someone in the public, private or voluntary and community sector; someone with good or bad experiences to share; or simply someone with an opinion on the topic, the Volunteer Rights Inquiry wants to hear from you.
 
The Volunteer Rights Inquiry is especially keen to hear people's thoughts on how volunteer involving organisation can prevent problems by treating volunteers well and what mechanisms could be put in place to provide an independent means of redress when, unfortunately, things do go wrong.
 
However, before you tell us what you think, please take a moment to find out a little more about the Volunteer Rights Inquiry by reading our Q&A document at http://www.volunteering.org.uk/WhatWeDo/Policy/Volunteer+Rights+Inquiry/... and/or watching a short video about our work at http://www.youtube.com/VolunteeringEngland.
 
To share your thoughts with us please visit http://www.volunteering.org.uk/WhatWeDo/Policy/Volunteer+Rights+Inquiry/... and fill in the form.  Please also use this form to tell us if you'd like to come and speak with Inquiry members in person to tell us your story.  You can also tell us what you think by uploading a video to Volunteering England's YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/VolunteeringEngland.
 
We also have the facility to hear from people via Twitter.  Please tweet your thoughts followed by the #VRInquiry hash-tag.  You may also want to follow Volunteering England on Twitter - http://twitter.com/volunteeringeng.
 
Finally, if you'd like to contact the Volunteer Rights Inquiry on any other matter, then please email volunteering.rights@volunteeringengland.org.

Article published in VE's Volunteer Magazine, Sept 2009.

It's been reported that the recession in the UK is coming to an end.  This doesn't however mean an end to redundancies in all sectors, including our own.  I've heard that the Third Sector is hit by the effects of a recession 12-18 months later and if that's true I guess we should brace ourselves for more redundancies before it's over.

It's not a pleasant experience being made redundant. I know from personal experience.  The emotions I've been through are like that of a bereavement and in a way I guess it is: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.

I can recall thinking, 'how can they make me redundant?  They just don't get volunteer management!'  I later thought, well who's fault is that?  Perhaps if I'd been more vocal, been a better advocate for volunteer management in my own organisation, perhaps I wouldn't have lost my job.  Maybe, maybe not.  

I've heard that volunteer management roles are usually one of the first roles to be cut when redundancies happen.  I've no idea if this is true or not, or whether this notion is borne from a 'poor me' attitude I've sensed within our profession recently.  A recent article in Personnel Today (sorry, no link as I've heard about it anecdotally) suggested that HR professionals would be hardest hit with redundancies in this recession with apparently as much as 40% losing their jobs.  So it's not just us then!

Do we have a 'poor me' attitude as a profession?  Am I being too critical?  I'm not so sure. (see my reaction above to losing my job!).  It does seem to me that collectively we do have a low self esteem as a profession.  I do think we are misunderstood, however, I think we are partly to blame for that.  How can we expect people to understand our profession if we don't tell them? 

These are 5 headlines from this week Third Sector (21 Jul 09).  I can't remember there being so many stories about volunteering in one issue and the first three were on the first 3 pages!

Any publicity is good publicity as they say, however, I can't help but feel a little down about these headlines.

From someone on the outside with no knowledge as to the reasons why the brokerage scheme to help long-term unemployed back into work through volunteering was set up in the way it was, it seems like a complete botch job, an utter waste of money and a clear lack of understanding of the nature of volunteering.  I really find this surprising given the players involved. 

The next two stories suggest that we're not doing enough to promote volunteering to people close to retirement or the young.  However I look at the money pumped in to supporting youth volunteering for example through v, the work of Youthnet and RockCorps, hear anecdotal evidence from our peers and wonder is this really the case? 

Those of you on UKVPMs have no doubt followed the debate about youths 'volunteering' to get their travel passes back.  Is this another case of the definition of volunteering being 'stretched' to fit the needs of an initiative rather than the primary reason of volunteering?

Finally we have the Citizenship Survey reporting that the number of people formally volunteering is down.  All the volunteer managers I know have found completely the opposite.

Below is a (slightly edited) transcript of a speech I gave at Derbyshire Volunteer Centres' Conference in Matlock bath on Tuesday 2 June 09:

Thank you for inviting me to your conference today.  It's good to see so many of you here today, especially as this is the 25^th anniversary of Volunteers Week.

We meet today under skies filled with the clouds of economic doom.  The ever present rumble of redundancy, cut backs and termination of funding fills the air and indeed, lightening has stuck not just in the banking and the car industries, but in the 3^rd sector too.  Many charities have let people go and these include volunteer managers.

One large national charity has made redundant members of its volunteer team cutting it from 3 full time people to one part time person and has decided not to pursue external funding as the economic climate has impacted on their cash flow.  Another very large cancer charity has been running its volunteering department at less that full strength for 6 months now.  I'm sure you know of many other similar stories.

So in these financial times, is Volunteer Management a luxury?  In actual fact has it always been seen that way?

 Let's look at some statistics:

 The 2003 Home Office Citizenship Survey found that:

• 42% of population of England & Wales formally volunteered.
• Est. 1.1m full time UK workers needed to replace formal volunteers.

 Let's also look at what's on the horizon:

• There's Gordon Brown's idea of Community Service for all 16 - 19 year olds with a budget of £156m ear-marked.
• There's a £6.5m scheme to help 40,000 long term unemployed back into work through volunteering.
• There's the Citizenship & Immigration Bill that encourages migrant to volunteer to fast-track applications.
• The Olympics are only 3 years away and needs 70,000 volunteers.

 And yet:

• 32% orgs have no funding to support vols; (not just about small turnover either 14% of orgs with £1mil+ turnover don't invest in it)
• 24% Volunteer Managers manage over 50 vols
• 59% Volunteer Managers said they only had capacity to involve less than 10 vols more

(stats from Management Matters:  A National Survey of Volunteer Management Capacity, Institute for Volunteering Research, 2008)

So are Volunteer Managers a luxury?  Given those figures why is it that we seem to get such a poor deal?  Why is it that the sector seems to think that "things will tick along ok" for a while without a Volunteer Manager or with poor investment in Volunteer Management.  Are we viewed as not totally essential?  I'm sure I'm preaching to the converted when I say that we at AVM think completely differently.  Volunteer Management is not a luxury.  Effective Volunteer Management needs proper support and investment.

It seems to me there is a perception from funders that it's a question of numbers.  More volunteers = better volunteering.  But surely it is a question of quality over quantity.  Properly funded, resourced and supported Volunteer Managers would lead to a better volunteering experience for the volunteer and the organization, which in turn would lead to greater volunteer involvement.  There is evidence to support this:

In an internal volunteer survey by Citizens Advice, found a strong correlation between the positive experiences volunteers had had and the existence of a specific volunteer manager.  For example:

 Do you feel valued as a volunteer?

•  Volunteers with a specific volunteer manager             94% said yes
• Volunteers without one                                           64% said yes

 Would you recommend volunteering at the organisation?

•  Volunteers with a specific volunteer manager            91% said yes
•  Volunteers without one                                          66% said yes

In addition, anecdotally, both the number of people with a remit to manage volunteers and the support available has increased significantly. If this is correct, then a correlation can be drawn with the results from the national volunteering surveys in 1997 and 2007. In 1997, 71% volunteers said they felt their volunteering could be better organised. Ten years later this had fallen to 31%.

A 2008 survey (Hutchinson & Ockenden (The Impact of Public Policy on Volunteering in Community Based Organisations), 2008 found that an increased capacity within volunteer management led to an improvement in recruiting and managing volunteers.

One organisation that secured funding to employ a volunteer manager noticed the benefits:

 'It's because we have been able to dedicate more time to recruiting, training and supporting the volunteers. We are getting better at attracting and retaining skilled volunteers'.

If more evidence is needed that we are struggling with capacity rather than necessarily a lack of volunteers, though I know of areas where this is the case, an article in Third Sector a couple of weeks ago (19 May 09) mentioned that Volunteer Centres were struggling with a 'tidal wave of demand'... with demand for placements outstripping supply.'

We also operate within an increased legal and regulatory framework.  We need to be vigilant about the legal status of volunteers and CRB checks for example.  Volunteers aren't covered by employment law, but that doesn't absolve us of our need to treat volunteers fairly and respectfully.  We need to ensure that we follow Good Practice in involving volunteers.

This can be backed up with some of the cases that have made the headlines such as the volunteer 'strike' at York CAB in 2008 and the consequences it had.

There is also a lack of understanding within government departments and parliament about volunteering.  Witness Dianne Abbott's recent early day motion about people on JSA not being able to volunteer for more than 16 hours per week.

 So no, Volunteer Management is not a luxury.  Our roles as Volunteer Manager are just as vital to organizations as fundraisers or campaigners and I think our roles deserve the same support and recognition.

 We as volunteer managers are gate keepers if you like, with an 'institutional understanding' of volunteering guarding against volunteers being used for what perhaps should be paid roles, being treated as paid staff and quickly becoming disillusioned.   

 So how can we raise the profile of volunteer management so that we have the recognition and support we need to continue improving the involvement and support of volunteers.

 Well this conference is one way.  Derbyshire Volunteer Centres' recognition of the need to support, train and inspire Volunteer Managers and your presence here today shows our commitment to developing our profession.

As a community we support each other through local networks, the UKVPMs forum on Yahoo for example and we now also have the AVM.

To conclude, Volunteer Management is not a luxury.  The roles that you perform are vital to your organizations; perhaps more so in today's current economical climate. 

Volunteering isn't just about numbers.  The primary aim of volunteering isn't to help the long term unemployed into work, to fast track citizenship or to create a better society through community service. 

We involve volunteers to help our organizations to do more.  Better resourced, funded, supported and understood Volunteer Management will lead to a greater capacity to support volunteers and an increase in volunteers.  This in turn will better support the motivations of people volunteering.

Thank you again for inviting me today, thank you for your time and I very much hope you enjoy today.

Thank you.

Interesting letter in Third Sector today (Weds 21 Apr 09) from Stephen Moreton, Head of Education and Development at Attend on the debate about a volunteers ombudsman.  He wrote....

...'The call by AVM for more resources for volunteer managers is misguided.  More resources are needed to help charities as a whole manage volunteers.  HR departments, for example, need to ensure paid staff are aware of how volunteers support them.  Delivering effective volunteer services is not the domain of the volunteer manager - it is an organisational responsibility.'

I'm wondering how much his letter has been edited as the 'misguided' quote doesn't seem to quite fit with the rest of the paragraph.  I'd agree (as I'm sure we all would) that delivering effective volunteer services is an organisational responsibility.  However, in many organisations, delivering effective volunteer services is the domain on the volunteer manager, who is often under-resourced and under-supported by the organisation. 

Could it be that what he's getting at is that many organisations, boards, SMTs etc don't take ownership/responsibility of volunteers as they might fundraisers for example.

More resources for volunteer managers along with effective cross-departmental working (with HR for example) to raise awareness of the impact of volunteers would help to deliver effective volunteer services.  I think we're basically saying the same thing but from a slightly different perspective.

AVM has a regular column in Volunteering England's Volunteering magazine. If you are a member you can access the magazine at http://volunteering.org.uk/members. Here's the article from the latest issue:

If you do any activity that involves doing something
That benefits the environment or someone else.
If you do it unpaid and not just for a close relative.
If you choose to do this activity by choice,
Made freely by you and not because you've been told to.
If you do this through a public, private or voluntary organisation,
Or indeed by informal community participation,
Then - which is more - you'll be a volunteer, my friend.

Apologies to Kipling. In our last article, John Ramsey started by asking, what is volunteering? It is a question that seems to provoke heated debate, anger, passion and amusement across our profession (just have a look at the archived discussions on UKVPMs).

When I first started in volunteer management life was so much simpler. We all knew what a volunteer was and what they weren't.

Now there is a whole new dictionary's worth of differing ways in which people can support organisations: internships, work experience, work placements, employer-supported volunteering (ESV), community engagement, community service and voluntary workers to name but a few.

Then of course we have all the Government initiatives that see volunteering as a way of helping people back into employment, or gain citizenship for example.

Whether or not the many ways of supporting a charity can be considered volunteering, they have at least a couple of things in common: the ‘volunteers' are not generally covered by employment law and they are not paid by the charity or organisation they are supporting.

This is from an article from Third Sector online by Sarah Townsend, Third Sector Online, 23 January 2009:

Survey finds 57 per cent of British public believe volunteers do not get enough appreciation. More than half of the British public believe that local groups of volunteers do not get the recognition they deserve, a new survey suggests.

The poll, commissioned by the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service, which gives awards to local groups for voluntary work, says that 57 per cent of the 2,041 people surveyed thought the groups were not shown enough appreciation for their work, and 8 per cent thought they were.

The 749 respondents who said they had volunteered in the past year were also asked why they did so. The most popular reason - true for 47 per cent of respondents - was that they gained a "sense of personal achievement and satisfaction". Thirty seven per cent said they did it because they wanted to improve the local community and help people.

The region with the highest proportion of volunteers was Northern Ireland, where 44 per cent of respondents had volunteered in the past 12 months. The area with the highest proportion of people volunteering at least once a week was Scotland, with 23 per cent.

Martyn Lewis, former broadcast journalist and committee chair for the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service main award, said: "There are great rewards to be had from volunteering, whether personal achievement and the development of new skills or a deeper connection with your local community - but it's clear that many believe those who make an effort to benefit others should be recognised publicly."

Sector to play key role in Government's plans to boost social mobility (Third Sector online today)...

Am I being cynical and a grumpy old man (more than likely!), but is this Government looking towards the sector to help with another initiative to boost popularity before an election?

I believe volunteering can help with social mobility, self development, gaining experience for work etc, but isn't this a bit tail wagging dog?  Surely the primary aim of volunteering is to support charities in their aims and objectives and to help them do more?

I thought you might be interested in reading the transcript of the short speech I gave in the debate on incentives at VE's AGM this week:

Thank you for inviting me to join the debate today. When I first heard of RockCorps initiative of offering young people concert tickets to encourage them to do 4 hours of volunteering I initially found myself doing a very bad impression of Victor Meldrew and being somewhat annoyed. Taking a backward step I started to explore why this was.  If found that there were a number of different issues, but the only that really stood out for me was how will offering incentives to volunteer impact on the integrity of volunteering?

 I wanted to share with you a letter I sent to Third Sector in response to the interview in last Weds (20th Aug) issue in case it doesn't get published.  I'd welcome your thoughts!:

Sir,

I read with interest your interview with Stephen Green, Chief Executive of RockCorps.

While thinking the RockCorps concept is an interesting and innovative idea in introducing young people to volunteering I am left feeling a little troubled about incentivising volunteering in this way. If young people are more willing to give than ever as Mr Greene states, why then to they need to be offered concert tickets to volunteer? Volunteering shouldn’t be about personal material gain. It would be interesting to find out how many of the 35% who went on to volunteer elsewhere did so without being offered something material in return. While I understand that the idea is to introduce young people to volunteering, can 4 hours really give them a proper idea of what it is really like to be an active citizen?

Offering concert tickets in this way would also seem to be a payment in kind and of sufficient value to be a "consideration". Is this not an overt contract as the work is in exchange for the tickets which is clearly expressed and acknowledged by RockCorps? Legislation and good practice is different in the US and wonder if this model needs adapting for the UK.

Kind regards,

Sean Cobley

Director, AVM