stevenhowlett's blog

These volunteers were largely recruited through word of mouth (which as we know always tops the list of the most effective recruitment methods). But when the garden owner approached her local volunteer centre to ask if others could be pointed to opportunities to help out in the garden she was told that was not possible.

Why? Because the garden was privately owned.That got us thinking at the Association of Volunteer Managers. The garden owner accepted that not all establishments would be suitable for volunteers, but she had a history of happy involvement, shouldn't situations like hers be tackled on a case-by-case basis? That seems logical.

In our discussions in AVM my fellow Director Patrick Daniels pointed out there is little new in the idea of volunteering in a private setting - it happens in football clubs, in educational settings and so on, and is often not tagged as volunteering.

At the same time, this was not a volunteer centre being in any way obstructive, the centre was doing its job - looking to check that the right systems, policies, support was in place for successful volunteering.

Maybe though this is a chance to have a look at some of the wider defining elements and start to work out where stand on volunteering in different sectors. And in the case of AVM, see what the management implications might be.

Perhaps one place to start is to think about the emphasis we put on the organisational setting. We all know that the vast majority of volunteering takes place in the voluntary sector, maybe this influences what we think volunteering is and how we manage volunteers. But what happens when we move outside the settings we are comfortable with?