Ten Years of Championing Volunteer Management

Ten years ago today, a group of volunteer managers launched a body that aimed to champion the role of the volunteer manager in building a thriving volunteer involving organisation. Inspired by the desire to bring people together to network and share best practice, as well as demonstrate the impact of volunteer management, AVM was born.

I was one of those people.
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My personal starting point in this journey was being at a meeting of the National Volunteer Managers Forum and thinking ‘what’s so special about managing volunteers – they’re just people?’

I’ve now come full circle and have realised how complex managing volunteers is. I’ve realised that people bring themselves to volunteering in a way that’s very different from their job. When ‘just doing a job’ a person will offer one side of themselves, but when volunteering they bring their full self.

What this means is that people managing volunteers need to learn how to read people and go through that process. When bringing their full selves to the party, people will bring an emotional history which makes a real difference in the way they can behave. Volunteer managers can sometimes find that a challenge. We need to be able to demonstrate respect for a volunteer’s experience, whilst also ensuring volunteers recognise the boundaries in their role – it’s a real juggling act.

For organisations providing services it may be difficult to remember that colleagues and volunteers may also be – or have been – service users. In fact this is very likely for volunteers.

Volunteers can help bridge the gap between service users and the wider organisation, helping overcome the feeling of ‘us and them’. Volunteers bring in the experience and emotional history, which may be too painful for staff to deal with.

Having been there at the beginning, I wanted to bring these perspectives and learnings to a wider audience, to find peers to share them with and talk about them.

I am proud that we have developed and grown this voice, and this space to share it, and have a mature, dedicated organisation a decade later.

These ten years have represented a great deal of effort, but I hope you’ll agree that, today, AVM provides the information, support and sharing that ensures volunteer managers can effectively enable volunteers to share their skills in a way that gives the most impact.

To all of you that have come with us on this journey, for however long, thank you for bringing out the magic of volunteering.

Meaningful Engagement Begins with Recruitment.

27 July 2017 10 am till 4 pm, lunch included

At The Crypt, Christ Church Spitalfields Commercial Street | Spitalfields | London

The challenge of both recruiting and retaining useful, effective volunteers is an ever-present aspect of volunteer management. Most of us agree that time ensuring existing volunteers are satisfied and fulfilled in their roles is time well spent. However, is it possible to promote long-term volunteer engagement by focussing on this aim as part of the recruitment stage?

This full day event will look at the recruitment strategies and some of the campaigns planned and utilised by a variety of organisations.

Hazel Finney of Community Impact Bucks will consider the fundamental issues all organisations need to consider when approaching volunteer recruitment. With experience of training, preparing and supporting more than 3,500 small organisations in developing their recruitment policies, Hazel has almost unrivalled knowledge of her subject.

Will Watt of Join In and Jump Projects has developed GIVERS as an extension of his award-winning work on the 2012 Olympic legacy charity, Join In. GIVERS transforms data on over 300,000 volunteers into a simple, practical tool to help anyone recruit, retain and reward more volunteers.

Flora Nicholson of Cancer Research UK will co-present with Will Watt, looking at CRUK’s use of GIVERS in their recent volunteer recruitment.

Stephen Hill of Parkinson’s UK will present on their early pre-recruitment preparations. Parkinson’s UK are attempting a radical, far more in-depth approach to the challenge of encouraging long term, fully engaged volunteering.

Daniel Ingram of Wood Green, The Animals Charity, will be considering how to effectively divide his time and resources between recruitment and active retention / engagement strategies.

The event will be hosted by AVM Director Bryan Precious, and will include a light lunch. Held in the Crypt of Christ Church Spitalfields, this promises to be an ideal opportunity to discover the latest thinking on recruitment, retention and engagement of volunteers. As always, attendees can network and share experiences with counterparts from a broad cross section of volunteer organisations.

To secure your place, click here.

For a full agenda, click here.

 

 

Notice of Extraordinary General Meeting: 13 July 2017

Association of Volunteer Managers (AVM) will be holding an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) at the following time and location:

6pm, Thursday 13 July 2017
The Royal British Legion (Head Office), 199 Borough High Street, London, SE1 1AA

The business to be discussed is a change in the articles of incorporation of AVM. More details will be circulated to members in due course.

Ten Ten Ten: How Does The Next Decade Look For Volunteering

Continuing our series of blogs celebrating AVM’s tenth anniversary, Joe Saxton offers his ‘top ten’ of how volunteering will change in the next decade.

AVM is ten years old. It’s a huge achievement for any start-up organisation to get this far. Much has changed in the world of volunteering in the last ten years, but the need for AVM is greater than ever. The world of volunteering will go on changing over the next 10 years. So here are my 10 predictions for how volunteering will change, what the best volunteer managers will be doing, and how AVM will need to react.

1. The potential for volunteering will go on growing. Whether its volunteers in schools, welcoming refugees, campaigning against government cuts, or helping neighbours, we haven’t begun to reach saturation in the ways that volunteering can change society.

2. Baby boomers are going to hit peak volunteering potential. The generation born in the years 1946-1964 are just hitting retirement in volume and the potential for them to volunteer is huge. But they need to be treated right.

3. With a little help from charities, youth volunteering will mature to help young people move seamlessly into volunteering during their working lives. Volunteers are for life, not just for young people.

4. Volunteer managers will have specialisms just like fundraisers do. There are over 15 types of fundraising expertise. Expect volunteering management to become more and more specialist as it matures, just as fundraising has.

5. Supporter-centred management will be where the best volunteer managers steal a march on competitors. We already see fundraising and communications and marketing working much more closely together. The best organisations will look at how supporters want to engage and manage their needs holistically whether they want to give, volunteer, campaign or use services.

6. We still don’t know how to encourage neighbourliness or manage it or see it as part of volunteering nearly enough. As much as we want people to volunteer in charity shops and more formal ways, we want people to give time to neighbourhood. This is an example of the specialisms that are needed (see point 4).

7. The most far-sighted charities will invest in volunteer recruitment the way they do donor recruitment. Typically they may invest several hundred pounds in donor recruitment and the total budget may amount to millions of pounds in the biggest charities. I wonder how many volunteer managers even have a recruitment budget.

8. Intertwining specific audiences by demographics (eg working parents) and product (eg micro-volunteering) will be the breakfast of volunteering champions. In other words, the best organisations will understand exactly who their volunteers are, or could be, and create the volunteering products to encourage, entice and engage them ever more into giving their time.

9. AVM needs to gear up to change to make the most of volunteering. A decade after launch it still has just one member of staff (while CharityComms launched at the same time has nearly 10 staff). AVM needs to grasp the potential of the years ahead with passion, energy and enthusiasm.

10. And one of the ways that AVM can make the most of its potential is a name change. Its current name is like a millstone round its neck, partly because the name is usually shortened, and partly because it isn’t just ‘volunteer managers’ who do volunteer management. It can be people with a bundle of responsibilities. AVM as a name ghettoises the organisation and holds it back.

This guest blog is by Joe Saxton, Driver of Ideas at nfpSynergy and its founder. Joe co-founded and chaired CharityComms, and has been chair of the Institute of Fundraising and People & Planet. Joe blogs in a personal capacity.

Embracing Digital Communication for Volunteer Management

June L&D Event

AVM’s new Learning & Development Officer, Greville Southgate, has joined AVM from the Heritage Arts sector and has a background in creating and developing successful training events. His first event in the new role will be Embracing Digital Communication for Volunteer Management, on 29 June 2017 at VAI in Islington, 1:30 – 5 pm.

This event will be a great opportunity to learn about some of the digital options that are currently being used to communicate with volunteers. Suitable for both large and small organisations, we will be assessing a range of tools that can help engage and support volunteers. Attendees will meet colleagues from across the UK who may be facing similar challenges, and the chance to discuss and compare experiences is a vital component of all AVM activities. AVM Directors and the L&D Officer will be on hand to answer any general enquiries that you may have, as well as digital experts for more specific questions.

We will start by examining how non-profit organisations can benefit from embracing some of the digital tools on offer, as well as recognising some potential risks and some of the less obvious costs.

We will hear presentations from Rebecca Harper, Guide Dogs UK and Jo Keller, RNIB. These charities have been utilising both small-scale and large-scale digital systems to communicate and engage with volunteers and volunteer managers. They will tell us about their reasoning, their aims and finally the results of opting for the systems they use.

There will be an open-space discussion where delegates consider questions arising from the presentations, and can share their own expectations and experiences with similar tools or situations.

Finally, we will hear from A.S. Maini, Volunteer Centre Camden, who will provide an overview of some of the most interesting and cost-effective tools currently available for non-profits. This will include both free and paid-for systems, and assess the salient features of each.

For a full agenda, click here:

AGENDA for Embracing Digital Communication for Volunteer Management 29 June 2017

To book a ticket, go to: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/embracing-digital-communication-for-volunteer-management-an-avm-ld-event-tickets-34969358292

The event is being sponsored by Better Impact:

Better Impact is a small but global company that believes in helping non-profits, charities, NGOs and government agencies achieve more by providing use easy to use, purpose-built technology, over the top support and innovative educational platforms.

Better Impact specialises in providing Volunteer Impact, volunteer management software based in the cloud. From online volunteer applications direct into the system, to rota management, quick reporting and easy communications, the software is designed to help you manage your volunteers more efficiently, giving you more time to focus on engagement and strategic planning, as well as enabling volunteers to become more engaged through their own personal online portal.  Read more and watch some short videos here.

www.BetterImpact.co.uk

0203 0140 226 ext 152

 

 

It’s a Date – AVM 2017 is on 18 October

With five months to go until we come together for AVM’s sector leading annual conference, we’re asking you to keep Wednesday 18 October firmly held in your diaries.

At AVM 2017 – The Annual Conference we’ll celebrate our 10th birthday and, with plans hotting up, the event promises to be bigger and better than ever before. We’re thrilled to announce an exciting line-up of keynote speakers, as shown below, with further announcements on seminars to follow over the coming months.

We’re delighted that the conference will again be held at the Royal National Hotel, London, close to Euston and Kings Cross stations. Early bird tickets will be released shortly so be sure to keep an eye on your emails for further news. Last year’s event sold out in record time, so we’d strongly encourage you to book as early as you can.

Our keynote speakers this year will be:

Julie Bentley
CEO, Girlguiding
Having dedicated her career to the not for profit sector, including as a youth worker, a young people’s drug and alcohol worker, Julie has gone on to hold a number of senior leadership positions in the sector for twenty years. Julie will speak to AVM nearly 5 years into her role as CEO at Girlguiding.

Vicky Browning
CEO, Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO)
Vicky heads up ACEVO, the UK’s largest and most influential network for Charity and Social Enterprise Leaders. For nearly 30 years, ACEVO have provided support, development and an inspiring, collective campaigning voice for their members across the UK, the leaders of small, community based groups, ambitious medium-sized organisations, and well known, well-loved national and international not-for-profits.

James Probert
Director of Strategy and Impact, City Year UK
James joined City Year UK in 2009 and, as Director of Impact, he oversees the design and evaluation of activities for school children and young people, and the expansion of the ‘service year’ concept to new areas. James will be speaking on the Full Time Social Action Review and any implications for the voluntary sector and specifically the leaders of volunteering in the sector as a result of the outcomes of the review, due out immediately before the conference.

Save the Date
So make sure to keep 18 October free and watch out for more news on the conference in the coming months. Remember that members will enjoy a substantial discount on conference tickets when bookings open.

AVM Welcomes Lords’ Recommendations On Charities

AVM has welcomed the key recommendation around supporting volunteer management in ‘Stronger charities for a stronger society’, the new report from the House of Lords Select Committee on Charities.

The report contains the recommendation:

We propose that funders should provide more resources for volunteer managers so that charities can make the best possible use of the generous contribution of their volunteers and support their efforts.

The recommendation is based on a submission from the Association of Volunteer Managers responding to the Select Committee’s call for evidence last year. This was bolstered by the committee’s own evidence gathering when they visited local charities who talked about their needs when involving volunteers in their work.

Debbie Usiskin, Chair of AVM, said: “We are over the moon at this news. Communicating the value and need for volunteer management as a recognised discipline is at the core of what AVM was set up to achieve. Having such high-profile confirmation of this is very welcome.”

AVM member Sheila Norris echoed these words: “Working in a local volunteer centre, I see first hand the impact that investing in volunteer management can have. I’m pleased that this new report recognises the resources needed to make volunteering happen.”

The committee’s own comments on the recommendation were: “Funders need to be more receptive to requests for resources for volunteer managers and co-ordinators, especially where charities are able to demonstrate a strong potential volunteer base. We recommend that Government guidance on public sector grants and contracts is amended to reflect this and set a standard for other funders.”

Volunteer Impact: An AVM Learning & Development Day

Book HERE.

Venue:  Better Bankside | Bankside Community Centre | 18 Great Guildford Street | London | SE1 0FD

Date: Wednesday 19 April 2017

Timings: Registration will open at 10:00 with presentations beginning at 10:30. The event will close at 15:30.

Agenda:
This learning day looks at how we measure the contribution that volunteers make to an organisation.

If you struggle to capture the contribution volunteers make, or need ideas to get buy-in from senior leaders and the wider team for the importance and need to involve volunteers, this session is for you.

Speakers on the day will include:

  • Alan Murray, RSPB
    Alan will look at the variety of metrics used at The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) over the years, and highlight what has worked and why.
  • Bryan Precious, Age UK
    Bryan’s presentation will cover some of the different strategies used by the Age UK Volunteering Team to measure the contribution of volunteers across this varied network of charities and how this information’s been used to get buy in from senior management.
  • Clare Harris & Tim Walters – Agenda Consulting
    Clare and Tim will look at the impact of volunteering on both the organisation and on the volunteers themselves, drawing on insights from Agenda’s volunteer survey work and Volunteers Count study.

Please note: Light refreshments will be provided throughout the day but lunch will not be, instead delegates are encouraged to bring their own or to purchase it from food vendors close to the venue.

Book your space HERE NOW

Not a member? Why not join AVM and save on the cost of your ticket?  YOU CAN JOIN HERE

Simply complete the paperwork and send us a cheque and then pop back here and book on as a member – what could be easier? No need to wait for confirmation of membership.

Work with AVM as our Learning & Development Officer

AVM are looking for a Learning & Development Officer to join the team.

The main objective of the role will be to plan, manage, market and deliver a schedule of high quality learning and development events/activities with the purpose of creating significant revenue, growing our membership and promoting AVM’s reputation and profile.

This role would suit someone with significant experience of designing and co-ordinating learning events, alongside event management experience and attention to detail. Existing experience within the voluntary sector or a professional membership body would be a bonus. Detailed role profile and person specification are available on our CharityJob listing.

The salary offered for this post is £26,500pa.

The deadline for applications is Noon on Friday 24 March 2017.

Interviews will be held during week commencing Monday 3 April 2017.

Application is via CV and cover letter sent to Fiona Wallace through our CharityJob listing.

Introduction to Volunteer Management: An AVM Learning & Development Day

Book HERE.

Venue:  Better Bankside | Bankside Community Centre | 18 Great Guildford Street | London | SE1 0FD

Date: Thursday 9 March 2017

Timings: Registration will open at 10:15 with presentations beginning at 10:30. The event will close at 13:30.

Agenda:

Volunteer management gives us the opportunity to work in an enjoyable environment, with truly inspiring and dedicated people. But how do we take the first steps into this world?

This workshop is aimed at those who are new to volunteer management and will explore what it means to be a volunteer manager in a range of different contexts, whether as a volunteer in a small organisation or a paid member of staff in a large national. You’ll have the chance to reflect on how to engage the right volunteers, if you should retain them and, if so, how and who you need to have as your allies in order to make your volunteer programme a success.

This 3 hour workshop will give an overview of current best practice, as well as expert tips, the chance to ask questions and an opportunity to meet others starting out in volunteer management.

This workshop is facilitated and delivered by Chris Reed, Head of Volunteering at Barnardo’s. Chris has led volunteer functions in major UK charities and worked in volunteering infrastructure for over a decade.

Please note: Light refreshments will be provided throughout the day but lunch will not be, instead delegates are encouraged to bring their own or to purchase it from food vendors close to the venue.

Book your space HERE NOW

Not a member? Why not join AVM and save on the cost of your ticket?  YOU CAN JOIN HERE

Simply complete the paperwork and send us a cheque and then pop back here and book on as a member – what could be easier? No need to wait for confirmation of membership.