Nat Vol Week: Value of Volunteering

I can be a cynic sometimes about so many things but I think the various National Volunteer Weeks around the world, are a good thing. This week its the turn of Australia and Ireland to have their National Volunteer Weeks.

For me, this week, here are four things that we need to celebrate about volunteering :

1. the economic value of volunteering- how much we are able to do without funding for it-in the case of the Mornington Peninsula region where I live, the cost of replacing our volunteer labour with paid staff would be $90 million per annum.....a lot of money for 150 000 residents;
2. the services provided by volunteers-the fact that youngsters can learn to kick a ball, my house will be saved from being burnt down, meals and meal vouchers are handed out, festivals, concerts and markets organised is because of amazing volunteer input-life woiuld be veyr different without this
3. the fact volunteering builds Social Capital - this is a little amorphous as it concerns the bonds and networks that help build a better society. Robert Putnam noted that just as we need financial capital so too do we need social capital. How does your volunteer engagement create social capital
4. the personal impact on volunteers..we know volunteering changes lives- do you tell the world?

How do we explain these four benefits of volunteering in a way that makes sense to people so that we can see more support for the tradition of volunteering.

Wednesday World Changers: Politics and Volunteering

Am feeling quite exhausted today. Only half way through Volunteer Week here in Australia - three presentations in three different parts of the country! I have been interested to see the political reaction to volunteering across the country.

The Minister for Mental Health and Ageing and Minister for Social Inclusion, The Hon Mark Butler MP, has recorded a speech for Volunteer week- which is super. Thank you Mr Butler!  I would have liked him to sound less like he is reading a prepared speech, though! Seeing him talk about his own volunteering would be good. It is also interesting that Australian stats on volunteering dollar value come from six years ago!

It would also have been good to have had a collage of politicians celebrating volunteering. For a 14billion dollar "industry", it does not seem high on the political agenda. If volunteering was being taken seriously, then we would have politicians all over the country pouring over projects and scrambling for press conferences and making parliamentary statements.

One who "gets" volunteering is  Ms Quentin Bryce, The Governor-General of Australia who was photographed yesterday, visiting the St Vincent de Paul Society Victoria Fitzroy soup van in Melbourne, Australia for National Volunteers Week.

It was interesting having my Mayor: Councillor Frank Martin (Mornington Peninsula Shire Mayor for 2012) at my session yesterday in Mornington, Victoria. He told me he really liked what I was doing with the Presentation. (Phew!) He, himself is a Rotarian. My local councillor Cr Antonella Celi was also present. I was bemused that we met last year in Volunteer week and not seen each other since! The life of someone who travels too much!  She spent a large chunk of her day with us listening and taking note of what was said. I enjoyed sparring with another councillor Cr Leigh Eustace during the day! He likes to keep abreast of what volunteers are doing. There were other local councillors present too but neither my Federal or State representatives.

Political support for volunteering is important. Firstly, so many community services are delivered by volunteers. Their life would be made harder trying to patch up this missing infrastructure not to menton having to ask for more taxes to pay for things that are provided by volunteers.

Secondly, volunteers are their voters. A politician who shows concern, interest and support for the 30 to 40 per cent of people in their community who volunteer are saying see these voters as important.

Thirdly, we need politicians to model support for volunteering so that more will be encouraged to volunteer too. We may mock politicians sometimes but the reality is we do listen to their words and observe their actions.

Volunteer Week US and Canada

Hope everyone is having a good Volunteer Week?!

Love to see any pics or hear any storeis of events here or on my Facebook. 

Wednesday World Changers: Australian Volunteers

Aussie volunteers, like those in many other countries change lives and the world. National Volunteer Week from May 14 to May 20  2012 is a time when we can pay tribute to volunteerism. (USA, Canada, UK NZ all have National Volunteer week too- at different dates).







The theme of this year's week is:  'Volunteers ' Every One Counts'

I am curious to know what people think of this year's theme and poster (seeing last year it was not very popular!).

Promotional material for the week is now available www.nationalvolunteerweek.com.au  and the hashtag for tweeting about it is:  #NVW12

Thank you to our Aussie volunteers!

Volunteering Week

Its Volunteering Week in New Zealand. Hope it goes well everybody!
I am presenting this week in

• Christchurch Tuesday- first time I have been since the quakes
• Blenheim Wednesday- the Volunteer Centre there is a launching an exciting new Publicatiion
• Dunedin Friday
• Kapati Monday week
• Wanganui Tuesday week
• Gisborne Thursday week

Free stuff for NZ Volunteers

BP New Zealand is linking its 2011 BP Vouchers for Volunteers programme with Volunteer Awareness Week and is opening its invitation to apply for vouchers from Monday 20 June.

Applications from community organisations who meet the criteria set by BP may be made from 20 June through to 15 July.  To find out if your organisation is eligible visit www.bp.co.nz. and click on Vouchers for Volunteers 2011. 

The link for making applications will be there from Monday next 20 June.

That poster won't go away

Oh dear oh dear. I find myself blogging again about this year's Australian National Volunteer week poster.

You may recall that I did an unofficial survey and found that 60 per cent of managers of volunteers did not like the poster and 20 per cent were neutral about it.

National Volunteer Week in Australia has come and gone and now Volunteering Australia are evaluating the week.  This is good.  I firmly believe in evaluation of activities and resources.

However, the survey questions caused me some concern.

For example, take survey Question 11:
Did you find the following free NVW promotional products suitable to promote the week?

The question then asks you to rate the Posters and the Pins with only three choices:

1. I didn't use them
2. They were ok
3. They were fantastic


What happens if you wanted to choose: "4. They sucked"? or "4. They were disappointing".

What are we are afraid of to not know the truth?

Question 12
Did you use any of the free resources on the Volunteering Australia website?
The choices to rate the resources are:

• didn't know it was available
• didn't use it
• used it and it was okay
• used it and loved it

Same deal. Surely there needs to be an option that says: "Used it and it was disappointing".

As it stands, the results will give an impression that 100% of people  who didn't use the products thought they were okay or they loved them. Not entirely accurate surely?

I am not doing this just to have a go at Volunteering Australia.  It is  frustrating that poor survey design gets in the way of accuracy. If we want to really reach people with good materials and resources, we need to find out the truth?

My Australian National Volunteer Week

For National Volunteer Week in Australia, I am having a very busy week:

• Yesterday, I was in the Northern suburbs of Melbourne, presenting at the Hume Global Learning Village May Forum on Volunteering: challenges, trends and opportunities. 

• Today, I am in my home area hosted by Volunteering Resource Service Mornington Peninsula- looking at how to attract future volunteers

• Wednesday morning, I am looking forward to an important discussion with the City of Boroondara about what we think volunteering will look like in 2021 (IYV +20!)

• Thursday, the City of Port Philip is presenting a forum on Recruitment and Policy - and I am the forum presenter! Should be a very practical and fun session!

• Thursday night, I am involved in a virtual presentation for the Linking Learning Looking volunteer Conference in the Clarence Valley. I am presenting about "Online Tools for Volunteer Engagement". The actual session will have participants physically present in the Grafton area of New South Wales, Australia  (a region about 2000km (1200m miles) from my home) and other participants online from anywhere in the world! You can join us!

• Friday morning I head down to the second biggest city in my state: Geelong for a joint Volunteering Geelong/G21 event looking at Mega trends in Volunteering 

Saturday I am taking my nephews to the football and celebrating my second nephew's 8th Birthday.

Have a great week!

Monday Motivation; Australian Volunteer Week May 9, 2011

The theme for  the Australian National Volunteer Week: May 9 to May 15 2011 is "Inspiring the Volunteer within you"


I found this quote today and think its a perfect description of volunteering and volunteers.



Never mind searching for who you are.  Search for the person you aspire to be.  ~Robert Brault,


Thank you to all my fellow volunteers this week and every week.

National Volunteer Week

Happy Volunteer Week to everyone in the USA and Canada!

It was great to see the US President has issued a Presidential Proclamation regarding the week. In it he says " America's story has been marked by the service of volunteers.  Generations of selfless individuals from all walks of life have served each other and our Nation, each person dedicated to making tomorrow better than today."

I must admit I am annoyed he managed to slip in the phase we hear every Volunteer Week everywhere in the world: "Volunteers are the lifeblood of our schools and shelters........, ". I can see Susan Ellis rolling her eyes smiling. My thought is if they are the lifeblood, can we please get better insurance coverage for volunteer service and better pay for their coordinators?

Mr Obama goes on to say: "During National Volunteer Week, we celebrate the profound impact of volunteers and encourage all Americans to discover their own power to make a difference.  Every one of us has a role to play in making our communities and our country stronger."

and concludes:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 10 through April 16, 2011, as National Volunteer Week.  I call upon all Americans to observe this week by volunteering in service projects across our country and pledging to make service a part of their daily lives.

Thank you Mr President - and whoever encouraged him to issue this proclamation.

Volunteering Canada notes that it is their 68th Volunteer Week and have an impressive marketing strategy around the week. Well done guys. The theme for Canadian National Volunteer Week 2011 is Volunteers: Passion. Action. Impact. !

For more:

• Hands on
• Youth Service America has some great NVW stories
• EnergizeInc has some NVW ideas 

In the meantime, Volunteering Australia sent me 4 copies of the Australian NVW Poster that I don't like.  (the fact that 80 per cent of  Volunteer Managers surveyed didn't like it may be relevant too!). In real life (and not on a screen) it still doesn't grab me. Check it out here. The good news for Australians is that there are some NVW 2011 pins available for $1 each.

Canada's Volunteer Week

I really like Canada's National Volunteer Week site and materials. Good video too. Well done guys.

It seems we don't like it -whatever it means

My second most read blog post so far is “What does it mean?”. That post developed from the distress people had over the Poster developed for National Volunteer Week in Australia. Despite the involvement of a volunteer in the design the response was clearly underwhelming. In fact, I  had so many negative emails sent to me and calls about it, that I invited people in my previous blog to complete an unofficial survey about the Poster. In that survey, I asked two questions:

1. For people to rate the poster out of 5 (5 being excellent) and 1 being “very poor”.
2. What people thought the poster meant

Results of the Rating

• 33% (about a third) said they felt the poster was “very poor”
• 27% saying it was “poor”

A  total of 60% (almost two thirds of the respondents)  said it was poor or very poor.

• 20% were neutral
• 13% said it was good 
• 7% said excellent

 In other words 80 per cent of respondents did not like the poster. The respondents to this survey, I assume,  would mostly be managers of volunteers. There were many comments made regarding the poster- some of which are listed below and some were also posted on my actual blog post.

I mean no disrespect to the poster designer nor do I seek to undermine National Volunteer Week. In fact, I want to ensure we use National Volunteer Week to do all it can to lift and celebrate volunteering in every country it is celebrated in. 

I acknowledge, that  It is always easier to critique something than design it but it is a concern that 80% of a group of people working with volunteers cannot see the meaning and do not like one of the primary tools for National Volunteer Week.

Volunteering Australia response to this survey was: "Creative design is always somewhat subjective. Thank you for your feedback." The good news for them is that within 90 minutes, 50,000 free 2011 National Volunteer week pins to be given by agencies to volunteers "sold out". At a limit of 100 pins per organisation, this means about 500-1000 agencies will have got the free pins for their volunteers. NB There are still stocks of the poster available (wonder why?)

The challenge is what are we trying to do with National Volunteer Week messaging wherever we celebrate it

• To inspire?
• To thank?
• To recruit?

Its a very hard job to do all three. Do we need three different types of posters? What would a meaningful engaging poster look like? What can we do that would really engage all many millions of Australia volunteers in 170 000 volunteer involving agencies across Australia? The same question needs to be asked in every country that runs a National Volunteer Week. In the meantime, of course, the volunteers keep serving. Thanks to all.

Poster Comments (more comments are on the previous Cowling Report Post regarding this Poster )

Positive Comments

• Unity and camaraderie in our great country. It is a opining of people, not who they are, but what they can do.
• I think having a faceless person is beaut. All people are included and all skills are merited.
• One person can assist in many places.
• My first reaction is, "It's nice". 
• I like the message the person and its shadow conveys.
• "I really like the saying.   I can use it for our recognition and the workplace volunteer program to encourage them to volunteer."
• "nice theme"

Mixed Comments

• I think the poster brings a message about "YOU can do something for the community!" However, it is too emphasize an individual. I think volunteering is a kind of group work rather than a single of power.
• statue of liberty and golden age of volunteering?
• One isolated person putting their hand up. It's always the "same" people doing that though. It has a sort of ANZAC quality about it too with the rays - that is sort of depressing to me as it implies "sacrifice" of sorts.
• looks like an academy award at first glance...but wording is good
• "Statue of Liberty?:   Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…"

Negative Comments

• Your guess is as good as mine. Who would really know.
• "It looks just like every boring National Volunteer Week poster I've seen"
• Stand up and be counted? Not sure what that has to do with volunteering
• that we all have it in us to give
• Beats Me!
• Makes no sense.
• buggered if I know
• I think the problem is that no one can figure out what they're trying to do ...recognition, recruitment, or...?"
• "Looks like someone walking into the light as they depart this mortal coil."
• " if the person is the inspiration what does it say that the group of people is just a shadow?"
• "call home ET"
• "it doesn't move me to action or inspire me. Sadly, I cannot explain why it is just a gut reaction."
• " the image, which I like doesn't fit with the message that is typed. How is a person standing on the horizon being inspired?" 
• "is it an alien?"

A number of people were concerned that it was too religious- a theme carried over into the comments made on my last blog post:
I think the poster has definite religious connotations
Looks too religious to me - religious conversion, seen the light.

Volunteer Week design

Keeping my unofficial survey from last week's post about the Australia Volunteer Week Poster design. Keep the comments and the survey replies coming - I love them!

But What does it Mean?

Volunteering Australia have launched their designs for 2011 Australian National Volunteer Week (May.2011) They engaged a volunteer to do the design which is a great model. Heres the full size Poster (it is a PDF) 

I  am curious to know what people who work with volunteers think about the design and what you think it represents.

Can you comment below as to what you think of the poster and what you think it means or complete a quick 3 question anonymous survey (or do both) - you don't have to be Australian to comment!


NB The survey is not an official survey endorsed by Volunteering Australia but I will pass on the feedback to them.