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Saturday, July 21, 2012
Friday, July 20, 2012
One Week to go
Next week I am speaking at the the Centre for Volunteering's Ignite Conference in Sydney, Australia.
I am very excited to be at this event. I am doing the Plenary and leading three workshops:
I am very excited to be at this event. I am doing the Plenary and leading three workshops:
- Help your Organisation to become a Volunteer Magnet
- Teamwork in Volunteer Programs and Across Your Organisation
- Social Networking
In addition, we will be launching my new DVD series.
I look forward to meeting everyone there in seven days time!
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Nelson Mendala's Birthday
Happy 94th Birthday to a great leader. May those who follow in his steps exhibit the leadership needed to keep South Africa the "Rainbow Nation".
Here is an excerpt from his inauguration speech which I blogged on earlier in the year.
Today, South Africans (and others) are being asked to do 67 minutes of community work, a minute for each year Mandela devoted to public service.
Here is an excerpt from his inauguration speech which I blogged on earlier in the year.
Today, South Africans (and others) are being asked to do 67 minutes of community work, a minute for each year Mandela devoted to public service.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Volunteers are not World Changers
Provocative title? Yes! You betcha!!!
During one of my recent trainings, I outlined my concern that we often treat volunteers as second class workers in many organisations.
One of my training participants shared recently an issue they had with a volunteer whose job it was to analyse data pulled off a database. The only issue is that he could not access the data base!
Why not?
Because he was a volunteer
Volunteers in that organisation are not permitted to access the database. Why? Because they are volunteers.
So...he had to wait for a paid staff member to pull the data off the computer. Sometimes the volunteer saw data that was slightly incorrect eg postal code entered into the wrong field or a mis spelling in city name. The volunteer could report these but not fix them. It was up to the paid staff member who may or may not have time to do fix those errors.
I suggested that the volunteer needed to have access to the database. To my thinking, such access would be more fulfilling, more efficient and produce better results. I got push back from volunteer coordinators who said that volunteers should not have access to the database because "volunteers could do a lot of damage" in this situation.
What are we saying? A volunteer is less trustworthy? Less skilled? Less able that an employee simply because they are a volunteer??
How often do I hear this sentiment that effectively says that a volunteer is a second class citizen? And from the very people who recruit volunteers?
Let me extend that situation I mentioned before.
Lets introduce "Joe" aged 55. He is passionate about preserving wildlife. Joe has turned his own garden into a nature preserve and donates money to his favourite wildlife charity. It is to this charity that he offers to volunteer. Joe also runs his own IT company.
"Sally"is an employee with the animal welfare charity. She has learnt about the database "on the job". She is not fully confident with using it. She is very busy doing multiple tasks.
Who is better qualified to access the database? The answer for that charity? Sally, of course, simply because she is an employee. I put this example forward to show how stupid this attitude that automatically relegates volunteers to number two spot. Do we really think Joe is going to do "more damage" than Sally? is he going to make more mistakes than Sally?
If the volunteer does not have the skills or exhibits behaviours that render them unsuitable that is different but refusing to open a job up to a volunteer because they are a volunteer is simply short sighted and stupid. It is time for this nonsense to stop.
How do we stop this nonsense? I believe volunteers are world changers. Lets treat them as such.
One of my training participants shared recently an issue they had with a volunteer whose job it was to analyse data pulled off a database. The only issue is that he could not access the data base!
Why not?
Because he was a volunteer
Volunteers in that organisation are not permitted to access the database. Why? Because they are volunteers.
So...he had to wait for a paid staff member to pull the data off the computer. Sometimes the volunteer saw data that was slightly incorrect eg postal code entered into the wrong field or a mis spelling in city name. The volunteer could report these but not fix them. It was up to the paid staff member who may or may not have time to do fix those errors.
What are we saying? A volunteer is less trustworthy? Less skilled? Less able that an employee simply because they are a volunteer??
How often do I hear this sentiment that effectively says that a volunteer is a second class citizen? And from the very people who recruit volunteers?
Let me extend that situation I mentioned before.
Lets introduce "Joe" aged 55. He is passionate about preserving wildlife. Joe has turned his own garden into a nature preserve and donates money to his favourite wildlife charity. It is to this charity that he offers to volunteer. Joe also runs his own IT company.
"Sally"is an employee with the animal welfare charity. She has learnt about the database "on the job". She is not fully confident with using it. She is very busy doing multiple tasks.
Who is better qualified to access the database? The answer for that charity? Sally, of course, simply because she is an employee. I put this example forward to show how stupid this attitude that automatically relegates volunteers to number two spot. Do we really think Joe is going to do "more damage" than Sally? is he going to make more mistakes than Sally?
If the volunteer does not have the skills or exhibits behaviours that render them unsuitable that is different but refusing to open a job up to a volunteer because they are a volunteer is simply short sighted and stupid. It is time for this nonsense to stop.
How do we stop this nonsense? I believe volunteers are world changers. Lets treat them as such.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Facebook lets you edit posts
Up to last week, you only had two choices with your Facebook comments:
Now all you have to do is hover over the right corner of your comment and a pencil icon will appear. This will give you a drop down option of either editing or deleting the comment.
You’ll can also view the edit history of any comment by clicking on the “Edited” button near the date stamp. This means you can roll back to earlier versions of something - typing mistakes and all.
- delete (and re type it)
- leave it
Now all you have to do is hover over the right corner of your comment and a pencil icon will appear. This will give you a drop down option of either editing or deleting the comment.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Facebook is Norty
Overnight, Facebook changed many of its user's email addressees. They changed them from the ones that they signed up with to one that said @facebook.com address.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Enough is enough on My Birthday
My last really happy birthday was six years ago before my separation and divorce. From 1982 until six years ago, life had simply got better and better (with moments). I felt very blessed.
For some others, like me, post divorce isn't easy. On top of that, both my parents had heart attacks, and my sister has been very ill. I sold my house, bought a new one and have tried to keep my business operating through some of the toughest economic conditions. I know compared to some in this world, all of this is nothing but for me, the stress o meter has run overtime.
I was struck by this one:
Your life is a gift from the Creator. Your gift back to the Creator is what you do with your life. Billy Mills
So July 2, 2012: enough is enough. Life is going to start getting better again.
Thank you to all of my friends who have supported and loved me.
For some others, like me, post divorce isn't easy. On top of that, both my parents had heart attacks, and my sister has been very ill. I sold my house, bought a new one and have tried to keep my business operating through some of the toughest economic conditions. I know compared to some in this world, all of this is nothing but for me, the stress o meter has run overtime.
I was struck by this one:
Your life is a gift from the Creator. Your gift back to the Creator is what you do with your life. Billy Mills
So July 2, 2012: enough is enough. Life is going to start getting better again.
Thank you to all of my friends who have supported and loved me.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
June at The Cowling Report
Hello from "Sunny" London
The number of readers for The Cowling Report in June edged closer to 7000! The number of followers of the Blog climbed to 52.
More importantly, I had thirty comments (average of one a day). This is the most comments in a month! (the previous record was 25 in May, 2012!). Thank you.
Top Posts read in June were:
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