What skills does a 21st C Manager of Volunteers need?

In my workshop session today, we concluded that "volunteering" which has evolved and changed rapidly in the last ten years will again look very different in ten years. The way volunteers are coordinated and managed will change rapidly. For example:

• If "mandatory" volunteering continues to increase, this will change the way we recruit and screen volunteers.
• The increasingly sophisticated involvement by corporates in supporting volunteerism will impact structure of volunteer roles
• Social media will change the way we market volunteering, recruit and recognise volunteers
• The lifestyles of Boomers will change the way we offer roles
• The acceptance that many volunteers have very high level of skills will change the way we train volunteers.

We played with some quite radical scenarios for a volunteer program in 2021. For example:

• not calling volunteers "volunteers"
• not having managers of volunteers as we know them today
• using apps to recruit volunteers
• employing paid people to undertake "menial" or routine tasks and engaging volunteer skills to  undertake high level work eg establishing marketing strategies or fundraising campaigns

As a group, we dont know which ones of those will happen but we did identify the skills needed for a 21st Century volunteer manager. What do you think of the lists? How many of those are in the people managing your volunteers? How many are you developing in yourself?

Connie (Wonder Volunteer) talks SAVE workshops

The Symposium for Advanced Volunteer Management has finished for the morning. I interview Connie, one of the volunteers helping support the Conference about the feedback from the seven workshops that were conducted this morning:

1.    “Deviant” and “Mean” Aren’t Just Difficult Volunteers ~ Sarah Jane Rehnborg
2.  Building Active Commitment and Support to Your Organization’s Volunteer  Engagement ~ Betty Stallings and Sue Carter Kahl
3.  To Be or Not to Be Online: The Web, Social Media, and Volunteer  Engagement ~ Erin Barnhart
4.  Empowering Skilled & Pro-bono Volunteers: New Roles for Staff & Volunteers ~  Jill Friedman Fixler
5.  Balancing Professional Leadership and Spirit ~ Martin J. Cowling
6.  The Future of Volunteer Management: Wrestling with Our Demons ~ Katie Campbell

I am official!

I am now officially registered for the National Conference for Volunteering and Service in New Orleans, Louisiana!

Registering for Symposium for Advanced Volunteer Engagement

Here are the friendly support team looking after everyone at the Symposium for Advanced Volunteer Engagement (SAVE) in New Orleans, Louisiana. Left to Right: Lori Jean Mantooth, and Jesse Salinas Tricia Thompson.









Have a listen to Lori Jean being interviewed at the desk by me - with no warning:-

Betty Stallings and Martin J Cowling en route to New Orleans!

Having finished three days in Toronto, Canada for PAVR-O with Betty Stallings. We are now en route from Toronto to Houston to New Orleans. I videoed Betty as we walked through the corners of Toronto airport.

Hear what Betty has to say about our weekend plans at the Symposium for Advanced Volunteer Engagement.......

Looking forward to having people join us in person, on line through The Cowling Report and/or via twitter:

Main conference: #NCVS 

Symposium for Advanced Volunteer Engagement:   #NCVSSave

My Tuesday Session: Volunteer Management Toolkit: #Voltools

My Wednesday Session: Sabotage! How Volunteer Managers Sabotage Their Program: #NCVS5493

Sweet but not very educational

A little while ago, I was invited to speak at a Volunteer Recognition event linked to volunteer week. My brief was to inspire, encourage and  I felt it went well. 70% of the attendees gave me a 10 out of 10. A number said they wanted to hear more.

One person said: "Sweet but not very educational". It was an inspirational talk! How educational could I be?

The Cowling Report hits new Record Readership

My blog celebrates six months this week. And six consecutive months growth in the number of readers. I am floored and honoured. I also saw more followers join the blog. Thank you. Its great to get comments from people also on the journey in the not for profit world and despite my laments, comments rose during May also.


The Top Ten most popular posts for May 2011 were in order of most to less read:

1. By far the most read (but not most commented on) Friday Facts: No follow through - my April 15 post about spontaneous volunteers. Its touched a chord in Twitter land too
2. Followed closely by The Power and the Passion in Volunteer Management which I only posted one week ago. It has had a lot of comments made about it on Twitter- but I have not had too many comments on the blog post itself.
3. My December 19 Post Completely Unqualified Trainer? You're Hired continues to pull people in-its one of my favourite posts. 
4. The fact that I was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA for WVCA Conference came next. The blog post featured my editing prowess for a video opener to my key note. 
5. Cancer Sucks, The post about my sister who was diagnosed with cancer just on two weeks ago who have sent my family and I much welcomed messages of support
6. Volunteer Animal Soup was a fun presentation I gave at a volunteer recognition event in portland, Oregon in April.  I would love to present it again because it worked nicely.
7. I like my Monday Motivations but I get almost no feedback on them. People liked the one on May 2nd about success because lots of people read it! Thanks to Wendy M for her comment in it
8. My January post about disaster management: Thunderbirds and the Aussie Floods/Haiti earthquake suggests we need a coordinated international approach to disaster management
9. My review of the Kings Speech which I wrote back in February had more readers this month than it did in February. 
10. The Poster that wont go away considers a very clever way of undertaking a survey- only allow people to give positive feedback.  

Upcoming June 2011

Love to see what triggers interest this month. I will be in four countries in June: Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA.  I will be reporting on a daily basis from the US National Conference on Volunteerism and Service in New Orleans, Louisiana.  In addition I will be tweeting from the Conference. The hashtags are:
#NCVS for the Conference
#NCVSSave for the Symposium for Advanced Volunteer Engagement 
##NCVS5493 for my session on how managers Sabotage their Volunteer Program 
  #Voltools  a session on the tools you need to be a successful manager of volunteers
Both those sessions are full.
Still not convinced that we need all those hashtags but the NCVS people keep pushing them all on us. 


Then I will be updating you on National Volunteer Week at the end of June in New Zealand. This will be my first return visit to Christchurch since the earthquakes.


Love to have you follow and send your comments please

June wishes

Twitter is being used to send wishes for June.
My wish is that my sister is healed.

Monday Motivation Monday 30 May, 2011

"Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing." -- Helen Keller

The Power and the Passion in Volunteer Management

In the Global Volunteer Management Survey there were very few correlations for length of service of managers of voluntaries. We looked at degree, salary, size of programs- no consistent correlations. What then makes a person stay in volunteer management?

The one factor that I personally believe will guarantee the longevity of someone in the volunteerism field? Passion for volunteering.

Really understanding volunteering is like a religion. You can study religious texts and precepts but until you have a “conversion:” experience, the religion is simply formulaic and ritualistic.

To be successful manager of volunteers, to be a successful volunteer centre, you need to believe in volunteering. It may even be good to have volunteered or be volunteering yourself?

I will go further. Some of those who don't have a real passion for volunteering are to my eyes, some of the most  defensive, narrow minded and undermining people in the volunteering sector. Others who don't really "get" volunteering resort to motherhood statements and platitudes  to try and understand it.. I recently  reviewed a government document clearly written by a bureaucrat who didn't really get the power of volunteering and reverted instead to platitudes about volunteering such as "helping the community" and "Volunteering is the Hallmark of our society" 

Some people chose volunteer management because they thought it would be “an easy gig”. Volunteering is seen as easy therefore volunteer management is seen to be a job that could be akin to a holiday! What a sign that they don't really understand volunteer management.

Some who dont "get this field have fallen by the wayside- leaving for other roles. Some have stubbornly stayed and some have had their "conversion experience" and have become great advocates for the sector. 

That's my theory. Now, prove me wrong.