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Blog - The Importance of Fruit-Basket Hats

September 22, 2009

Where have we ended up?

Volunteerism has become more professionalized. It’s become more highly skilled. Some of the work that’s being done around volunteerism is fantastic. We’re moving forward on many issues. Issues like:

• Tax credits for volunteers
• Screening for volunteers
• More research than ever
• Connecting volunteers with business
• Insurance and risk management
• Social networking and community mobilization

We’re using terms like “Social Return on Investment” and “Community Engagement”. “Social Capital” and “Generative Governance”.

Smarter people than I are working on these essential topics, and it’s absolutely crucial that we have conversations about these things. As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, if we’re not at these tables and having all these discussions, they’ll be had without us.

As you can see, volunteerism is no longer about polite ladies in fruit-basket hats. It’s not about hearts and stars and flowers and fluff. It’s about hard core economics and public policy. It’s about accountants and lawyers and economists and politicians.

Ok ok I can already hear you squirming in your collective seats. Now I’m dead serious. These discussions are extremely important. But what about the ladies in fruit-basket hats? What about the envelope stuffers? Do they still exist? What about the everyday tasks that volunteers are sometimes asked to do? Have we forgotten about them?

Look at our capacity builders. I’m talking about the organizations who help other organizations in furthering their missions. In the Edmonton area, we have several. They’re all great partners and all do great stuff. But when was the last time there was a session on Volunteer Recognition? When was the last time you took a workshop on how to say thank you?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not insinuating we don’t thank our volunteers. But do we sometimes spend too much time focusing on the heavy economic and political issues and not enough time on the care and feeding of the individuals that keep our organizations afloat? We tell our volunteers they’re essential, but do we really mean it?

Now before you start hurling tomatoes and chairs and shoes (oo, those ones were nice) I’m being somewhat facetious. But the point I’m trying to make (perhaps poorly) is that perhaps we’re spending a lot of time on advancing these bigger issues at the expense of those we’re trying to help in the first place.

Both activities are important. But do we have the balance right?

Posted by: Scott | In: IVC

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