Terminal Niceness
By Colleen Kelly
We are very fortunate to include in this newsletter, articles by two colleagues who write about their knowledge and experience of the 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sydney. It is clear there was a major focus on planning for volunteers and engaging them in very significant ways. We can all learn from this!
My memories are of the Calgary Olympics in 1988. At that time I was new in the business of volunteerism and was working in Red Deer--a small city, quite close to Calgary. I was surprised the volunteer centre in Calgary was not involved in the planning, as many paid and unpaid staff had significant knowledge about strategic volunteer involvement. Maybe that was a time when the business of volunteerism was still below the radar for many organizing groups…
One of my colleagues in Red Deer, Kat, was a volunteer at the ’88 Games. She spoke two languages in addition to English, and had an opportunity to work with VIPs from French and Spanish speaking countries. Kat thought it was an experience of a lifetime – and raved about the opportunity to be involved. Kat took two weeks vacation from her “day job.” Most of her friends thought that was absurd. My cousin also applied to be a volunteer and the interviewers made the same two-week ask. He owned a business and said he couldn’t possibly take that much time. The Calgary team was very clear. This is about commitment. And accountability.
We understand that many (in fact, I would say most) believe those words don’t apply to volunteers. There is (what I would call) a myth out there that says if you’re a volunteer you really don’t have to be committed or accountable. We know that when the organization is high profile and desirable, the volunteer organizing team can make that kind of ask – as they do for the Olympics.
Maybe we can all gain some knowledge from this? Maybe it is important for us to examine how we think about volunteer engagement. Volunteers are unpaid human resources that work with our paid human resources to deliver our mission. Are we all comfortable working with volunteers in our community organizations — and making certain they are accountable? Or do we avoid engaging volunteers because they are unreliable, never on time, and high maintenance? Why is that? Have we worked in too many places where we are nice and therefore don’t think it is important to outline for the volunteer to whom they are accountable and for what? As long as we continue to be nice — rather than strategic and effective — we will continue to believe the volunteer myth.
So how can we approach volunteer accountability? There are many different ways. The starting point is sincerely believing it is important to make everyone accountable. And we must be comfortable working with other people. Then, we approach the volunteer knowing that we are offering them an opportunity to make a difference.
There are position descriptions for some volunteer roles that make it easy to determine the tasks required — and the supervising person. There are also terms of reference for committees. This outlines the expectation, the ultimate responsibility and the time required. Often now, we write formal contracts with volunteers. This means we sit down and determine the deliverables for the volunteer, and both of us sign a letter of agreement with the deliverables included or attached. Every volunteer and every volunteer role will be a little bit different. By outlining our expectations, we are saying this is important work; you are an important person to us.
Many of these and more specifics of volunteer engagement for the 2000 Olympics and Paralympics are included in this article by David Brettell from the E-volunteerism archives.
David makes it so clear that volunteer work is important work — and “there is no stronger heart than that of a volunteer.”
Yes, we can all learn from the way that David and others worked through the heart, soul and mind of volunteer engagement in 2000 — and years before that. We can all begin to really believe volunteers are more than nice to have. Volunteers must be essential and integral to delivering the missions of our organizations.
* Volunteer Vancouver thanks Susan Ellis for providing us with this article.
Colleen Kelly is the Executive Director of Volunteer Vancouver and the Principal of Volunteer Inc
