book buzz logo
October 2014
In This Issue
Featured Title: The (Help!) Guide
More Books & Resources
Relevant Articles from e-Volunteerism
Excerpt: Recognizing Your Role
Quick Links

Energize Online Bookstore 

 

www.energizeinc.com 

 

e-Volunteerism 

 

 Everyone Ready:Volunteer Management Skill-Building Program 

Connect with Energize 

Find us on Facebook    Follow us on Twitter    Connect on LinkedIn

Everyone Ready
Online Training
Develop your volunteer management skills. A few hours a month. Anytime. Anyplace.


Upcoming Topic:

It Takes Two to Tango:
Building Successful Relationships between Volunteers and Paid Staff 

Trainer: Susan J. Ellis (for the late Ivan H. Scheier)

 

Starts October 20th 

 

 Sign up now and get 3 free trainings!
Celebrating IVMDay by Strengthening Our Profession

The 5th of November is International Volunteer Managers Day (IVMDay). Begun in 1999, the day is reserved for publicly recognizing what leaders of volunteers bring to volunteer accomplishments, including strategy, organization, mobilization, leadership, and inspiration. Energize applauds all of our colleagues for your dedication and effort in your work!

Besides basking in well-deserved recognition, be sure to set aside time to take seriously the IVMDay committee's catch phrase: "Education through Celebration." Make sure you can inform others about our profession by educating yourself with some of the following resources.
resource Featured Resource
The (Help!) I-Don't-Have-Enough-Time Guide to Volunteer Management

By Katherine Noyes Campbell and Susan J. Ellis

 

Besides spelling out a detailed analysis of what it takes to successfully lead volunteer involvement, this book promotes the idea that volunteerism is "everyone's business" in a volunteer-involving organization and the volunteer manager must promote that vision. Campbell and Ellis, having been through the challenges of leading volunteer engagement themselves, offer practical advice on how to meet that challenge.    

 

Read an excerpt from this book below.

 

This book is available as an e-book (PDF) for immediate download for US$10.00 and in paperback for US$16.95. 

 

Order The (Help!) Guide  today!
resource2 More Resources

Although this book is written with top executives in mind as the key audience, it serves as a tool for managers of volunteer resources to become effective "in-house educators" about volunteerism, explaining the fundamental theory of engaging volunteers in an organization. The Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration designates it as a top resource for studying to be a certified volunteer administrator (CVA).

This book is available as an e-book (PDF) for immediate download for US$18.00 or in paperback for US$24.95. 

 

Order From the Top Down


Volunteer Management - How and Why?: A book on developing sustainable volunteer environments
A holistic, organizational approach to strategically engaging volunteers in organizations. Use this book to reflect how volunteers are incorporated into the overall work of your organization.

This book is available as an e-book (PDF) for immediate download for US$19.50.

 

Order Volunteer Management - How and Why?

 


Volunteer Management: Mobilizing All the Resources of the Community, 3rd Edition
The most widely utilized textbook in the world on the theory and practice of managing a volunteer program. With 418 pages, Volunteer Management is designed to provide the new and the experienced volunteer program manager with both basic knowledge and state-of-the-art information, based on the more than 50 years of experience the authors have acquired in their work with thousands of volunteer programs.

This book is available as an e-book (PDF) for immediate download for US$29.00.

 

Order Volunteer Management.



Best of All: The Quick Reference Guide To Effective Volunteer Involvement
A concise compendium of best practices in volunteer program management. A great handbook to have on your shelf for quick reference.

This book is available as an e-book (PDF) for immediate download for US$20.00 or in spiral-bound paperback for US$35.00. 

 

Order Best of All.

 

 

Volunteer Program Management: An Essential Guide 3rd Edition

Since first published, many volunteer program managers refer to this book as "my bible," not as a one-time read but as a reference companion to be used as a practical tool day by day. Although written for an Australian audience, the concepts, case studies, checklists, and other useful tools are fully applicable anywhere in the world. 

 

This book is available as an e-book (PDF) for immediate download for US$29.00.

 

Order Volunteer Program Management.

resource2 Relevant Articles

e-Volunteerism Logo

Journal subscribers can log in here to read all the articles below. Non-subscribers can read all the articles and more with affordable 48-hour access to the journal.

 


 

Isolation is Not an Option
Susan J. Ellis and Rob Jackson discuss how volunteer management needs a shared body of knowledge on working with volunteers. That knowledge should grow and strengthen over time, building on past practice while adapting to new social and technological issues. Without connections to peers who have "been there, done that," our field is destined to keep re-inventing the proverbial square wheel.

Peer Career Coaching
So many of us discuss the need to professionalize volunteer management so that our organizations will value volunteers and the work we do, leading to greater investment in volunteerism and viewing us as internal experts. But, as Sheri Wilensky Burke and Jerry Pannozzo explain, for that to occur it must start with each of us.

Are We Asleep at the Wheel? A Frustrated Volunteer Manager Speaks Out
Are volunteer managers asleep at the wheel? In this e-Volunteerism article, Irish-Australian D.J. Cronin explains why he thinks they are, and why it's time for them to wake up!
 

  

 

Subscribe now and get immediate access to all of the above articles, plus everything in the current issue of the journal and its 14-year archive. 
excerptBook Excerpt

Recognizing Your Role

By Katherine Noyes Campbell and Susan J. Ellis

From The (Help!) I-Don't-Have-Enough-Time Guide to Volunteer Management, Philadelphia: Energize, Inc., 2004, pp 8-9. 

 

Regardless of your situation or the strategies you ultimately adopt, your success [as a volunteer resources manager] will be predicated on three important points:


1. You understand the scope of the job.
[This book] provides a detailed list of volunteer management tasks. As you read it, edit it by adding or deleting items to make it relevant to your own situation and the unique aspects of your setting. The goal is to develop a comprehensive definition of what needs to happen in order to effectively mobilize and direct volunteer resources within your organization. Though the length of this list may seem overwhelming at first, facing it as a "known quantity" is immeasurably better than continually being surprised by the number of tasks concealed behind general phrases like "recruit new volunteers."


2. You believe in the value of volunteer involvement.
In addition to specific tasks, there is another major factor in assuring successful volunteer management: attitude. This is a person-to-person job directly influenced by the amount of honest commitment you feel to volunteerism. Such commitment, in turn, may be influenced by how you came to hold the position. Did you actively seek the role? Did you "fall into it" by accident? Were you assigned to it ("anointed")? Those who enter the field of volunteer administration by accident often accept leadership of a volunteer program as a temporary stepping stone to something else, such as a promotion, direct client supervision, etc. The "anointed" often recognize that they may have been designated rather arbitrarily, and see the assignment as auxiliary to (and of lower priority than) their "real" jobs.


Regardless of how you came to be in charge of volunteers, the challenge is to cultivate the attitudes necessary for success:
 

  • Belief in the value and power of volunteerism.
  • Recognition of people's potential capabilities, rather than their formal credentials.
  • Desire to make the program work to its fullest potential.
  • Openness to tapping a variety of volunteers (different ages, backgrounds, ideas, etc.).
  • Willingness to stand up for the rights of volunteers.
  • Enjoyment of working with volunteers.

3. You are committed to the team approach because it benefits the organization as much as it benefits you.
[In this book] the phrase "management team" will be used repeatedly to refer to the cooperative approach to leading volunteers. You will still be in charge, but with the benefit of shared responsibility as specific tasks are delegated to others. The program will be stronger because it will have gained the input of ideas and perspectives in addition to your own. You and your coworkers will share both problems and successes, resulting in real joint ownership of the results. You will avoid the trap of isolation which often comes when you are the only one who understands the job. And neither you nor the organization will fall prey to the "solo syndrome" - the perception that the success or failure of volunteer involvement rests on only one person's shoulders. Thus, from the double perspective of both time management and program development, recruiting a team to share your leadership role makes a lot of sense.

 

*****

Permission is granted for organizations to reprint this excerpt. Reprints must provide full acknowledgment of source, as provided:

 

Excerpted from The (Help!) I-Don't-Have-Enough-Time Guide to Volunteer Management, by Katherine Noyes Campbell and Susan J. Ellis  (Philadelphia: Energize, Inc., 2004). Available in the Energize, Inc. Online Bookstore athttp://www.energizeinc.com/store/1-139-E-1
Energize, Inc.
5450 Wissahickon Ave., C-13
Philadelphia, PA 19144
[email protected]
www.energizeinc.com 

 

Energize empowers and inspires leaders of volunteers worldwide. Our specialty is creating and selecting the most relevant, innovative resources in volunteer management. We're advocates for the power of volunteers and for the recognition of the leaders who unleash it.  About Us