Volunteering in focus: the panoramic view
In 2002 the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney hosted Botanic Garden’s Conservation International’s (BGCI) 5th International Education Congress, this presentation and paper provided a great opportunity to celebrate insights gained from the International Year of Volunteers in 2001 and to assess the role of volunteers in Sydney’s Olympic Games. I have added a few slices from my PowerPoint presentation.
Janelle Hatherly 2021
The success of the 2000 Sydney Olympic volunteers and the celebration of the International Year of Volunteers in 2001 brought volunteering into sharp focus. No longer is volunteering viewed as the domain of the middle-aged upper classes engaged in informal charitable acts as some sort of noblesse oblige. Instead, modern volunteering attracts both males and females, aged between 15 and 80 plus, likely to be in full-time employment and committed to a personal interest or worthwhile cause. The changes in volunteering have come about to a large extent through changes to society. This paper examines the reasons for some of these changes and the challenges faced by organisations wishing to build a volunteer support group.
A volunteering past
Volunteering has a long history. As far back as the 1800s volunteers from the emerging social classes of Western Europe and North America engaged in charitable activities. Social boundaries were defined by grouping individuals into those who provided assistance and support to those who were needy. The next two hundred years saw a progressive evolution towards more established volunteer programs, providing a social context where volunteers came together to serve a common good. Australia has a long and distinguished history in this regard. A number of organisations, such as Rural Fire Service and Surf Lifesaving are up to one hundred years old and have iconic status. There are also many ‘unsung heroes’ such as the Smith Family (78 years old), Meals on Wheels (established 1957), State Emergency Service (45 years), and school-based Parents & Citizens associations (79 years old). Botanic gardens also have a long association with volunteering. Many regional botanic gardens have been founded by volunteers united as ‘Friends’; and volunteer guides have been interpreting living collections to visitors for years. Volunteer Guides began at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney as far back as 1978.
Traditionally, volunteers were perceived to be older and retired, or non-working partners in single-income families (that is, primarily females).
Today’s volunteers
The Sydney Olympic experience in 2000 brought volunteering top of mind and into sharp contemporary focus. Volunteers were vital to the Olympic and Paralympic Games and over 62,000 people contributed in this way. This event, the biggest peacetime project on Earth, provided a contemporary snapshot of who volunteers, what’s involved in recruiting, training, managing and retaining today’s volunteers. This, followed in 2001 by the International Year of Volunteers, made society at large more aware of the extraordinary contribution volunteers can make and gave volunteering formal recognition as a social identity.
On reflection:
Today’s volunteers are males and females, aged between 15 and 80 plus, are likely to be in full-time employment and are generally committed to an interest or worthwhile cause.
Regarding recruitment, if expectations are aligned with reality, attrition is low.
Although volunteers, by definition, are unpaid they are not free. All costs need to be properly assessed before launching new schemes.
Formal volunteer programs require sound management structures and established policies, guidelines and procedures.
Volunteers are entitled to expect and deserve to be given good management, clarity about what they are being asked to do, training and support.
Recognition is an extraordinary powerful motivational force that ensures continuing commitment.
Far from purely ‘doing good’, today’s volunteers are motivated to rally together for a common cause - often for a short duration, for the satisfaction of working with others and to have a sense of contributing to the bigger scheme of things. They also embrace the opportunity for work experience and skills acquisition.
So why have these changes come about? We live in rapidly changing times. Social, cultural, economic and technological changes have led to an erosion of traditional forms of workplace and community. There used to be a clear distinction between work and home, and males found their identity as breadwinners and females as nurturers. Now, equal numbers of women and men are in the workforce and both share family responsibilities. Adolescence is prolonged and there is an increasing aging population. People are retiring earlier and for longer. Also, work practices have gone from jobs for life to more flexible serial careers. Learning has become an ongoing pursuit and flexible working arrangements are becoming the norm. It is increasingly difficult to separate work time from learning and leisure time.
As societal groupings are eroded, many more people are living alone or in isolated family units. They look to volunteerism as a meaningful way of sharing activities and creating a sense of belonging. The boundaries between play and work are blurring as skilled people look for ways to connect with each other. This may be through their children’s activities, common interests or in support of a worthy cause.
Volunteers of tomorrow
It seems likely that tomorrow’s volunteers will be of all ages, come from all walks of life: from both the community and corporate world, will be available to contribute at various times of the day and for varying periods of time. They are likely to be highly-skilled and will seek meaningful involvement.
So, what does this mean for botanic gardens and the volunteer programs we currently run and might run in the future? The challenge will be to fit the job to the volunteer, rather than the volunteer to the job. Unless we are receptive to the changing motivations of volunteers, we risk shrinking our pool of dedicated contributors to existing programs as well as not attract any new ones.
The mission statements of many botanic gardens involve raising community awareness and appreciation of plants and natural environments. How better to achieve this than by directly involving the community in mutually beneficial activities? Volunteering is an ideal way for botanic gardens to become an accepted part of community rather than perceived as irrelevant institutions separate from daily life.
In order not to risk being out of step with worldwide societal trends, botanic gardens must encourage community input into decision making and involvement in service delivery. This may require swinging organisational cultures around from ones that views volunteers as an additional workforce to ones that values volunteers as audience advocates and active citizens. We need to accept volunteers as vital links between the organisation and the community and to integrate volunteers fully into our organisational structure. Only then will paid staff not feel threatened by volunteers 'taking over their jobs' but will appreciate that volunteers actively create opportunities for them.
In the end, the winner is a healthy civic society.
Bibliography
NSW Strategic Agenda for International Year of Volunteers 2001
Sandy Hollway’s Speech to Volunteering NSW Dinner to launch IYV 2001
Volunteering in a Social Enterprise, Elaine Henry CEO The Smith Family IYV Forum: Volunteering the Olympic Legacy
ABS Australian Social Trends 1997 Work – Unpaid Work: Voluntary Work
Communitybuilders.nsw Finding and Keeping Volunteers NSW Meals on Wheels Association
Volunteering Vision 2010 Volunteering SA Giving Time: Volunteering in the 21st Century, A CVS report in association with Demos, June 2000
An Introduction to Employee Volunteering A Profitable Venture for Businesses and Communities, John Murphy & Barrie Thomas
© Janelle Hatherly
Please credit www.janellehatherly.com if you use any information in this article.
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