The Keyboard Roundtable is a "retired section." Four to six individuals involved in the leadership of volunteers were invited to participate in a moderated online discussion (via a private listserv) concerning a topic of interest to volunteerism practitioners. Discussions took place during a two to three week period. At the close of the discussion, the Convening Editor edited the discussion for readability and length and ultimately created a coherent and enjoyable "best of" transcript. Also see Voices
Over the last few years, we have seen employer-supported volunteering grow into a vital element of the volunteerism field around the world. More recently, we’ve begun to see a shift from the so-called “team challenge” approach to volunteering (where teams of employees perform a…
In this Keyboard Roundtable, we’ll explore one of the perennial issues of volunteerism: When should work be done by volunteers and when should it be done by paid staff? Convening Editor Rob Jackson brings together a range of perspectives to explore this issue. Our…
In this Keyboard Roundtable, we’re casting a wide net to explore a number of volunteerism issues from the diverse perspectives of people involved in volunteering. “From Whose Perspective?” will include a discussion of such important issues as:
Employer-supported volunteering:…
There’s been a lot of discussion about the volunteer habits of Generation Y – that slice of population born between 1981 and 1995. Why is it that so many volunteer-involving organizations still struggle to attract this group? In this Keyboard Roundtable, an international panel…
As e-Volunteerism enters its eighth year, it is clear that one of the original aims of this online journal project hasn’t been met: Namely, to get people in our field to interact more online. Most of our online readers don’t make use of the interactive publishing features that…
When it comes to describing volunteers and the volunteer community, attention tends to be focused on social or human services. In fact, case studies, examples of volunteering, and vocabulary choices disproportionately assume that the volunteers are "solving problems" or "…
All faiths rely heavily on the goodwill of their followers to undertake work on behalf of the church/synagogue/mosque/congregation of both a spiritual and practical nature. Is this recognized as “volunteering” by those in leadership positions within their respective faiths? How…
With the world’s largest sporting event, the FIFA World Cup, recently winding up in Germany, we at e-Volunteerism decided it was time to turn our attention to the nuances involved in volunteering and volunteer management practices within the context of hosting major events.…
The issue of how formal our styles of volunteer management have become is not a new one. From conference workshops to training sessions to books and articles, volunteer resource managers are being told not to make volunteering too formal an experience for people whilst in the…
The May 2003 Hot Topic (http://energizeinc.com/hot/2003/03may.html) on the Energize Web site discussed how volunteers are portrayed in television and film in North America - and site visitors added more examples. This Keyboard Roundtable invites colleagues in Germany, Singapore…
Keyboard Roundtable participants from Australia, Canada, Rumania, the United Kingdom, and the United States discuss what an "entrepreneurial volunteer" really is (a pioneer or someone who doesn't like rules? a blessing or a nightmare?) and how a volunteer program manager can…
The field of volunteerism spends inordinate amounts of time arguing the finer points of just what is and what is not volunteering. Most readers are familiar with a range of concepts that strive to ‘define’ volunteering. Such concepts include volunteering being conducted
without…
There has recently been a flurry of publications in several countries discussing the way that organizations might present the "value" of volunteering in terms of cash equivalents. In the US, a major national nonprofit currently provides the figure of US$16.05/hour as the average…
e-Volunteerism is always on the lookout for new innovative programs, practices and initiatives to share with our readers. When we learnt recently of two international work exchanges among volunteer management practitioners, we were quick to speak to those involved.
In this issue…
