National Volunteering Forum: June 2020

Editor's Notes

• #2: Bar will look slightly different for you as you are not the meeting host. Video on all the time can be quite tiring for some people so don’t feel you need it on all the time. If nothing else, switch it on for breakout chats or if you are asking a question. Breakout rooms will be time limited and will end on time so keep the discussion focused and make sure someone is willing / able to report back before they end.
• #7: Bar will look slightly different for you as you are not the meeting host. Video on all the time can be quite tiring for some people so don’t feel you need it on all the time. If nothing else, switch it on for breakout chats or if you are asking a question. Breakout rooms will be time limited and will end on time so keep the discussion focused and make sure someone is willing / able to report back before they end.
• #17: These were real time immediate needs
• #81: Organisations have been v risk averse in recent years - H&S, criminal record checks, public reputation, data protection etc.. Volunteers often seen as risky because they are unpaid - makes them less reliable, less competent, threatening to paid staff. This changed quickly in the early days of lockdown e.g. Orgs embracing volunteering in UK as a way to keep delivering services when paid staff furloughed => different perspective on job substitution risk. >>>>> Life is going to be inherently risky for a while to come - social distancing, masks using public transport, social gatherings etc.. >>>>> Insurance cover “Have you / your organisation checked to see if there are any changes to your volunteer insurance coverage as a result of the pandemic? If you have, and there are changes, what are they?”: 81% said no! C19 H&S concerns about volunteers coming into contact with clients, customer public etc. Issues are not fundamentally different just because volunteers aren’t paid! Returning volunteers not being allowed to come back Age discrimination accusations Blanket policies rather than individualised approaches People leaving in anger and, as likely to be older, taking their financial donations with them >>>>> All this gives us an opportunity to reframe the conversation about risk and volunteer engagement.  Not about putting volunteers at risk but challenging some of the old orthodoxies that no longer apply. Example: Orgs not allowing a Volunteer Management System because it’s another IT tool to add to the mix vs. Not having one makes remote communications and management much more difficult.
• #82: “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were are when we created them” Job substitution / Job displacement / Job replacement - see my blog of 29 May How do volunteers bringing something different and unique, not just complementing and supplementing paid staff e.g. nobody gets paid to start a revolution & BLM We need to be leading this debate!
• #83: Generational changes Technology changes People wanting shorter term and more flexible volunteering Need for a focus on the volunteer experience (see TWS) Need for a more frictionless approach to volunteer recruitment etc. People have now had a taste of how things could be when they volunteer and won’t tolerate a return to the old ways of doing things. Once a piece of elastic is stretched hard and fast it rarely goes back to the way it was before. Wider implications Volunteer sharing between internal teams and between organisations Volunteering and fundraising - friend raising Public reputation if volunteers are let down by orgs Things volunteers can do that paid staff can’t