18 May 2010 

Volunteering Victoria began 2010 planning for the future and we approached this with our projections of the next ten years - for our organisation as the state peak body for volunteering; the environment in which we operate;  our stakeholders and the volunteering community as a whole.

Soon after our planning sessions in January, we organised a forum with stakeholders in February to talk about the drivers of change that we identified will have major impacts on volunteering. Some of these drivers – legislative and regulatory changes; volunteer demographics ergo behaviours and attitudes towards volunteering; economic factors - were in effect even before that forum. They continue to do so now; hence, we will regularly hold these forums throughout the year so the conversations and discussions can flow.

We recognise that change will always be a part of everyone’s landscape and even with all the projections and advance modeling, it is preparedness, agility and responsiveness that would carry us through sustainably into the future.

We at Volunteering Victoria have been keeping our fingers on the pulse of change especially in the last few months as some of the drivers we have and continue to speak about urge us strongly to do so.

It is in the interest of our ultimate goal of functioning as efficiently and excellently as the state peak body for volunteering that we have recognised the need to introduce improvements in service and program delivery as well as clarity and consolidation in our organisational framework.

We identified membership as an area of priority. We thought it crucial to strengthen this program because we will be more able to capture a truly diverse voice for volunteering with more volunteer-involving organisations as members. In November 2009, we employed a Membership Services Officer, Caroline Whiteside. We have since consulted with members and other stakeholders and have introduced a new membership structure that will be implemented from July 1, 2010.

Training is another area that members and stakeholders look to us for delivery. It is specialist volunteer training for managers and co-ordinators of volunteers who are at different stages and levels in their careers – some are very new to volunteering, others intermediate and many who are highly skilled and experienced. These then dictate different responses from us to be able to meet the varying training needs.

As such, we will be re-modeling our training framework and will design it based on our stakeholders’ needs. This means being prepared for the variety and diversity of topics, materials and trainers required so we will be managing a stable of training contractors who would be able to step in as the need arises.

Glenn Sutherland, who has been our Training Development Manager for 18 months now will no longer be in this role and we pay tribute to Glenn for the work he has done for the organisation and the services he has rendered to the volunteering community as a whole. Glenn covered a big area of rural and regional Victoria for the ‘Train the Trainer’ sessions he presented in conjunction with the Victoria Relief Food Bank. He was also particularly passionate about talking on volunteering to young people and spent lunch hours presenting at tertiary institutions on the subject. He established Mentor Mate and gathered together some of the most experienced volunteer managers and co-ordinators of volunteers into this program to mentor those who are new to the profession who wanted mentoring. Most importantly for everyone in the Volunteering Victoria team, he has been an excellent part of office life – always cheerful and ready with his witty quips and jokes and willing to take on the tasks that required brain as well as brawn!

We would also like to acknowledge the work of Maree Carroll who was Administration Co-ordinator for two years. Among many other things, Maree saw us through our office move in late 2009 before she left the organisation in March this year.

Structurally, we have recognised the need to put in place a framework that will support us and put us in good stead for the future. This requires clarity and consolidation about who we are, what we do, what we would like to do and how to achieve these.

In the next few weeks, we will be seeking to employ a Senior Peak Services Manager and a Senior Manager for Operations and Programs so that the two major divisions of our organisation can have specific custodians. These two roles will work together to ensure that the whole entity operates co-operatively as one. Different areas of the organisation will have varying foci and priorities at different times but these two senior positions will make sure that all aspects gel well. We will also be employing a Publications and Information Services Manager who will manage Volunteering Victoria’s Sector Implementation Strategy. You will hear more about these roles as we will be making more detailed announcements about them when we commence the recruitment process.

Over the next six weeks (until July 1), we have Michele Rickard joining us in the office temporarily. We need the extra pair of hands for a number of simultaneous training sessions and workshops that we will be presenting in Metropolitan and regional Melbourne. Information on these is available from our website.

Communications Manager Elouise Holmes will be on leave from May 21 – July 1 and Caroline Whiteside will be the alternate contact for Elouise during this period.

We always value what our members and stakeholders have to say so we encourage you to give us your thoughts and comments on what you have read here or any others that you may want to share with us.

-ENDS-

Volunteering Victoria | T 03 8327 8503 | E This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it | F 03 8327 8599

www.volunteeringvictoria.org.au