{"id":1633,"date":"2016-11-03T03:25:31","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T10:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/?p=1633"},"modified":"2016-11-03T08:54:44","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T15:54:44","slug":"ivmd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2016\/11\/ivmd\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I still don&#8217;t like &#8220;International Volunteer Manager&#8217;s Day&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/coyote1.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-832 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/coyote1.gif\" alt=\"logo\" width=\"138\" height=\"157\" \/><\/a>November 5 is celebrated by some as <a href=\"http:\/\/volunteermanagersday.org\/\">International Volunteer Manager&#8217;s Day<\/a>. And I&#8217;m not fond of it. I&#8217;ve said so in conversations, and in a post on OzVPM back in October 2009 . But I wanted to revisit why I&#8217;m not fond of it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I call it &#8220;hug-your-volunteer-manager&#8221; day. I compare it to Mother&#8217;s Day. \u00a0And I don&#8217;t mean that as a compliment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">Mother&#8217;s Day didn&#8217;t transform mothers&#8217; lives. It didn&#8217;t elevate the\u00a0status of mothers. It didn&#8217;t improve maternal health. It didn&#8217;t make women want to become mothers. It wasn&#8217;t transformative regarding how society thought about mothers. That&#8217;s what the founder of Mother&#8217;s Day wanted, and instead, she saw the day become a\u00a0commercial celebration, a day of sweetness, but not substance. In fact, the person who led the campaign to adopt Mother&#8217;s Day in the USA later regretted it because of how empty and commercial the celebration was,\u00a0in contrary to her intentions, and even filed a lawsuit to stop a Mother&#8217;s Day Festival.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">Maybe I would be more attracted to the day if it was a day less about cute memes and inspiring quotes and was, instead, devoted to encouraging people that are in charge of the engagement of volunteers to:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">go to their supervisors and ask for salary and budget increases<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">put themselves on the agenda to address their organization&#8217;s board of directors regarding the importance of quality volunteer support and ask for a larger budget for\u00a0this support<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">write their local newspapers and blog in response to whatever the latest volunteerism campaign is (because there is ALWAYS one going on somewhere), debunking myths like &#8220;volunteers are free&#8221; and talking about why volunteer management is essential to such a campaign&#8217;s success (and writing the campaign leaders as well)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">have a meeting with the person responsible for the annual report to present a proposal regarding how the contributions of volunteers will be noted in the next annual report, and <a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2016\/05\/24\/volunteervalue\/\">absolutely refuse for that information to be presented in terms of money<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">launch a new, updated, detailed section of the organization&#8217;s web site that gives volunteers as high a profile as donors, and ensure that the link to &#8220;support us&#8221; doesn&#8217;t just link to a page on how to make a cash donation<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p4\">use social media to promote the impact of volunteers at the organization, or to assert volunteers aren&#8217;t cost-free, or to <a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2016\/05\/24\/volunteervalue\/\">push back against those that want us to value volunteers primarily in terms of money saved by not paying staff<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">develop an action plan for the next year with concrete actions to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotecommunications.com\/volunteer\/internal.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">elevate the role of volunteers and volunteer management within the organization<\/a> (the board, the staff, partner organizations, etc.)<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p4\">present a strategy to expand the engagement of volunteers at the organization<\/li>\n<li class=\"p4\">present a strategy for training staff to work better with volunteers, create more assignments, etc.<\/li>\n<li class=\"p4\">vow to never, ever write another Facebook post or blog or online discussion comment whining about how overworked and underpaid they are &#8211; or at least not to write one for six months.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">No pins. No mugs. No flowers. No posters. No t-shirts. No buttons. No badges. No memes. Not for this day. Instead, concrete, even provocative, action, by managers of volunteers &#8211; real activism &#8211; to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotecommunications.com\/volunteer\/internal.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">elevate respect for their roles and their work<\/a>, to increase the recognition of the vital importance of volunteerism specialists, so much so that people choose it as a career. To be transformative regarding how society thought about volunteer engagement and those in charge of such.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotecommunications.com\/volunteer\/internal.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">Promoting volunteering engagement internally at an organization &amp; building the value of the volunteering specialist \/ manager of volunteers<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2011\/01\/20\/volunteer-manager-fight-club\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Volunteer manager Fight Club<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2016\/01\/22\/volunteeringforuni\/\">Make volunteering transformative, not about # of hours<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2015\/12\/17\/trailvolunteers\/\">OPB &amp; Congress Think Volunteers are Free<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2015\/10\/06\/valuingvols\/\">Valuing volunteer engagement: an imaginary case study<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2015\/04\/23\/somuchmore\/\" target=\"_blank\">Volunteering empowers, activates, builds, communicates<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2013\/09\/19\/morethanhr\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Volunteer engagement is MUCH more than just HR management<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2014\/12\/16\/cncs\/\" target=\"_blank\">CNCS continues its old-fashioned measurement of volunteer value<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2011\/09\/22\/un-volunteers-ifrc-ilo-others-make-huge-misst\/\" target=\"_blank\">UN Volunteers, IFRC, ILO &amp; others make HUGE misstep<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2015\/04\/09\/uninternships\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">UN Agencies: Defend your \u201cinternships\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2014\/12\/01\/unpaidinterns\/\">Fight against unpaid internships will hurt volunteering<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2014\/05\/13\/internssue\/\" target=\"_blank\">Advice for unpaid interns to sue for back pay<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2013\/11\/23\/internships\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">It\u2019s real: the unpaid internships &amp; volunteers controversy<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2013\/06\/27\/euinterns\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">EU agencies exploiting interns?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2013\/06\/14\/nopayredux\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">When to NOT pay interns, redux<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Permalink to Pizzeria tries to recruit unpaid interns, feels Internet\u2019s wrath\" href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2013\/04\/09\/pizzeria-tries-to-recruit-unpaid-interns-feels-internets-wrath\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Pizzeria tries to recruit unpaid interns, feels Internet\u2019s wrath<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Permalink to Do NOT say \u201cNeed to Cut Costs? Involve Volunteers!\u201d\" href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2012\/03\/01\/do-not-say-need-to-cut-costs-involve-voluntee\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Do NOT say \u201cNeed to Cut Costs? Involve Volunteers!\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Permalink to Value of Volunteers \u2013 Still Beating the Drum\" href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2011\/08\/08\/value-of-volunteers-still-beating-the-drum\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Value of Volunteers \u2013 Still Beating the Drum<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Permalink to Another anti-volunteer union\" href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2010\/12\/08\/another-anti-volunteer-union\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Another anti-volunteer union<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Permalink to Criticism Continues for UK Government Talk Re Volunteers\" href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2011\/02\/10\/criticism-continues-for-uk-government-talk-re\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Criticism Continues for UK Government Talk Re Volunteers<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Permalink to International Association of Fire Fighters is anti-volunteer\" href=\"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2010\/12\/02\/international-association-of-fire-fighters-is\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">International Association of Fire Fighters is anti-volunteer<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p4\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>November 5 is celebrated by some as International Volunteer Manager&#8217;s Day. And I&#8217;m not fond of it. I&#8217;ve said so in conversations, and in a post on OzVPM back in October 2009 . But I wanted to revisit why I&#8217;m not fond of it. I call it &#8220;hug-your-volunteer-manager&#8221; day. I compare it to Mother&#8217;s Day. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[1235,1236,1233,1234,278,290,531,532],"class_list":["post-1633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-volunteer-engagement","tag-coordinators","tag-experts","tag-international-volunteer-managers-day","tag-ivmd","tag-leaders","tag-manager","tag-volunteerism","tag-volunteers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s3fFJB-ivmd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1633"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2427,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1633\/revisions\/2427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}