#Quaint notion meaning full

Paid staff only know a little about the volunteers with whom they come in contact volunteers only know what they see when they do their work (which really leaves those who work in the field or online out of the loop) and administrators may only chance upon volunteers in the hallway or once a year at a recognition event.

#Quaint notion meaning full

The leader of volunteers is the only person who sees the full picture and has the facts about volunteers. Just because no one has requested information does not mean there’s no responsibility to report it. So this July Hot Topic is about creating fireworks through great reports about volunteers that capture delighted attention. It celebrates the end of a struggle for recognition and the start of a new way of looking at ourselves, topped off with wow-inspiring pyrotechnics. In the U.S., July 4 th is Independence Day. These are strong statements but I believe they summarize all too well the way that volunteers are ignored by organizational leaders with the assistance of leaders of volunteer resources who only provide minimal information about volunteer engagement. What we never question or discuss becomes invisible. What we cannot describe, we do not understand. But for all the technical progress and available software, the sad fact is that most organizations are woefully under-informed about their volunteers and what they do. Even though the first edition of our book Proof Positive detailed keeping records on volunteers using paper and pens (quaint notion, right?), the essence of our advice has been remarkably easy to keep current even if computers and online access to data have radically changed how we maintain those records. A consistent (and persistent) theme for me since I began writing and giving presentations in the 1970s to today is the importance of recording and reporting significant information about volunteer service.