The theme for International Volunteer Managers Day this year is “Many Backgrounds – One Profession – Stronger Together” so to highlight the diversity of volunteer managers across the city we thought we'd turn our blog over to them. Below on our second blog, we hear from our "Secret" Volunteer Manager from the Greater Manchester area who like his namesakes (the secret barrister and other great professionals) shares his honest personal reflections and lived experience on volunteering management.
I have been a volunteer manager for over 20 years and worked for many VCSE sector organisations both local and national having first become a volunteer manager by accident in, I wanted a career change and to this end, I was volunteering as a student counsellor with a mental health charity, whilst undertaking my diploma and as I was spending a great deal of time at the organisation volunteering, and between clients over time I developed a volunteer programme from scratch. Once I qualified in the end as a psychotherapist/hypnotherapist, I quickly realised that volunteer management was something I enjoyed, and seemed to fit my natural and learned skills set.
Equally in all honesty, the reality is that I like the majority of people I needed to put food on the table and I didn’t have the personal luxury in respect of being a counsellor/psychotherapist in that ethically I was always working to make myself redundant having worked through clients issues/problems. Whilst I am sure I was and indeed still am a skilled clinical practitioner, this was not something I could consistently pay my mortgage/bills with! Fortunately, the organisation in seeing the value of the volunteer programme, (and presumably my value also) managed to secure funding, and well, as they say the rest is history. In that I have over time been so in respect of a range of organisations involved with mental health, LGBTQI+, Substance misuse and offending behaviours.
Importantly for me, however, is that I am and wish to be seen first and foremost as being my own person bringing with me a wealth of experience as a volunteer manager over many years and not an extension persay of the organisation I happen to work for at any given time. I mean how many of us can honestly say we have had the luxury and privilege to pass opportunities by in order to wait for the ideal right organisation, in the right location at the right salary and hours, etc? The point is that as a volunteer manager, I may not personally be totally aligned with the organisation and/or its philosophy and practice, although pragmatically and professionally adhering to it, and that’s perfectly fine. My purpose as I see it, is to recruit and support those who are and it would be dishonest of me to say otherwise.
The reality is that we often do not choose when we need to seek another job, i.e. through redundancy etc, and therefore we can only apply for the roles that are available at any given time. In putting it simply, I may work for a dog support charity (because I need the work), whilst personally being a cat person. However, I am s**t hot at recruiting and supporting volunteers who are the best dog people, I/we can’t be all things to all people/organisations. What we can be, is to be the best we can be as volunteer managers!
Throughout the two decades, I have been a volunteer manager, I have also always been appreciative of local CVSs such as Salford CVS, and with whom I have had and continue to have longstanding fantastic relationships with, both in respect of the CVS in the broader sense and with individual staff members, and I guess given how long we known each other professionally, I think, I can say “colleagues” (of a sort) and friends such as Claire and Grace et al over the years. I have over this time attended and contributed to many forums, discussions, events, training etc and Salford CVS via Claire and her colleagues were also involved in respect of helping me secure the Investors in Volunteering award for the national charity I worked for at the time, and which going back to earlier as a point in case, a cause and organisation I had no personal alignment with over the six years I was with them, however what I did as a volunteer manager was to facilitate a fantastic quality focussed volunteer team who were totally aligned with the organisation and who did some fantastic things.
More recently, I have been a pro-active and some may say outspoken or even controversial advocate for getting things back to normal following COVID, and in once more meeting people and networking face to face in the real world, in getting back to what volunteering is, and which is about people and human interaction between them. All in all I would totally recommend being involved with your local CVS and hopefully this will be as rewarding as my relationship has been and continues to be with Salford. Crucially, I say local CVS’s, because in my experience, again over 20 years, is that national volunteer conferences etc are often very London-centric and the reality for me at least, is that in looking back in going to London-based national conferences. Is that they have largely been a waste of time and money, often with “expert” speakers, saying the same things ad nauseum, albeit often to new cohorts of volunteer managers who often don’t know it’s a repeat.
To this end I feel that building up productive relationships on a local level, with good local understanding, local culture, dynamics and hopefully local interaction and humour is key. Get to know your local CVS and its staff, work with them, get involved and don’t be scared to express your thoughts and feelings. And to those who know me they will also know, I don’t follow a fixed volunteer/volunteering one size fits all narrative and mantra from self-proclaimed/appointed “experts” we are experts by dint of what we do as professional volunteer managers. Saying to others proudly and with confidence that you are volunteer manager, not a co-ordinator or similar, acknowledge to yourself first and foremost that you manage people in the same way and often better HR departments manage paid staff.
And always, always remember that you are the person that can create an environment where people turn up and complete amazing “work” without an expectation of a salary. Now ask those who feel your role is “less than” or belittle your skills set, professionalism etc this one simple question, ask them… “Tell me…how many of the staff you manage, would turn up tomorrow if you weren’t paying them a salary?”
Oh and one final thing, when you do meet other volunteer managers, please don’t ask the predictable clichéd question “How many volunteers have you got?', who cares, that’s not a mark of how good you are? Quality not quantity, take the time to know each volunteer a person not as volunteer number 48, 167, 1003 etc, and if the powers that be can’t see that, then it’s your duty and responsibility to educate them otherwise.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this, and take from it what you will. Best Wishes my fellow volunteer managers and allies
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