stevenhowlett's blog

One of the things we have been thinking about at AVM is how volunteer managers become volunteer managers and then how their career progresses.

Members may remember we conducted a survey when we started in which many managers identified a lack of a career path as a drawback of the role. This got us thinking about a number of things.

One was the idea of professionalization. This seemed to give volunteer managers the opportunity to have a career structure like other professions. It is something we are still thinking about. But linked to this must be ideas of what is ‘the body of knowledge' needed to be a volunteer manager - and where managers access that knowledge.

There is some work going on in this area, but we would like to add a little more And draw on your knowledge as AVM members.

This link takes you to a short survey (not more than 10 minutes to fill out we promise). We will be feeding back findings in a few weeks.

These volunteers were largely recruited through word of mouth (which as we know always tops the list of the most effective recruitment methods). But when the garden owner approached her local volunteer centre to ask if others could be pointed to opportunities to help out in the garden she was told that was not possible.