It's becoming the time of year when the national printed press bash volunteering on a gap year. No that's no quite true. There's certainly a debate to be had about the value of volunteering with certain projects around the world, but really it's part of the broader debate on approaches to development work in general. For example, the charge of "new colonialist" is something that could be levelled at any number of developmental projects across the globe.

Judith Brodie, VSO Director, origin of the "new colonialist" quote issued another press release this year- hammering home her message in case we'd forgotten:

"Last year VSO warned that gappers risked becoming the new colonialists if attitudes to voluntary work in the developing world didn't change. It argued that the gap year market was increasingly catering to the needs of volunteers, rather than the communities they claim to support."

I came across this link the other day that introduced me to a new concept - "over volunteering" by stress management coach G. Gaynor McTigue.

Besides selling a book- it did touch on that (self) management issue that we all have which is knowing your limits. Volunteering like nothing else tests your own sense of what your limits are. If you set the bar too high- you don't volunteer; set the bar too low, and you volunteer ineffectively.

The world of the volunteering video is a niche one. How many of you spend your evenings in front of the telly watching, say, the Community Channel for example?

Videos exploring the value of volunteering perhaps won't ever be part of the ratings war. However, there is a lot of great stuff out there, which, thanks to the internet is more and more easily accessible.

Take the BBC's Video Nation. It's a massive project bringing together portraits of people around the UK. It includes lots of great clips of people talking about the importance of volunteering to them.

Rumours started flying a week ago that the CRB was going to start charging for volunteer criminal records checks. Here we piece together the Chinese whispers - a newsletter from the CRB in June and then an article in Third Sector last week...

First the June CRB newsletter Disclosure News:

The CRB is committed to providing free checks for all applications that meet its criteria for volunteers. About 20% of applications received last year were for volunteer positions, representing a total saving to the relevant organisations of about £22.8m.

However, some customers are applying for free-of-charge checks for posts that do not appear to meet the criteria. The CRB is cracking down to ensure that a fee is paid whenever it is appropriate.

The CRB definition of a volunteer is: "Any person engaged in an activity which involves spending time, unpaid (except for travel and other approved out of pocket expenses), which aims to benefit some third party other than or in addition to a close relative".

It is sometimes assumed that, as the person is not directly employed or salaried the position is voluntary. However, if the person engaging in the activity receives a payment, in excess of expenses they actually incur, or benefits directly themselves, the position will not satisfy the CRB’s definition of a volunteer.

Dear Mr Hope,

Congratulations on your appointment as Minsiter for the Third Sector in the Cabinet Office. One of the successes over the last ten years has been how the role of volunteers and their value to society has become better understood and supported, a crucial development bearing in mind the increasing role volunteers are playing in the delivery of public services and the 2012 Olympics, for example.

However, our major concern is that the crucial link between volunteers, and successful and sustainable volunteering – the volunteer manager – is still misunderstood and consequently unsupported.

University Challenge is running a second series of "University Challenge - the professionals" and are looking for teams from different professions or organisations. AVM feels this would be a great opportunity to profile volunteer managers as well as have some fun.

We are looking for a team of 5 people (4 plus 1 reserve). The team will be representing volunteer managers not AVM therefore you do not have to be a member of AVM to take part. Recording will take place on 1/2 December in Manchester (to be confirmed).

The Commission on the Future of Volunteering is calling for evidence. AVM has put together an initial draft response to the Commission which is attached. If members wish to feed into the AVM response with their own thoughts and views please respond by Thursday 26th July.

The deadlines for submissions is Tuesday 31st July. For further information about the Commission go to www.volcomm.org.uk

Here at Age Concern England, we've been discussing how to secure funding for Volunteer Managers. Whilst we've generally seen an increase in VMs, this is normally through project funding which of course isn't sustainable. We've also seen situations where the VM is core-funded but has been moved to project-funding to free up some unrestricted funds (whilst this has been on the proviso that when the project ends the VM is moved back it leaves an unsatisfactory taste in the mouth)

I'm not aware of any booklet or guidance that specifically deals with how to get VM funding, so foolishly I volunteered to put something together. I was envisaging an e-booklet similar to the volunteer magnet e-booklet.