Kristen Stephenson joined NCVO in July 2013 as the Volunteer Management and Good Practice Manager in the Volunteering Development team. Her interests include developing volunteer management and raising the profile of the profession. She is also interested in innovative approaches to good practice and how this can help volunteering deliver for people, organisations and communities.
Wanted: Effective communicator with impeccable people skills to manage and support a diverse range of individuals. A responsive leader with an ability to adapt, working strategically and practically to achieve impact across the organisation. You will contribute to meeting your organisation’s key performance targets whilst meeting the expectations, hopes and aspirations of the individuals you work with.
Sounds like a high level, exciting and challenging role that’s vital to the organisation doesn’t it?! The short version of my advert would be “Wanted: Volunteer Manager.” How many people would guess that was the role being advertised? How much do people really understand and appreciate volunteer management? Volunteer managers do this every day, some are even volunteers themselves.
Today on International Volunteer Managers Day we are requested to embark on education through celebration and I invite you to be bold in educating others about the role as a way to celebrate volunteer management as one of the most important professions in our society. What will you do? Volunteer Management is not just important; it is also unique, wonderful in fact, in its ability to do all of the above (and sometimes more!!) often with inadequate resources or recognition.
Following the Association of Volunteer Managers conference ‘Finding our voice’ on 23rd Oct I browsed the tweets with this years’ hash tag AVMConf2013 and one particularly struck me which said “so many great people in one room”. It was simple and echoed my thoughts about the day. People raved about the skills, knowledge and experience being shared and the intelligent, articulate debate. It’s not like volunteer managers to pat themselves on the back and to shout about how good they are however when they come together something happens! They start to notice the amazing skills and qualities in others and celebrate them. Let’s face it most of us feel much more comfortable about singing the praises of colleagues rather than ourselves!
Importantly what sat alongside the atmosphere of celebration was that AVM offered up the right topics for debate. Should we engage volunteers or manage them? How should we define the profession? What is its future? These are the big questions and issues we need to be engaging with. We also need to continue to work together in this way to educate ourselves and each other, challenging our current perceptions and approaches. Only then can we ensure that we continue to develop as a profession.
In my role, taking the lead on Volunteer Management within NCVO, I hope to work in partnership with volunteer managers as well as networks like the Association of Volunteer Managers and Volunteer Management Movement that bring them together, to ensure that we can find the answers to these questions and that volunteer managers are empowered to define the profession for themselves. I want to contribute to the development of the evidence base and help move professional development and accreditation on to the next phase. I strongly believe that together we can ensure volunteer managers have the status and profile they deserve in the sector and beyond.
Kristen is NCVO’s Volunteer Management and Good Practice Manager. She’s interested in raising the profile of volunteer management as a profession, and the development of approaches which can help volunteering deliver for people, organisations and communities. 
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