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by Larry Ullian

A Profession is an occupation whose core element is work based on the mastery of a complex body of knowledge and skills. It is a vocation in which knowledge of some department of science or learning or the practice of an art founded upon it is used in the service of others. Its members are governed by codes of ethics and profess a commitment to competence, integrity, and morality, altruism, and the promotion of the public good within their domain. These commitments form the basis of a social contract between a profession and society, which in return, grants the profession a monopoly over the use of its knowledge base, the right to considerable autonomy in practice, and the privilege of self-regulation. Professions and their members are accountable to those served and to society. (Cruess, Johnston, & Cruess 2004)

The Volunteer Management Competencies are a set of skills, knowledge, traits, and guidelines that provide a foundation for the practice of volunteer management. Possessing, acquiring, or advancing through the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and characteristics that make up the volunteer management competencies are the basis for becoming a more skilled practitioner. Possessing, acquiring, or advancing through the values, ethical standards, and principles of volunteer management are the basis for becoming a more professional practitioner.

According to the Florida Bar, lawyer professionalism includes (1) a commitment to serve others, (2) being dedicated to the proper use of one’s knowledge to promote a fair and just result, (3) endeavoring always to enhance one’s knowledge and skills, (4) ensuring that concern for the desired result does not subvert fairness, honesty, respect, and courtesy for others with whom one comes into contact…, (5)contributing one’s skill, knowledge, and influence…to further the profession’s commitment to serving others and to promoting the public good, (6) educating the public about the capabilities and limits of the profession, and (7) accepting responsibility for one’s own professional conduct as well as others in the profession…(Rizzardi 2005).

In effect, the core elements of professionalism are: (a) character, (b) competence, (c) commitment, and (d) courtesy in client advocacy and community service where,

(1) Character equals moral traits and behaviors like integrity, morality, altruism, and service on behalf of the public good. It also includes adherence to the ethical standards of the profession, which primarily describe a set of core inter-connected values, which for volunteer management includes citizenship and philanthropy, respect, responsibility, compassion and generosity, justice and fairness, and trustworthiness (CCVA).

(2) Competence is mastery over a unique and exclusive set of knowledge and skills that society allows you to use with its members through licensure or certification and ongoing professional development. Competence is what the client, consumer, or volunteer expects from a professional volunteer manager. It means they have confidence in your knowledge, skills, and probably most importantly, your integrity.

(3) Commitment is a belief in serving others. It’s also a belief in, or the internalization of the profession’s philosophy and values. It represents the desire to serve the public good and advocate for the profession’s role in facilitating civic engagement, societal improvement, and individual and collective rights.

(4) Courtesy in client advocacy and community service is that the achievement of an individual or collective goal does not occur at the expense of fairness, honesty, respect, and courtesy for others with whom you collaborate or supervise. Integral to respect and dignity is the practice of educating consumers, clients, customers or volunteers as a way to facilitate informed choice, communication with experts, and personal or professional growth.

What’s the big deal about professionalism in volunteer management? Well, for one thing, the wave of the future in volunteerism will be older volunteers – especially the baby boomers. This is a generation of people who valued credentials and other symbols of accomplishment and competence. If you want them to volunteer for your non-profit, it would be good for them to know that you have achieved some measure of competence in a unique field through the receipt of a certificate or enrollment in a series of professional development courses.

Secondly, a professional volunteer manager raises the standards of the volunteer management sector. This means that eventually, there will be a critical mass of professional or certified volunteer managers who will want to be recognized for their professional accomplishments not only financially, but by having a place at the “strategic planning table.”

Thirdly, the more professional volunteer managers there are, the more communities of practice and other peer networks get established. Why is this so wonderful? Peer learning by sharing problems, issues, and solutions is the best way to learn and take advantage of each other’s experience. Moreover, an organized group of volunteer managers can have a more significant influence on volunteer policy development, policy implementation, and practice.

Fourthly, increased levels of professionalism lead to an increased interest in figuring out which methods work best and which don’t, and why. This can lead to research and evaluation, which can be shared with peers through various publications. This can facilitate the movement of the profession of volunteer management toward the hallowed halls of academe and its credit-bearing courses and programs focused on volunteerism.

Finally, professionalism in volunteer management provides a reassurance to clients, consumers, customers, and other professionals that you can be counted on for competence, integrity, dedication to a common good, and responsibility for your own decisions and actions.

Professionalism is not just another piece of paper you put in a frame.

Larry Ullian is Director of Program Development at USM’s Muskie School of Public Service.

The Blaine House Conference on Volunteerism is starting to take shape!

2008 marks the 22nd Maine statewide conference devoted to the needs and issues facing volunteer administrators, program staff, board members, and sponsors.

The Planners need your advice on workshop offerings.

This 5 minute survey is your chance to provide input on what you want to learn at the conference. Please respond by MONDAY, APRIL 14.

As an incentive, replies received by that date will be entered in a drawing for 5 coupons worth $40 off the registration fee.

SAVE THIS DATE: Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Location: University of Maine , Orono

Keynote: Dr. Jean Twenge, San Diego State University
Author of “Generation Me”

An Advanced Institute on Volunteer Management will be offered May 31-June 2 in conjunction with the 2008 National Conference on Volunteering and Service in Atlanta, Georgia. The institute will offer experienced volunteer managers the opportunity to learn from the best-known experts in the world, including Rick Lynch, Linda Graff, Steve McCurley, and Martin J. Cowling.

The Institute covers topics ranging from ethics to leadership, from risk management to team-building and includes large-group forums, hands-on workshops, and small support circles that provide personalized input into your professional development planning.

by Larry Ullian

“To put CVA after my name ensures to all that I will bring legitimacy, integrity and a high standard of performance to the area of volunteer management.”–Nancy Scott, CVA – Jewish Family Service, Calgary, AB, Canada, Retrieved from: the Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration (CVAA).

Why bother getting a Certificate of Volunteer Administration (CVA)? The bigger question is what’s the purpose of credentialing? Why does it matter?

Just to be clear, credentialing is an umbrella term that includes accreditation, licensure, registration, and professional certification. The CVA is a professional certification and is a voluntary process where a non-governmental agency (in this case, the CVAA) grants time-limited recognition and the use of a credential to an individual after verifying that he or she has met predetermined and standardized criteria. This is the way a profession or occupation differentiates among its members and creates and uses standards. So why is it so important to have this credential? What’s the advantage?

In “Profession”: A Working Definition for Medical Educators, authors Cruess, Johnston and Cruess offer the following definition:

A Profession is an occupation whose core element is work based on the mastery of a complex body of knowledge and skills. It is a vocation in which knowledge of some department of science or learning or the practice of an art founded upon it is used in the service of others. Its members are governed by codes of ethics and profess a commitment to competence, integrity, and morality, altruism, and the promotion of the public good within their domain. These commitments form the basis of a social contract between a profession and society, which in return, grants the profession a monopoly over the use of its knowledge base, the right to considerable autonomy in practice, and the privilege of self-regulation. Professions and their members are accountable to those served and to society.

You can see by this definition that the volunteer management profession ought to include some essential elements: a complex body of skills, used in the service of others, governed by ethical codes, and committed to competence, integrity, and the public good. In return for these professional “privileges” the profession gets exclusive use of its knowledge, lots of autonomy, and self-regulation. All this privilege means a lot of accountability to the many publics out there.

A credential like the CVA after your name shows the publics you serve (volunteers, citizens, children-to-adults, employers, employees, policy makers, and assorted other stakeholders) that you have at least, a minimum level of competency in your field because you have command over a specific body of knowledge and competencies that constitute the practice of volunteer management.

The CVA means that the rights and privileges you get are not inherent but granted by a society who trusts that you are guided in your work by explicit ethical standards and the personal characteristics of integrity and morality.

Certification as a volunteer administrator also means that you have voluntarily agreed to certain limits on your professional behavior. The implicit message of certification is a promise to the public or to society that you will not violate their trust and hence agree to operating within the guidelines of professional behavior as defined by professional standards of practice.

So what’s the advantage of getting a CVA?

You’re seen as an expert and a resource for aspiring or novice volunteer managers and others seeking volunteer management assistance (Rizzardi 2005.

The CVA facilitates opportunities for you to collaborate or network with peers and members of other disciplines on community issues, program and service development, and program coordination.

The CVA provides a certain cache and hence a sense of pride and professional accomplishment for having met its standards for admission to the field.

It enables you to advance the profession by modeling the practice of high-quality volunteer management, mentoring others, continuing your own professional development, and meeting society’s needs in a way that preserves the dignity of those with whom you work and serve.

There is some confusion in the literature about definitions of professionalism, ethical standards, professional behaviors, and professional standards. What are the implications of all this confusion to the practice of volunteer management? That’s a topic for a future blog.

Further Reading

From Cruess SR, Johnston, S, & Cruess, RL 2003 (in Teaching and Learning in Medicine, (2004) 16 (1) 74-76

Rizzardi, KW (2005) Defining Professionalism: I know it when I see it. The Florida Bar Journal, July/August, 38-43

Schultz, D. (2004), Professional Ethics in a Postmodern Society. Public Integrity, 6 (4), 279-297

Larry Ullian is Director of Program Development at USM’s Muskie School of Public Service.

by Anne Schink

In a recent conversation with Katy Campbell who directs the CVA credentialing process, she explained that she was encouraging people to refer to the profession as ‘Manager of Volunteers’ rather than ‘Volunteer Managers’. The change signifies an important shift in the view of the field. She suggests that we put the emphasis on ‘Manager’ first to demonstrate the importance of the professional level we expect from such a person, whether paid or unpaid.

In a season when the entire field of volunteer management is becoming increasingly professionalized, this distinction represents an important shift among thought leaders in the field, as well as a new awareness among practitioners themselves.

We know that not all Managers of Volunteers are paid. Many times we believe that organizations undervalue them for this very reason. As a culture we tend to assign value to things that have a financial number attached. Today, more Managers of Volunteers receive a salary and are considered more valuable in their own organizations.

When we consider what it means to be ‘professional’, we often describe a ‘professional’ as “a skilled practitioner; an expert.” Or “conforming to the standards of a profession: professional behavior”. Or “having or showing great skill; expert: a professional repair job”.

As I think back on it, I am amused to remember the first year I completed our Income Tax Return form with the word “Volunteer” on the line marked Profession of Spouse. In a few short years I was signing them as “Professional Volunteer”.

What accounted for the difference in my own thinking? I was still unpaid. I had moved from thinking of myself as a person ‘doing good works’ to a person who devoted a significant part of my life to work I considered important. I had acquired specific content knowledge, directed a range of activities, advocated in the public on issues of importance to both me and the community, and became a leader in my organization.

Remember this as you think about ways your own organization uses volunteers. How broadly across your organization do you provide opportunities for individuals to volunteer? How narrowly do you channel them into a few categories of your agency’s work? Do you provide opportunities for individual advancement within your organization? You may want to re-think your invitation for volunteers to include more professional opportunities at all levels and in all facets of your work.

We hope that this blog will provide you with opportunities to reflect on your own personal growth. It may even provide you with a path for professional development in Maine where no formal credentialing programs currently exist. Stay tuned for more discussion later about ways to gain the professional credentials you seek. For now, self-directed study is probably the best avenue for acquiring the skills, knowledge, and experience you need to be successful in your career as a manager of volunteers.

Anne Schink is a Program Officer at the Maine Commission for Community Service.