What’s the importance now of professionalism in the field of volunteer management?
- The wave of the future in volunteerism in Maine appears to be the trend to an increasing number of older baby-boomer volunteers. This generation of people sought and acquired 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 credential like a certificate or by enrollment in a series of professional development courses.
- Professional volunteer managers raise the standards of the volunteer management sector as a whole, meaning 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 also having a place at the “strategic planning table.”
- The more professional volunteer managers there are, the more communities of practice and other peer networks get established. Why is this good? 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.
- 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 facilitates the movement of the profession of volunteer management toward an academic context of 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.
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