Rob Jackson

First off, I think there needs to be a clear distinction made between professionalising volunteering and professionalising the management of volunteers. The two are not the same thing.

<>The professionalisation of volunteer management and leadership can be a good thing. I say 'can' because too often what people talk about in this respect is making it more formalised like HR/paid staff management. To me, this isn't professional volunteer management, it is applying the concepts of managing...

I was interested in two particular observations.

First, the professionalisation of volunteering. In my experience this can mean two things: volunteers and/or tasks for volunteers becoming increasingly professional; or the management of volunteers becoming increasingly professional. I'd be interested to know which was the particular emphasis here.

<>As an aside, it is also interesting to explore the assumptions that go along with the use of the term 'professional' in association with...

Outside of work I set up an email networking group for volunteer managers over ten years ago. The group, UKVPMs (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/UKVPMs/) now have nearly 1200 members and we've had more than 6600 messages posted to the group.

<>The biggest challenge during the time I've been running the group has been getting people to go online when they want to ask a question, share some learning or engage with colleagues and peers. I think this is an even bigger issue these days with the...