volunteering is
responsibility:
Volunteers will be held accountable for what they do and for what they
do not. Remember that, if you decide to volunteer here, groups' members
will put their health in your hands for suggestions, hints, assistance,
some guidance. We are allowed to make mistakes because we are humans,
but we do not have to take volunteering too lightly.
volunteering also
is taking: Any volunteer is entitled and actually welcome to use our site support
services whenever s/he needs to. If you volunteer here, you'll always
be a member first and foremost. Nobody can volunteer if there is some
major help s/he is not getting, and that's why all our volunteers have
to be a member to our main
group.
thanking vs recognition: Volunteers are recognized and praised publicly for their awareness
and contribution to the life of group and volunteer team. Futile thank
yous are avoided, because we think that a volunteer's fulfillment has
to come from either accomplishment recognition or the inside.
Our Concept of Online Volunteering
Bipolar Dream is a web-based organization that so far works only thanks
to virtual volunteers, persons that accomplish the organization's tasks
via a computer. Assignments also are sent to volunteers through emails.
We do not ask our volunteers for any scheduled fixed amount of time per
week, but we do ask for quality of their time.
Online volunteering is slightly different from on site volunteering,
as explained here.
The main things a virtual volunteer is asked to do are:
reading:
some jobs require more readings, some a little less. As a general rule,
all assignments and most interactions will happen through emails, so a
candidate to a volunteer position at Dream has to devote some time and
attention to readings.
notifications for
leaves and breaks:
nobody will demand you to ask for permission for a leave or a break. But
we do mandatory need a notification in order to cover for your absence.
The notification not necessarily has to be given in advance, yet it has
to be given.
group for
vols:
in addition to the main group, volunteers have a group for their own issues
(administrative and group tasks, burning-out syndrome, impressions/evaluations
on members and what else you feel like sharing there) which they are invited
to use also in order to team up among them.
monthly
meetings:
it's a typical social event whose importance has not to be underestimated.
Often, just having a "light" conversation with other volunteers makes
you feel more more comfortable as a part of the team, especially at the
very beginning.
training:
if you decide to volunteer at Dream, according to your interests, capabilities
and activity of the illness, you will be assisted by our Volunteer Program
Manager to find the right e-learning classes for you.
Online Volunteer Management
Online Volunteer Management is a relatively old trend that dates back to
1998. In an online volunteering review,
Tarsiero (2005b)
found out that, of the many experiential works, focused on its technological
aspects and on some managerial aspects while no case-studies were ever
conducted. On the other hand, a lack of research literature also emerged
with the exception of open source developer volunteerism.
In another paper,
Tarsiero (2005a)
also applied the concept of communities of practice to volunteer management,
online and offline.
Here
you can find some suggestions on how to practice online volunteer management
Introduction