Message from the Executive Director
We have a new name. We have been the Vancouver Volunteer Centre or Volunteer Vancouver for sixty-six years. Our new name is Vantage Point. You might ask, “Why the change?” And the answer is because the world is changing. Fast. Really fast. Since our inception in 1943, Canadian society and the ways of volunteer engagement have undergone significant change – particularly with regard to technology, demographics and the workplace. Our organization has changed to keep pace and stay relevant in the many communities we have grown to serve.
In the past, Volunteer Vancouver focused primarily on volunteers. Our former name suggested that’s what we do. But in the past 66 years, we have studied the voluntary sector, and learned we must focus on the organization, not the volunteer, in order to be successful. Our specific and unique vantage point is about working with organizations. To engage people. To achieve their missions. To ensure our organization is successful in delivering our mission – to inspire and build leadership in the voluntary sector.
We’ve also learned that there are many willing volunteers but very little demand for them in the ways in which they would like to be engaged. We have discovered we can engage people with their heads, not only their hearts and hands. We have learned we can engage experts earlier in the cycle of any program or project. We have told stories of the many different ways of involving people we pay through motivation, involvement and opportunities to learn, rather than money. We have spent a lot of time studying how organizations can engage volunteers for the greatest possible positive impact. And we know that the “how” has to begin with the “who.”
Executive Directors must ensure intentional volunteer engagement in their organizations. They are in a position to engage the most significant skills and the largest numbers of people in the organization. Thus, the Executive Director and leadership team must be comprised of facilitative leaders – who understand they cannot get all their work done most effectively by themselves. They must be willing – no, not only willing, but excited - to engage as many brilliant minds as possible to move their missions forward.
We work from a vantage point that is about people first. We have the ability to engage people we don’t have to pay a salary – amazing talents who contribute to our organization because they are passionate about our cause. We know that will take considerable education. So we are up for that educational role. We look forward to working with others to think in new and different ways about how we will divide the work; enabling others to do, rather than doing it all ourselves. To create new models. To continue to shout it is about ALL the PEOPLE. That is our Vantage Point.
This is an excerpt from “First It’s About the People. ALL the People.” To read the full article, click here.
Colleen Kelly
Executive Director—a.k.a. “Chief People Officer”