MOVE: Managing & Organising Volunteer Efforts

The second edition of the highly successful volunteer management guide ‘Turn your organisation into a volunteer magnet’ was launched this month at the Institute for Advanced Volunteer management in Blackpool, England. This unique project harnesses the experience of everyday volunteer managers from around the world and asks them to describe, in just 500 words, those things which make their volunteer projects ‘magnetic’.

Editors Fraser Dyer, Andy Fryar and Rob Jackson explain “the philosophy behind the project is that managers at a grass roots level have lots of experience to share, but seldom an outlet to distribute that knowledge. The magnet project allows an avenue through which they can contribute their ideas, and these are then shared freely, via the internet with their peers around the world. It is a great model of both networking and information exchange”

The first edition, published in 2004 was downloaded many thousands of times, making it one of the most read volunteer management guides in history. The new and updated edition contains 50 chapters from 40 authors across North America, the United Kingdom, Europe and the Australasian region.

The free electronic version can be downloaded from the MOVE Members' Web Community in the "Library" section or through the OzVPM webpage at www.ozvpm.com. A copy of the eBook will also be made available in the MOVE Web Community for members.

MOVE is glad to announce its new online community for its members at http://www.move.org.sg/community. Through the online community, members will get to interact with each other through online features such as the e-forum, chatrooms and messaging. Members will also be able to access COP notes and e-Volunteerism articles as well as post valuable volunteer resources management articles to share with one another. To activate your web community account, kindly fill up the "Web Community Account Activation Request" form by clicking on "Activate My Account" when you are at the community. We will inform you once your account is ready for use.

MOVE LAUNCHES C.O.P.

MOVE launches its first sessions of COP (Communitities of Practice) on "How to Gain Management and Staff Support for Volunteer Programmes in My Organisation?" in August this year. MOVE continues to invite members as well as other VPMs (Volunteer Programme Managers) to come and join in our COP.

Dear Movers,

It has been nearly a year since we launched MOVE in July of 2006. To celebrate our forthcoming 1st anniversary, we are giving complimentary membership to all existing members for the year. That means, you will continue to enjoy all membership benefits for the next 7 months absolutely free with compliments of your Council.

Do take advantage of this and inform your friends who are interested to be members to join NOW and enjoy free membership up to 31 December 2007. All they need to do is fill up a membership form (download from http://www.move.org.sg/membership_join.htm) and pay the $20 administration fee which is a one-time payment.

I know some of you may be wondering what has happened with MOVE since our last get-together on IVMAD last year. Be rest assured that we have been working hard behind the scene to make things happen for the organisation and for the benefit of VPMs, like you, in Singapore.

The first piece of good news I would like to share with you is that we are collaborating with MCYS to gather feedback from practitioners of volunteer management as well as direct service volunteers on problems they face and current practices that they feel are inimical to sustainable volunteering. MOVE will be fronting two focus group meetings next month in June for this very purpose. Our findings will be submitted to MCYS with recommendations from this Council. This is in line with our objective of advocacy for the Designated Volunteer Programme Manager.

This, of course, is only the beginning that paves the way for many more opportunities for MOVE to work with MCYS particularly in the areas of advocacy, training & certification and promotion of best practices in volunteer management.

Members can also look forward to new activities in the next couple of months. We are introducing Communities of Practice (COP) for those of you who are working within the same geographical location to meet on a regular basis to discuss pertinent topics related to our work. The notes of discussion of the different COPs will also be posted online so that there will be knowledge sharing amongst all members. For a start, the following COPs have been formed and you may connect with the contact person if you wish to join in the group:

Town Area - Lam Moy Yin moyyin@nvpc.org.sg
Central/North Area - Michael Loh mlbk888@yahoo.com.sg

You are also welcome to form your own COP if you have at least two other VPMs with you.

The official MOVE e-forum should be up and about before end-June. As members, you enjoy the privilege of logging on to the e-forum to read the notes of discussion of other COPs or to form new threads for on-line discussion with your fellow VPMs. You can even pose questions and receive answers to your work-related problems.

Last but not least, e-volunteering, the news bulletin of Energize Inc is now available free-of-charge to MOVE members.

For more information about any of the above activities, please feel free to send your enquiries to admin@move.org.sg and we shall try our best to answer them.

Lastly we will be starting to organise the next IVMAD pretty soon. To ensure everyone's enjoyment, you are invited to give us ideas as to what you think makes for a successful celebration. If you have the time to commit to us to organise this event, feel free to drop me a line (Tel: 6259-4414 during normal working hours).

We look forward to a more exciting 2007 with heaps of benefits for members.

Michael Loh
Founding Chairman
and Members of MOVE Council