International - Volunteering Seminar Antwerp 2006

Volunteering Seminar – Antwerp, Belgium- Amanda Byrne & Yvonne Browne - 21st - 24th Sept 2006

The forum focused on two key areas:

Training of Adult Leaders
Trends - What does it mean to be a volunteer today?

Aim of the Forum:

The aim of this forum was to address the issues surrounding the volunteer contribution of adult leaders in Guiding and Scouting and also considered the context in which volunteers now find themselves.

” There were a lot of different sessions - the one I found most useful was when we were invited into the "Diamond Cafe". Each table was set up like in a cafe, everyone sat at one table and on each table there was a "Topic for Discussion". Everyone was served tea, coffee and biscuits and discussed their topic, writing down any ideas/suggestions on the tablecloth. After 15 minutes everyone moved to another table. I found this very helpful and productive. On the Saturday night we were all brought out for dinner to a Restaurant that was built around a brewery. Some of us enjoyed Rabbit Stew and the locally brewed beer. I found the weekend to be very enjoyable, not only meeting people from different Guiding/Scoutin0g organisations but also learning how other organisations are recruiting and retaining volunteers.”- Amanda

“The forum split into two groups for most of the weekend, to allow for discussion on the above topics. I attended the Training section. In this section we looked at:

What are the basic elements of a training scheme?
What are our new ways of delivering training?
Is the training that we give in Guiding transferable to other contexts?
Is training provided in a flexible way using innovative methods that meet the needs of today’s volunteers?

In an open discussion, we tackled topics such as; what is training, why carry out training, Training and Non-Formal Education, Training and Volunteering, Training and Learning.

This session was followed by “New Ways of Training”. In summary, we identified that the following should be taken into account for developing training programs.

How do we measure and raise the quality of training?
It should be possible to complete over varying lengths of time.
It should also be recognised externally. For example, if our members are applying for jobs etc that their training in Guiding can be acknowledged.
It needs to be updated regularly and new techniques tested to keep it interesting.
e-Learning has also been introduced in some countries as a way of training individuals.” -Yvonne

Using the following methods learn-share-explore-discuss-produce-enjoy, we all came to a conclusion that volunteers are like diamonds. Valuable, rare to find, come in different facets, needs to be cherished if we want to find and keep them.