The Importance of Volunteering.
November 17, 2008

BROADCAST ON FRIDAY OCTOBER 2 1998 ON RADIO 2GB’S “BRIAN WILSHIRE PROGRAMME” AT 9 PM, AND ON OCTOBER 4 1998 ON “SUNDAY NIGHT LIVE” AT 10.30 PM.

Volunteers are very important for many organizations. But can we always be sure that people will be willing to volunteer?

The Industry Commission a few years ago conducted the largest ever enquiry into Australia’s charities working in the area of community services (such as Wesley Mission). The Commission was amazed at the number of volunteers involved. Australia depends on volunteers to a far greater extent that is commonly realized.

But I wonder whether we can rely on a supply of volunteers to the same extent in the future.

I am not aware of any studies of the age of volunteers but my guess is that many of them are older Australians, born before 1946. They have lived through at least one world war and the great depression. They know from their own experience the importance of people working together to make a better community.

Meanwhile, the largest population age group are the Baby Boomers: the people born after World War II – between 1946 and 1966. Until recently, they have known mainly only good times. They have not had to endure the transforming experiences of their parents, such as World War II.

Baby Boomers are not involved in non-governmental organizations in the number that one would expect, given the overwhelming size of that age group. Some are involved but when I speak at annual meetings of these organizations I look out mainly onto a sea of grey hair or bald heads, namely the people born before 1946.

Finally, there are people born after 1967. These are the Generation X, with the Generation Y following after them. Generation X people don’t join organizations – in the same way they don’t get married, they don’t have children, and they don’t have mortgages. They will get involved in specific activities for a specific amount of time but they do not want to get involved in the routine administrative work.

I was recently speaking on this issue of volunteers at a public meeting in New Zealand. A member of Generation X said that he could not see the point of volunteering because he had only known a society in which he had had to pay for everything, for example, he was paying for his university education. Actually, he was only paying one-third of the cost but to him it felt like a hundred per cent. He was not going to give his labour away. If people wanted his participation, they would have to pay him for it.

This is a challenge to be addressed at various levels. One is simply to keep open the communication channels to younger Australians, as Wesley Mission is doing through the Rev Pamela McNally’s weekly “Vitality.com” series. Additionally, there have to be plenty of well advertized opportunities for volunteers for variety of tasks, which Wesley Mission is also doing.

There is also a need to a change the culture within society, to encourage people to see the value of volunteering. Schools already do this in this in a small way. But perhaps we should have training to be a volunteer as a recognized school course.

Keith Suter.

Consultant for Social Policy