The Venerable Volunteer has been round the block and then
some. To some, they are an inspiration, regaling a group of less experienced
volunteers with stories of the time they helped a difficult client who then
turned round and put £50 in the collecting box. As s/he continues with an
anecdote that contravenes data protection, health and safety and several other
sacred cows of the modern charity world, mangers and more clued up volunteers
cringe. How did we ever get here and what can be done?
Often, such volunteers are often still doing a lot of good
work for the charity and a lot of the dire things that are supposed to go wrong
when you ignore policies don’t actually transpire. That's partly because these
contingencies are pretty rare and our volunteer has enough experience to avoid
trouble. The manager poised to make a retiring issue out of a breach of policy
may find themselves suddenly receiving thanks from a delighted client.
It's very important for a manager to be aware of why they
find this volunteer so challenging so as to work out a sensible way forward. A
volunteer with experience, reputation and respect from others may feel very
threatening to a manager. Is that what the problem is? Or is there a real
problem?
Ideally, you never get into such situations but staff often
have shorter careers than volunteers so the chances are, a new manager will
find themselves with a venerable volunteer already in place. For all the venerable volunteer may be seen as
a problem, they often know a lot about the service and its history. Float an idea
with them and they may tell you that it was tried before, worked well and but
they don't know why it was stopped. That could be an incredibly useful clue.
Using their experience in this way also helps to build a relationship with an influential
member. As part of that relationship, you may be able to get them to change any
truly worrying behaviour.
