June 2003 Issue

Volunteer BC has been involved in many collaborative activities, including:

Provincial Database
Volunteer BC and the Vancouver Community Network has signed an agreement to work together in creating a BC Societies Networking Database that will enable collaboration and cooperation among incorporated BC societies and ultimately to inform and build capacity in the BC voluntary sector.

Canadian Volunteerism Initiative
Over the last 3 months, volunteer centres, United Way/Centraides and other partners have hosted Facilitated Discussions on Volunteer Management Practices. Majority of these discussions have taken place and the final reports have been received by Volunteer Canada which funded this Initiative. Facilitated Discussion Provincial Highlights will be issued monthly beginning in June. Joy Murray is Volunteer BC's representative on this local CVI networks hosted by Volunteer Vancouver.

Lower Mainland Volunteer Centres Collaborative Service Delivery
With the support of United Way in the fall 2000, volunteer centres in the lower mainland met together to embarked on a Project to gather information about each volunteer centre, identify trends in the voluntary sector and identify possible areas for collaboration. Subsequent phases of this collaboration resulted in an inventory of services, an exploration of membership issues, and the development and ratification of a Protocol Agreement which outlined the goals, principles and procedures for collaboration. At present this Project is building upon the commitments made in the Protocol Agreement and, assisting in building the sustainability of volunteer centres around the lower mainland through piloting 3 initiatives in the areas of training/consultation, communications and marketing.

Vancouver Sun May 31, 2003 Article: "The Death of Volunteerism"
Carol Biely, Past President of Volunteer BC and Chair of the Voluntary Organizations Consortium of BC, and Joy Murray, President of Volunteer BC wrote letters to the Editor of the Vancouver Sun in response to Daphne Bramham's article above.

Ms. Biely said, "The good news is that volunteerism is not dead, but just sick and in need of treatment. In 1998 32% of British Columbians gave time to their communities, but by 2001 that percentage had dropped to 26%. Those who volunteer are no longer predominantly middle-aged ladies, but more likely to be young people seeking life and career experience or new Canadians trying to learn about their new language and community. Volunteerism has changed, but it can be revived… If Putnam's theory that strong civic organizations and associations are essential to having a strong democracy is correct, we need to pay attention to declining volunteerism now." Ms. Biely concluded that in a time of government constraint, volunteer centres need to be recognized as a critical part of a support structure for the health and vitality of our communities and our democracy.

Ms. Murray said, "Volunteerism is very much alive, albeit evolving to a new way of doing business…The importance of effective volunteer systems is essential to the success of non-profit organizations in meeting their missions. Volunteers provide key service to all segments of the community…Volunteers are the heart, the conscience and the movers in our society. They are the foundation of Canadian life." (Copies of the letters are available upon request.)

Opportunity for Creating a Strong Future
The Board of Volunteer BC is seeking nominations from Volunteer Centres. There are openings for representatives of boards of volunteer centres to become part of a dynamic team, building for future success. Please submit nominations to the Volunteer BC office as soon as possible. Elections for new board members will take place at the Annual General Meeting in September.

How Are You Doing?
Sustainability is the key topic for volunteer centers with many having to cut down on hours or, in some cases, close their doors. Prince George is no exception; however, the Centre recently received excellent exposure in the local press with stories in two papers and on television to support the work of the Centre during Volunteer Week. Jo Nore, Program Manager for Volunteer Prince George, said they are still looking at options and "gathering speed." Well done Prince George!

Anyone with stories to share for the next issue of The Connector, please contact:

Volunteer BC, tel 604-873-5877 fax 604-873-5802 e-mail volbc@vcn.bc.ca www.volunteerbc.bc.ca

April 2003 Issue

Voluntary Organizations Consortium of BC

Recent Activities

VOCBC (Voluntary Organizations Consortium of BC) is a newly formed consortium of provincial and coalition organizations representing a broad diversity of sectors. VOCBC is an initiative of Volunteer BC and involves 24 founding member organizations. Although very new, VOCBC has had a very active and exciting few months. Below are the highlights of recent activities and developments.

Building Capacity Through Collaboration
Good news! The Vancouver Foundation has confirmed its funding for the first of a three-year project to build the capacity of VOCBC. Through this project, the following results are expected to be achieved in the coming year:

1. A leadership and decision-making model for VOCBC that is representative of the diversity of the voluntary sector will have been developed and implemented.
2. A clear direction of the role of VOCBC in promoting and supporting the strengths, similarities and resources within the voluntary sector.
3. An inventory of tools and resources available through members will have been developed.
4. Four-five projects will have been identified that will test a model for volunteer centres to work together with provincial organizations, using tools and resources that have been identified.

Stay tuned for further developments on this project.

Creative Engagement
(April 15, 2003, Vancouver)
VOCBC has brought in Martin Itzkow, Executive Director of the Manitoba Voluntary Sector Initiative, to provide an informative session on future trends in the voluntary sector and the Manitoba experience. Interest in this session has been outstanding.

Human Resources in the Voluntary Sector
(March 6, 2003, Vancouver)
Community Foundations of Canada (CFC) asked VOCBC to hold a consultation with Executive Directors of smaller voluntary agencies regarding their human resource needs. About 10 Executive Directors from around the province participated in a dynamic discussion on the challenges they face in attracting, supporting and keeping their employees. A website is in the development phase, which will provide generic and provincial specific information on human resource issues. Please see: www.hrvs-rhsbc.ca The report of the consultation is available from the office.

CCRA Guidelines for Advocacy Activities
(March 4, 2003, Vancouver)
VOCBC, IMPACS [Institute of Media, Policy and Civil Society] and VanCity Community Foundation co-sponsored an informational session about CCRA [Canada Customs and Revenue Agency] guidelines for advocacy activities for charities. The session was presented to about 70 organizations by Shauna Sylvester, Executive Director of IMPACS and Richard Bridge, legal counsel. Participants felt that although there are some improvements in the proposed regulations, they still limit charities in the debate on public policy issues, and therefore, are not acceptable. Volunteer BC has written to Minister Caplan on this issue, and copies of Volunteer BC's letter are available from the office. To view IMPACS' response see www.impacs.org/files/caplan.pdf.
CCRA has extended the deadline for responses to April 30, 2003.

VOICE Health Policy Capacity Roundtable
(February 4, 2003, Vancouver)
VOCBC held a very successful consultation with provincial / national organizations regarding their capacity to participate in the development of federal health policy. This was part of a BC Yukon project coordinated at the provincial level by SPARC BC and at the national level by the Coalition of National Voluntary Organizations. About 20 agency reps, largely Executive Directors, came together to discuss strengths and barriers in working together with other voluntary organizations and Health Canada in the development of health policy. This is the first phase of the three-year project. Policy tools, training sessions and pilot projects will be developed in the next phase. The Highlights of the BC / Yukon roundtables will be available shortly through SPARC BC.

January 2003 Issue

Now that our move is complete, and our computer and e-mail systems are working again, we would like to give you several updates. This has been a busy few months for Volunteer BC, even though you may not have heard from us.

We are thrilled to announce that Shonee Mendoza has joined us as Office Coordinator and will be making sure that we have regular contact with you.

Joy Murray has now retired from her position with the Canadian Cancer Society and will have more time to devote to her new duties as President of Volunteer BC.

Voluntary Organizations Consortium of BC
Carol Biely will keep her assignment as Chair of VOCBC, which is an initiative of Volunteer BC. VOCBC now has over 20 members, which are provincial organizations or coalitions voluntary organizations. Our Consortium is determined to maximize the contribution of volunteers and voluntary organizations by developing a strong communications network and by encouraging cooperative efforts. VOCBC is gearing up for a busy year as we finalize our Work Plan. We are currently partnering with SPARC BC on the Voice in Health Policy health policy capacity project. We have applied to the Vancouver Foundation for funds to strengthen ties between volunteer centres and provincial voluntary organizations, and are developing other cooperative projects.

Voluntary Sector Assembly
Carol Biely and Tim Beachy from Volunteer BC Board, and Angela Julien from the VOCBC Steering Committee attended the Voluntary Sector Assembly in Ottawa in October. This was a wonderful opportunity to hear what is happening with the VSI and the new Canadian Voluntary Sector Initiative. We also had the opportunity to meet members of the new Voluntary Sector Forum.

A copy of the Assembly Report is available at the Volunteer BC office. Contact Shonee at 604-873-5877.

Canadian Federation of Voluntary Sector Networks
VOCBC has become an active member of the Canadian Federation, and Carol Biely and Tim Beachy participated in a day and a half of meetings in October. Tim and our Consultant Vera Radyo will be meeting with Federation members again in Toronto at the end of January.

The Federation has applied to the McConnell Foundation to build the capacity of regional and local coalitions and consortiums across the country. We are also working with other provincial coalitions to provide regional outreach for the Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and Development at Carleton University.

The Voluntary Sector Forum
The VSF was launched at the National Assembly in October, with a mandate

1. to oversee remaining VSI work, e.g., the Accord, evaluation, oversight of ongoing work of Joint Tables whose work will continue beyond October 2002;
2. to coordinate a sector response on key issues at the national level;
3. to develop a strategy to build and engage the sector, through involvement of emerging coalitions, local and regional groups.

There are 18 members from across the country. Shauna Sylvester, Executive Director IMPACS, is the British Columbia representative. Shauna wrote a message after the first meeting of the Forum, which is attached for your information. Shauna will attend meetings of VOCBC quarterly, and we will forward the results of our dialogue to you regularly.

We hope that this information about "big picture" voluntary sector activities will be of interest to you.

The Voluntary Sector Forum - by Shauna Sylvester

Earlier in December, I had the opportunity to attend my first Voluntary Sector Forum meeting. The VSF consists of 21 participants from across Canada who were selected by an independent committee to follow-up the work of the Voluntary Sector Initiative, to coordinate a sector response on key national issues and to provide leadership to the voluntary sectors' building efforts.

I was extremely impressed with the talented group of people sitting around the table. We spent two days getting to know each other, clarifying our goals and priorities for our three-year term and meeting with senior officials in the Department of Heritage (the government department now responsible for the voluntary sector).

I am happy to report that the advocacy issue is among the VSF's top priorities. Other priorities include addressing the financing issue, following up the work of the VSI (particularly ensuring that groups receive and can effectively use the Accord and the codes on policy and funding), and outreach particularly to First Nations and minority communities and grassroots organizations.

At the next meeting in late January, VSF Members Gordon Floyd (Canadian Centre for Philanthropy), Megan Williams (Canadian Conference for the Arts), Esperanza Moreno (Canadian Council for International Cooperation) and I will provide a briefing to senior officials of Heritage and to the other members of the VSF on the advocacy issue and the new CCRA draft guidelines on political activities. We will also discuss how the VSF will engage with the charities and democracy project.

If you would like any information about the VSF or if you have issues you would like me to raise at the VSF table, please drop me a line at shaunas@impacs.org. If you would like any other Voluntary Sector Initiative documents (and there are many good reports and tools), please visit the website at www.vsi-isbc.ca.

Best wishes for the New Year….

Shauna Sylvester
Executive Director
IMPACS
Member of the Voluntary Forum

December 2002 Issue

We have Moved!
We have just moved to our own new office at Suite 302 - 207 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, V6B 1H7. Our telephone number is 604 873-5877; fax number is 604 873-5802; e-mail: volbc@vcn.bc.ca.

Meet Our Board Members 2002-03 and Staff

Officers:
President: Joy Murray
Past President: Carol Biely
Vice-President: Jane Boulton
Secretary: David Kimpton
Treasurer: Linda Western

Members:
Tim Beachy, Nancy Boyce, Gail Joyce, Denise Thompson

Staff:
Coordinator: Shonee Mendoza
Accountant: Brita Fransvaag