Interview with Lynne Dalton, CEO, The Centre for Volunteering
[9 March 2006 | Carol Kitching, The Centre for Volunteering]
The Centre for Volunteering's new CEO, Lynne Dalton, will not be taking a 'softly-softly' approach when she starts her new job this month. She's confident she already knows exactly what her employer wants.
How so? Well, Lynne has been a member of The Centre for Volunteering's board since 1998, a position she has since left to take up the new post. "I'm in the lucky position of knowing intimately my employers before I start work. How lucky am I!", Lynne explains.
So, it's out of one chair and into another. "It makes it a very easy transition for me from being a board member to CEO because I understand what their priorities, concerns and needs are in terms of my support".
"I feel I can hit the ground running because I have a full understanding of their ethos and their direction whether in the short- or the long-term".
As CEO, Lynne brings 25 years experience working in the community sector – everything from child care, youth and disability services to day-to-day management and governance of service organisations. She is currently completing a business honours degree at the University of Technology, Sydney, and is a volunteer herself. She holds qualifications in small business management and workplace and assessment training and is a trained Civil Celebrant.
Lynne is keen to extend the reach of volunteers throughout the state and she's singled out the corporate sector for special attention. There's a growing awareness in the "for profit corporate sector, that volunteering is a good, solid part of a balanced community."
"And they understand that a good, solid, balanced community is worthwhile for everyone in terms of how we live, how we operate, how we look after each other and the quality of life." The corporate sector now wants to be involved, indicating real change over the past decade.
Lynne believes that in the past, volunteers have been considered people who didn't have young children at home, or who didn't need to work or who didn't fit into a community network. But as history has shown, volunteers have always been around. Families have always been there to help each other. Says Lynne: "We tend to take our volunteers so much for granted. We don't realise that if we pulled out all the volunteers in a community, the community would just collapse. It could not continue to function appropriately."
"The good thing is many of the high-profile agencies, such as Meals on Wheels, Surf Life Saving Australia, the SES (State Emergency Services) and Rural Fire Service have benefited from increased interest in volunteerism. But there is still a huge gap in some communities".
"Recently, three people died alone in their homes without any of their neighbours being aware," said Lynne. "I think we should really look at establishing a network of volunteers to ensure that this happens fewer and fewer times, to the extent that it would never happen. Some media people have said: 'but maybe they just wanted to be alone.' But I'm sure they didn't want to die alone. There is a big difference in living alone and dying alone."
Lifting the community's awareness of volunteerism is high on Lynne's agenda. The fact that our population is ageing means we have to start thinking broadly about how we manage this transition so we can continue to offer support to those people who need it and we can continue to make sure we have a balanced community to support each other.
Getting young people involved is a good start. Says Lynne: "We've got to make people understand volunteering is not just work. It's about people and it's a great way to establish a network of relationships you might not necessarily have otherwise".
"I'm sure that those young people who volunteer their time at surf life saving clubs have a wonderful network of friends and it's not because of the water. It's because they belong to a vibrant group who share a vision and a perception of what they like to do and who they are.
"If we can get networks of other young people involved in other volunteer projects, then they also will come together to establish a network of friends among their peers who they can socialise with at other times and learn to support each other.
"We need to encourage people, not only so they can give, but also so they can receive."
Along with heightening the profile of volunteerism, Lynne would like to extend the services of The Centre to its members. "We have a lot of members right throughout the state and I would like to find out how we can help them do their work better. Do they need us to advocate for them, do they need help to develop policies and procedures, do they need us to support them in training? We need to find out what their issues are and what the gaps there may be in their service and the ways in which we can help fill those gaps for them", she said.