What exactly is volunteering...?!

This seemingly simple question often pops in to my mind, especially when the Community Links Team are out and about, talking to the myriad people doing good things around the borough. Once again I found myself pondering this after talking with ArtsRichmond this morning. There are many interpretations and definitions; Google nails it down quite well with "working for an organization without being paid."

However, it is this sense of 'work' that often gets the term in to trouble. The evocative image of gap year students building schools in Africa resonates with most people as volunteering, and certainly has 'work' at its core. 

However, what about those people that give up hours of their life to run groups, activities and events for others because it's something they just enjoy doing? This has a sense of work though, as there are duties, responsibilities, often timescales to meet etc..

The real dilemma comes when we think about the people that attend these groups and activities. As a Community Link Officer, I might invite residents to come along to a public session to discussion solutions for a community issue. Unpaid, yet they are giving up their time to provide their knowledge and understanding to help achieve a goal. Yet, how many people see that as a form of volunteering? Volunteering England have a broader, yet more detailed definition which starts to capture this:

any activity that involves spending time, unpaid, doing something that aims to benefit the environment or someone . . . other than . . . close relatives. Central to this definition is the fact that volunteering must be a choice freely made by each individual. This can include formal activity undertaken through public, private and voluntary organisations as well as informal community participation.

So, I guess we could start to include lobbying and campaigning as volunteering. No final answers today it seems!