Definitions of Volunteer

The field of volunteerism spends inordinate amounts of time arguing the finer points of just what is and what is not volunteering. Most readers are familiar with a range of concepts that strive to ‘define’ volunteering. Such concepts include volunteering being conducted

• without coercion,
• without monetary reward, and
• for the benefit of the community.

However, a much more fundamental question was posed recently on both the OzVPM (Australasia) and UKVPMs (United Kingdom) newsgroups, causing quite a reaction, and prompting us to share the thoughts of respondents with you all through this Keyboard Roundtable forum.

The question was, quite simply: ‘Is volunteering work or leisure?’

With the generous permission of the participants, we have compiled some of the key postings in this debate and hope e-Volunteerism readers will join in.

There are many words to describe volunteering and voluntary action, reflecting the many forms of people helping each other survive and prosper over the challenges of their time and place. Whether it is trabalho voluntario in Brazil, benevolat and volontariat in France, gotong royong in Indonesia or harambee in Kenya, supporting each other for mutual survival is a key ingredient to community the world over. In this issue we look at a very ancient, yet still modern, form of community interaction and service to each other that, even though it is no longer extensively practiced, is still is a relevant way for people to be involved in service to each other.