This thesis explores the author’s experience of fieldwork in Western Ghana while volunteering to promote gender equality at an elementary school. Analyzing the stages of preparation for fieldwork, situating the self in the field, conducting fieldwork, and returning from the field, illustrate some of the strengths and weaknesses of NGO and volunteer involvement for the combined purposes of conducting ethnographic fieldwork. Reflecting on these processes and the presence of the researcher allows for a critical understanding of issues in the field; such as children’s responsibility and ethnic discrimination. The complex of the researcher’s multiple identities in the field, including volunteer, researcher, and white woman, affect the experience and results of the fieldwork; the significance of which is reflected upon through autoethnography.

This paper attempts to illustrate a gap when it comes to the knowledge about unpaid volunteers in Swedish organisations. The person-oriented explanations of individual preferences when choosing an orientation in which to volunteer does not suffice to explain and enlighten the fact that there is a gender-based division that orientates women towards voluntary work within organisations with a social direction, while men tend to choose sports-oriented voluntary tasks. This illustrates a pattern that is common in society in general. Eight interviews including four women volunteering in socially oriented organisations and four men in sports-oriented organisations have been conducted. An attempt has been made to explain results from earlier research as well as the respondents reasoning about their voluntary work with gender related theories. The aim has been to situate individual choices of preference to a larger context that illustrates those as not completely individual but also as formations that makes a symphony with the general ideas about feminine and masculine qualities.

A strong volunteer development program is important to the success of volunteer based organizations. Such a program can bolster volunteer recruitment efforts, increase retention of current volunteers, and improve their performance. But, in order for the training to be successful, the training must help the volunteers achieve their personal goals as well as helping the organization achieve its own goals. For this reason a skills approach to leadership was used in this study since it would be beneficial to both the organization and the volunteer. The seven leadership competencies chosen for the study based on the literature review were: (1) identifying problems, (2) gathering information, (3) solving problems in new ways, (4) communicating effectively, (5) understanding other roles in the organization, (6) understanding others’ attitudes, and (7) adapting behavior to work with others. The purpose of the study was to determine for which of these leadership competencies volunteers at Bryan/College Station nonprofit organizations needed training. To determine this, it was important to first determine the current leadership competencies of local area volunteers and how important each of these competencies were to nonprofit organizations. With this information, it was possible to draw conclusions and determine what areas of volunteer leadership training would be most beneficial to both nonprofits and their volunteers. This study found that all seven leadership competencies chosen were important to the organizations studied. More than eighty percent of organizations asked their volunteers to explicitly or implicitly perform each competency. Furthermore, each competency was rated as either important or very important by at least half of the organizations. Based on the findings, it was concluded that communicating effectively and adapting behavior to work with others were the two most important competencies. At least two thirds of the organizations demonstrated a need for training in these areas. Identifying problems, solving problems in new ways, understanding other roles in the organization, and understanding others’ attitudes showed a need for training in about half of the organizations. These competencies should be developed, but show less potential for training benefits. Finally, gathering information showed limited need for training.

This study sought to determine and evaluate the effectiveness of the Leadership Advisory Board structure and its membership at meeting the needs of Visioning and Advocacy for Texas AgriLife Extension Service. The research was conducted with the members of the Leadership Advisory Boards in 48 counties in Texas, with a selection based upon distribution of counties across all Extension categories roughly equal to the percentage of each category currently present in the State. The primary purpose was to determine the self perception of members of their ability to serve as advocates and as a visionary organization to help Extension identify and validate the issues important to the residents of their county. A secondary purpose was to identify the benefits, concerns and solutions that can assist Texas AgriLife Extension in strengthening the organizational structure and methods associated with these Boards across the State. Five research questions were examined by the researcher. These questions were, 1. What is the competency level of the Leadership Advisory Board members on the pertinent issues in the county?, 2. Do members of the Leadership Advisory Boards understand the Land-Grant system and the Extension Service?, 3. Do members of the Leadership Advisory Board feel that their ideas lead to programs?, 4. Do members of the Leadership Advisory Board assist with interpreting program impacts to key stakeholders and decision makers?, 5. What benefits are Leadership Advisory Board members receiving from their involvement on the Board? The sample population included 490 Leadership Advisory Board members, with 236 of these participating in the survey. The instrument utilized was a seven page survey with 26 perception statements on a likert-type scale, six true or false questions to measure knowledge of the Land-Grant system, three open-ended questions for qualitative analysis, and 10 demographic questions to describe and categorize the respondents. The results included 10 significant findings, which led to 7 recommendations for Extension related to the Leadership Advisory Board, and 5 areas of further research.

This study is to discuss the services of public ¡§Sheng Mu¡¨ Time Bank in Taiwan. Time Bank was developed as a way of providing non-medical services for older people ¡V helping them to stay in the own homes, keep hospital appointments and stay healthy. Unlike traditional services of volunteers, Time Bank enables volunteers to earn and pay time credits for giving and receiving non-medical services.That is to say, Time Bank is a community plan for mutual contribution. Everyone can give and everyone can get. ¡§Sheng Mu¡¨ Time Bank was established by Taiwan governmental instituation in 1998. Since ¡§Sheng Mu¡¨ Time Bank has over ten years of experience in promoting this program, there must be some difficults and problems during promoting process.Thus, the first purpose of this study is to understand what Time Bank is and how it works. Besides, this study is to understand how do managers of volunteers and volunteers think about Time Bank. Finally, this study is to find out the difficults and problems in promoting this program.

Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009. / Full text also available online. Scroll down for electronic link.

Thesis (D. Ed. Min.)--Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-137).

Volunteer tourism has been regarded to provide an authentic and mutually beneficial relationship between volunteer tourists and residents based on volunteering. By exploring volunteer tourists' emotional solidarity with residents, the researcher aims to uncover the social relations between volunteer tourists and residents in practice. This exploratory study was conducted in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica during November 2012 to January 2013. Based on the two months of ethnographic field research, this research suggests that volunteer tourism may not be superior to so-called “mass tourism” in terms of building harmonious relationships between volunteer tourists and resident. In this study, volunteer tourists’ feelings of closeness were merely feelings which boosted the identity of volunteer tourists from “tourists” to “volunteers”. This article contributes to the growing body of literature on volunteer tourism by exploring the volunteer tourism experience from the perspectives of international volunteers.

The purpose of this qualitative thesis is to describe the common elements of sense of place in the lived experiences of volunteer trail managers. Through a triangulation of data gathered from secondary research, interviews with trail managers, and participation observation of hikers, I sought to draw out the essence of the trail manager???s sense of place towards their trail experience and connect this back to ongoing management challenges in the organization. Some of these challenges include declining membership, limited lines of communication, and problematic landowner relations. Themes around this common sense of place are situated within meanings, relationship/ attachments, emotions, and behaviors towards the trail experience. Interrelationships between sense of place, phenomenology, and trail management are also highlighted.

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