Adhocracy is a term for volunteers coined by (some say by Nancy Macduff of Volunteer Today) about the late 80s for a trend towards episodic volunteering – that is volunteering in short, one-up stints.

Yesterday in the closing hours of National Volunteer Week I had a conversation with one of our best volunteers, June Ring, president of the ISES DC, during which she told me how much she and the board appreciated Mainer. Her year is coming to a close and she thanked us. But it is us who should thank her – and her board. They have been extraordinary volunteers!

It reminds me once again that National Volunteer Week shouldn’t be a week. It’s really a 365-day celebration.  In fact there are 365 ways (at least) that we can recognize our volunteers. It begins I believe not with a list of rewards (although this one from Indiana 4-H is packed with ideas – some of which show up below!)

Matt Baer offered five short-term, ad-hoc volunteer jobs he'd love to have in response to my meme on volunteerism (read other great responses here).

When you read Matt's full five you'll notice that he focused on identifying ones he says are not common and may in fact not even be out there. It was that comment in particular that caught my eye. Our volunteers don't always want to the same old options. And sometimes they just don't know what they want. So creating excitement for volunteering in our associations does take both creativity and conversations.

The latest storm about Facebook’s use policy and an interesting Business Week article “Will Work for Praise”  are challenging our definitions of volunteer.  Here’s why.

In a nutshell, Facebook reinstated its old terms after a user backlash. It vows to consult users as it rewrites what its now calling the "Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities." Facebook users at one level are ad-hoc volunteers. They create, modify and build content as well a create and/or beta-test apps. Like our association volunteers, they do this work for free. Now it seems they will also be given a role in shaping the policies and procedures of their world. Rob Pegoraro, Washington Post technology columnist, goes one step further and encourages Facebook to post a draft of its next terms for members to work over. Think Wikipedia. Perhaps Facebook could tap its users to collectively help write a clearer, simpler contract. He also makes a compelling suggestion that this experiment be repeated in other places like the government - and I would add associations.

I’m headed to Florida for ASAE & The Center’s Great Ideas Conference – three days of education, creativity and fun! At the center of the activity will be an “unsession” on volunteerism in associations. The objective is to generate creative ideas that can help associations create strategies and solutions to this critical and often perplexing issue. To get things started ...

Interesting conversation going on over at SNAP (Social Networking for Association Professionals) about adhoc volunteering ... Cynthia D'Amour shared three great examples.