Volunteerism is dead, and COVID19 (helped to) kill it.

It is often argued that the strength of western countries, such as Australia, America, the UK and Canada is our democratic system. The ability to chose who will govern us. And that is a fair argument. But it could also be argued that another strength of the western system is our national zeitgeist of volunteerism. I am not just referring to a select group of people that chose to volunteer, but the concept of volunteerism as a national philosophy.

We often hear about our propensity to volunteer as a nation. Whenever there is a big event on, such as an Olympic Games, our joint desire to be involved, and to give our time, is a central selling point to the event. In fact, for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games our extremely high levels of volunteering were used by the organising committee as a selling point to the OIC. I am sure it was the same with the Brisbane 2032 games bid.

And it is not just sport where we excel in volunteering, it is in every structure of our society, such as the Lions, Rotary, Red Cross, Lifeline and many others. Our legal system is based, at the lowest level, on the Justice of the Peace, which is a volunteer role. Everywhere that you look in our society you will see people giving their time by volunteering.

This system has been with us for hundreds of years or more, often seen through military service. Australia has been the only western country not to introduce conscription during either world war, because our men didn't need to be told to go and fight. Likewise, our nurses went because they saw it "as the thing to do".

Look at our political system. Our numerous elections are all dominated by volunteers. When you walk into a polling booth all those people are volunteers.

And so my overarching point is that our country and its system, that main point of attraction for many immigrants, is based on our desire and willingness to give our time willingly, and freely.

But that is where the good news ends, or at least it did in 2020. I believe, and I have spent some time studying this, and interviewing people, that as a system our volunteerism is dead, or at the very least on its last legs. Sure, people are still volunteering, in their millions, and if you were to glance around you would still see all our structures still functioning. What I mean by "dead" is the concept of volunteerism. I believe that it is no longer the case that people see volunteering as something that they should do, and are motivated to do. As a country we are no longer a collective of volunteers.

And we are not the only country to see this change. Canada is also seeing the same seismic shift away from volunteerism, America the same, the same with the UK.

COVID19 didn't do it all on its own. Volunteer numbers were decreasing before COVID19, but the Bug broke the compact between the individual and the state. COVID19 gave us the opportunity to stop volunteering, and so many of us have lost the drive to volunteer.

Ausplay data shows only 53% of volunteers have returned to structured sports clubs post COVID19. Future data will show if that is improving, but even if it does it has demonstrated the fundamental weakness in the system. And in another area of our industry, the parks sector, the fundamental structure of "Friends of...." and Bushcare, Dunecare and others are also struggling, with many of these environmental groups ceasing to exist.

But its not just in sport where we see this shift. AVI (Australian Volunteers International) the not for profit that our Department of Foreign Affairs uses to place volunteers into countries as part of our overseas support programs is struggling to get people back after the Bug.

As I mentioned I have been studying the trend as well. I get to deal with thousands of sports clubs on a regular basis, and all report that their number one issue is volunteers, getting them and keeping them. But its not just sport, on my side hustles I have also seen the same thing. I volunteer at music festivals. Over Xmas last year I ran a bar at the Woodford Folk Festival. I am normally allocated 14 bar attendants. I only got 9. And the same was for every one of the departments at the festival. Woodford uses more than 2000 volunteers. There was a 30% drop in volunteering this year. There will be a critical point where the festival will not be able to be run due to a lack of volunteers.

I just finished volunteering at Bluesfest 2023. The main photo is my team from the festival. This was supposed to be a team of 24 people, they got 12. And this was the case across all teams.

Major sports events, such as running festivals are also struggling, with a 50% drop in volunteers for some.

The article below highlights a similar issue in Canada, where they are struggling to run games, in all sports, due to the loss of officials. They blame their situation on both COVID19 and on the abuse that officials are now experiencing.

Another critical role that volunteers play is during natural disasters. Whether it be flood, or bushfires, it is the volunteers, through the RFS or State Emergency Service (SES) that do most of the heavy lifting to help our affected communities.

Anecdotally there has been reporting that the uptick in mental health issues, especially since the Bug, may be being made worse by our withdrawing into our selves and away from volunteering. Volunteering has always been acknowledged as being helpful for people living with mental health issues. Maybe the epidemic of loneliness is being exasperated by our decreasing volunteering.

Australia has always been a individualistic country, among a small group of similar countries, where the individual and their rights is paramount. Most other countries are known as collectivist societies, where the individual is subsumed and the collective is the only focal point. The one exception to our individualism has been our philosophy of volunteerism. This now may be under threat.