MICRO VOLUNTEERING OR GOOD TURNS.

By: Rafe Lucado
Interamerican Scout Committee Member
rlucado@scout.org

In the Scout Movement the good turn, as little or as big as each one has done it, is a spontaneous voluntary action taken up as the need or situation arises. This is very similar to the purpose of micro volunteering, never the less in 1907 obviously there was no internet.

Micro volunteering, originates with the appearance of the World Wide Web and then mobile communications. It is a small volunteer action based on demand without greater commitment to benefit a worthy cause.

The international of day micro volunteering is getting near, it is celebrated on April 25 and presents an opportunity to join a global effort to demonstrate the potential for the empowerment of micro volunteering.

The purpose of this day is:

- The participation of individuals in micro volunteering tasks
- To inspire organizations to embrace the idea of micro volunteering
- To stimulate discussion on the concept
- Share photos + stories through #microday

Beginning 2015, the internet has more than 3 billion (three thousand million) users, and of those more than 300 million are in Latin America. Considering that a little over a year ago, when we presented the Scout Virtual Movement with Peter Amesz at the World Scout Education Congress in November 2013, worldwide there were 2.1 billion internet users in the world and a little more than 200 million in Latin America, this means that globally it has grown by 43% and 50% in Latin America, and the world is rushing to close the digital divide.

Internet and micro volunteering are the product of a new era and their relationship and link is the product of a society that has greater access to the internet and social media. Both go together, both have merged so as to generate a platform for those who wish to participate, support or contribute to worthy causes, close to them and worldwide, can do it.

Day by day we can see that on the internet and social media the concept of micro volunteering is mentioned more. This involvement of interested and/or identified adults with certain causes of social merit is gradually opening up new ways of communicating and partnering between volunteers and social organizations.

Micro volunteering is not yet ten years old. The first time the word was used was on May 9, 2006 in a blog on the platform mySociety in the UK. The “Microvoluntarios” or micro volunteers as a term was registered as a web domain for a website Spain in November 27, 2006. “Microvoluntarios” created in May 2008 the first micro-volunteering platform publicly accessible online.

The 2011 report by UN Volunteers states that "Online volunteering, online activism through social media and micro-volunteering are trends that are growing rapidly. The potential contributions of technology to volunteerism are powerful".

It has opened a channel of communication between those who are volunteers and the organizations to which they contribute and this could determine the future of volunteering in the coming years.

Engaging with small contributions according to the beliefs of volunteers creates an option for attracting volunteers who want to make the leap to a more traditional volunteering.

Different causes requiring micro-volunteering such as: contributions to social cause’s the Scout Movement supports in various NSOs, participation in Messengers of Peace projects or involving parents and Scouts families in various projects of the Group Scout are possibilities open to us in which we can recruit micro-volunteers.

There micro actions for all interests:

- writing a letter to a child receiving cancer treatment

- contributing with conservation actions such as recycling books

- contributing to plant a tree, in your name, in a tropical forest

- reporting to a university of biodiversity when camping

- the conditions of camp sites via SMS, which are collected

- Virtual merit badge counselors

-Psychologists giving advice or counseling

This new modality leads us to have direct contact with the volunteer and means that as an organization we can establish a relationship with him. We can achieve the integration and participation of persons who may be excluded from traditional volunteering.

Bibliography
Bright, Mike (2013) http://www.volunteerweekly.org/the-rise-of-microvolunteering/ January 16.
Microvoluntarios.org
http://nodos.typepad.com/nodos_prime/2008/04/microvoluntario.html
UN Volunteers (2011) State of the World’s Volunteerism Report “Universal Values for Global Well-being” Published by United Nations Volunteers.
Winman, Holly (2014) THE RISE OF MICROVOLUNTEERING. socialtech.org.uk