There are few, if at all, good estimates of the overall contribution made by voluntary organisations to the life of our community. An obvious reason why is the wide sweep of activities covered by the sector – from societies that extend mutual support between individuals and families facing social or medical difficulties to religious, sports, philantropic, cultural and other organizations... The list is endless.

One other reason for the lack of an overall perspective might be that with time, the voluntary sector has not remained completely voluntary. In certain cases, it was discovered that for some given aim to be reached, the voluntary activity would have to be run on the back of paid work, sometimes even in terms of regular wages. Otherwise the targets set could not be attained. Fund raising to finance their programmes has become an important aspect of the activities run by voluntary organizations.

I would imagine that it was to take account of this development that the voluntary sector has come to be equated with what is now called the NGOs – non governmental organizations. As an entity, these have to register their activities as well as their annual accounts, even if they are not assimilated to private companies.

But is there a united ethos – by which I mean a common consciousness or recognition that they have common interests – among all those active in voluntary organizations?

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STANDARDS

I’m being told – and this comes from diverse sources – that a tendency has gained ground without any fanfare and indeed as part of normal administration, to scale down educational and academic standards. A number of reasons explain why this is taking place.

One reason that could be claimed as most valid (though I disagree with it) reflects the argument that if students are aiming to find certain types of jobs, it hardly makes sense for their studies to provide instruction in areas that need higher skills than what will be needed for the jobs they intend to take up. Actually research has been published recently which seems to show that a substantial number of employees have higher qualifications that what is needed for their work.

Other reasons I have been given (informally) to explain what is happening are: there is a need to increase the number of students who finish the course they start on by getting the diplomas or certificates awarded to successful attendees; some teachers are not far advanced in their own studies and research and do not much feel that their students should be so different from themselves.  

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TRADITIONS

Some traditions are getting to be completely lost. Perhaps because they were tied to religious practice and this no longer dominates everyday life. But they also have been lost because they encountered competition from celebrations and customs imported from abroad. Since in many cases, these have been largely commercialised, they easily overrode what was just traditional.

For instance in the past, the approach of autumn would signal the soon to arrive celebrations for St Martin’s day and as of November, remembrance of dead family members; both occurences were marked by their own “rituals”. And both have today lost their former salience. The dominant call has become that of Halloween which mobilises most families. I am not convinced the change has been for the better.