Reviews achievements during the first 50 years of 4-H club work, including volunteer leadership development, funding support, and response to society's needs during the war years. Demonstrates how 4-H has changed to meet societal needs while remaining true to the original mission. (SK)

Excerpts from an Internet debate identify issues and opinions on mandatory community service as a graduation requirement and court-ordered volunteering. The debate ranges over such topics as quality of the service experience, freedom of choice, intended outcomes, and values conflicts. (SK)

A survey of 162 Australian college students (70% with volunteering experience) showed that despite concerns about time constraints, 92% would be interested in volunteering. They felt students would be attracted to volunteering by credits, relevant work, references for employers, and flexible time slots. (SK)

Explains the Open Directory Project (ODP), an attempt to catalog the World Wide Web by creating a human-compiled Web directory. Discusses the history of the project; open source models; the use of volunteer editors; quality control; problems and complaints; and use of ODP data by commercial services such as Google. (LRW)

Comparison of volunteers at the Olympic Games in Lillehammer in 1994 (n=200) and Sydney in 2000 (n=200) showed they were strongly motivated by national pride, social contact, and friendship. Learning was an important motivator for younger volunteers. Increased job and social skills and knowledge were common outcomes. (Contains 22 references.) (SK)

Although the ideal of volunteerism is altruistic, surveys indicate that most volunteers are motivated by personal development. Recruitment and retention thus hinge on meaningful and inclusive work. Volunteerism is also not a substitute but a supplement for public or private sector responsibility. (SK)

Describes how the director of the Office of Human Research Protections has an amiable approach that emphasizes cooperation in oversight of studies with human subjects, but isn't afraid to suspend programs that violate federal regulations. (EV)

Secondary and middle school agriculture teachers in New Mexico (n=90) considered volunteers essential program components. Volunteers served as chaperones, guest speakers, event coaches, and in student organizations. The 13% who did not use them were either new, had small programs, or found it time consuming. Benefits included exposing students to…

Hispanic Americans in Cleveland, Ohio were interviewed about volunteerism. Six themes were identified: (1) influence of family and friends; (2) importance of volunteering to benefit youth; (3) importance of church and religious beliefs; (4) volunteering as a requirement; (5) connections between volunteerism and the community; and (6) personal…

Today's schools place a great emphasis on encouraging community service. At Raytown South Middle School, Library Helpers and community service go hand in hand. As of the beginning of April, 34 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade Library Helpers have come to the library media center 427 times and given 185 hours of community service. They have shelved…

Heroism consists of actions undertaken to help others, despite the possibility that they may result in the helper's death or injury. The authors examine heroism by women and men in 2 extremely dangerous settings: the emergency situations in which Carnegie medalists rescued others and the holocaust in which some non-Jews risked their lives to…

Sociological theory suggests two reasons that volunteering runs in families. The first is that parents act as role models. The second is that parents who volunteer pass on the socio-economic resources needed to do volunteer work. Panel data from two generations of women (N=1,848) are analyzed to see how much influence family socio-economic status…

Social scientists have documented the influence of family statuses on volunteering, ignoring intrafamily effects. Using newly issued data from the Current Population Survey on the volunteer behavior of 19,626 American couples, we test two competing theories concerning spousal influences on volunteering. Substitution theory predicts that spouses…

A research study surveyed 946 volunteers from congregations who were actively involved in community service, as well as 3,959 other congregational attenders who were not involved in volunteer service, to understand the relationship between service learning and faith development. Findings show that service-learning is powerfully related to a mature…

In the competitive marketplace of higher education, colleges and university leaders increasingly rely on the influence and service of their alumni to further institutional goals. Because of their demonstrated financial commitment to the institution, alumni donors are often enlisted to serve important roles as volunteers and political advocates.…