Presentations about organising and working with volunteers in the arts sector would add another dimension to the 2011 Volunteering Conference to be held in Wellington 23-24 May 2011.

Presentations about organising and working with volunteers in the arts sector would add another dimension to the 2011 Volunteering Conference to be held in Wellington 23-24 May 2011. The Volunteering NZ Conference Planning Committee is seeking abstracts for presentations, workshops and posters at the conference which has the overall theme 'Raising the Bar' reflecting the aim of taking volunteering to new levels.

The Conference will have two key streams. With the largest single New Zealand event-based volunteer programme (for the Rugby World Cup), taking place in 2011, one stream will focus on episodic and event volunteering.

The other will focus on the development of the management of volunteer programmes and of the profession as a whole. The arts and cultural sector have many examples of events where volunteers play a key role and can provide excellent lessons for the wider volunteering community.

The other stream will focus on the development of the management of volunteer programmes and of the profession as a whole. This is an equally important subject for volunteering within the arts community.

The conference, which is being hosted by Volunteering NZ, will part of the international celebration of 2011 as the International Year of the Volunteer Plus 10 – the opportunity to reflect on what has been achieved in the decade since 2001.

The Invitation for Abstracts is easily avaiable from www.volunteeringnz.org.nz and the template to submit an abstract can be accessed in the same way. The Invitation outlines the diverse range of ways in which each of the two themes can be addressed and Volunteering NZ looks forward to receiving many abstracts focusing an aspect or aspects of the themes.