Jon Faine interviewed Greatconnections Founding Patron Lynne Landy on ABC 774 Melbourne's Conversation Hour on 12th May 2008.

Transcript:

JON FAINE:                
My co-host today, we're going to talk about volunteers and how volunteers are, to a great extent I suspect, the lubricant that keeps society ticking over without too many squeaks and groans.

I have the former - we don't really say first ladies, do we? - but akin to royalty, well, not quite.  But she used to live at Government House.  Lynne Landy, when her husband was the Governor of Victoria, got to live in the big house with the flag on the top of the tower.  She's now a patron of Greatconnections, an organisation dedicated to making better use of volunteerism within our community.

Lynne Landy, welcome back, welcome back to the ABC studio.

LYNNE LANDY:        
Thank you very much.

JON FAINE:                
How's life been since you're no longer, is it Mrs Governor?  What was your official title?

LYNNE LANDY:        
No, I was the wife of the Governor.

JON FAINE:                
Was there an official title to being the wife of the Governor?

LYNNE LANDY:        
Not really, no.  Not in Australia, thank goodness.

JON FAINE:                
Your Excellency, did I call you?

LYNNE LANDY:        
No, definitely not.  We didn't allow that.

JON FAINE:               
And how has life been since?

LYNNE LANDY:        
Absolutely terrific.  Still very busy, but we're both enjoying life very much indeed, thank you.

JON FAINE:                
Do you miss it?

LYNNE LANDY:        
Not at all.  I mean, that's not to say I didn't enjoy it during the time, but it's nice to have our lives back and to do what we really enjoy doing.  And both of us are involved in lots of different things, and what we're talking about this morning, volunteerism, is my particular passion. 

And I started this organisation called Greatconnections three years ago, and I spoke to you before when we first started, and it's taken a long time to get off the ground, I have to say.

But now we are up and going and we have our own offices and we have a full-time executive officer, and we are - the projects are coming in and being fulfilled by our experienced professional volunteers, because our niche in the market is for people who have professional experience and can offer very specialised skills to smaller not-for-profits who can't afford to pay people to do a lot of these jobs.

JON FAINE:                
So you get someone who's retired from, I don't know, being an accountant or something like that, and they can offer their services as a volunteer treasurer to an organisation that otherwise lacks financial acumen?

LYNNE LANDY:        
Yes...

JON FAINE:                
Is that way to describe it?

LYNNE LANDY:        
Yes, it is, but we also - we have a website, and not-for-profit organisations who register with us, they list a specific project, and we have a team of people that go out and visit the organisation so we don't waste any time.  And they can work with the organisations to really make a finite decision on what they need, because often a small organisation isn't quite sure.  They think, oh, we need strategic planning and we need human resources help...

JON FAINE:                
Or some IT help.

LYNNE LANDY:        
...or some IT help or all kinds of different things.  And we have - many of the people who are registered to us as volunteers are very, are quite - are very senior in their roles.  And from the volunteer's point of view, for people who have been very successful in business, when you retire, it's a huge loss.  You miss being part of a team, you miss that buzz of being in business.

And when people first retire, they usually go on a big trip, they see their grandchildren, they play golf, they go out to lunch a lot.

JON FAINE:                
They get bored, don't they?

LYNNE LANDY:        
They get bored.  After about 18 months, we usually find the time is.

JON FAINE:                
Is that how it works?

LYNNE LANDY:        
Yes, more or less.  And then...

JON FAINE:                
I was so looking forward to it.

LYNNE LANDY:        
[Laughs]  Your retirement will be really hard to cope with, I think.  We'll sign you up immediately.

JON FAINE:                
[Laughs]  I can't even think that far ahead.  I'm a mere 52.

LYNNE LANDY:        
Yes, you're just a baby, really.  But...

JON FAINE:                
But there is a sense of loss sometimes when people retire, isn't there?

LYNNE LANDY:        
There is, and people, particularly for men, there's quite a mental health issue.  A lot of people get depressed.  And so when they find there's an organisation that can actually utilise their years of corporate experience, they really enjoy it. 

And some of the projects, I can tell you a few stories of some of the projects that we've fulfilled, and...

JON FAINE:                
Well, give some examples because anecdotes are sometimes worth a thousand charts and statistics.

LYNNE LANDY:        
That's right.  Well, for instance, there's a south-east housing association, which is based out in the Dandenong, which deals with low-cost housing rental for people, and that's been headlines of course recently...

JON FAINE:                
Huge problem.

LYNNE LANDY:        
...with huge shortage.  And the guy that ran that, he was a one-man band initially and had hardly any staff.  And because of the increase in demand, suddenly he had staff and all kinds of governance problems and legal things he had to handle.  And his focus was finding the properties for people.  So he didn't have any experience, legal experience. 

So one of our volunteers, who was a very successful corporate lawyer, has come in and he has had three major meetings with this fellow and has said, I am on call for you any time you need it.

So now this small organisation is feeling much happier.  They haven't got to worry about all that admin stuff, they can focus on what they really need to do.

Another one was Kids Under Cover, which provides shelter for young people in crisis, and they had a new CEO who is quite young, and she was very skilled in the social work background but she didn't understand budgeting.

So one of - another one of our volunteers who is director of a very large accounting company in Melbourne who's since retired, he went out and explained how budgets work and how to financially plan.  And she is thrilled because she suddenly has all this confidence she didn't have before.

And the last story is really a perfect match story where we had a woman volunteer who was an event coordinator.  She had years of marketing and event coordinating experience.

JON FAINE:                
Very handy.

LYNNE LANDY:        
Very handy.  And on her CV, on her little list of what - her interests, she put golf.  And the day she registered with us we had an organisation for disability services.  They had listed they wanted someone to organise a golf day.  We thought, how perfect.  So we put them together and everybody was happy.

JON FAINE:                
A win-win-win.

LYNNE LANDY:        
Win-win.  They raised a lot of money, and the volunteer was doing something she could do easily.  So everyone was happy.

JON FAINE:                
Which someone else may never have known how to approach.

LYNNE LANDY:        
Well, most of the people who run not-for-profits, most of them have got a social work background and they don't understand marketing.  And sometimes somebody can come in and quickly give them a few ideas, and it's really working very well, so...

JON FAINE:                
So what effectively you're doing though is you're using people's desire to help and channelling it before it dissipates.

LYNNE LANDY:        
Exactly.

JON FAINE:                
Because I think a lot of people would like to do something to help, they just don't know how, on the other side of the ledger.

LYNNE LANDY:        
Don't know where to start.

JON FAINE:                
And likewise, you say people, you know, social workers who run disability organisations don't know how to contact anyone in marketing or business, but likewise, people with a business background really have never had that much to do with someone working on the charity or welfare or philanthropic side.

LYNNE LANDY:        
And what it also means is it opens new doors to them.  I think one of the things about as you get older is you've got to keep that brain working.  And doing crosswords is one thing, but it's even more rewarding to go and give your expertise to a group that really need it.  And the satisfaction on both sides is really fantastic.

JON FAINE:                
I know a stockbroker who was involved for a long time in a community organisation and always said that it was the best thing he did.  I mean, you know, compared to what he was doing at work, the whatever percentage of the week was spent working in a community group, provided more satisfaction than the rest of the week put together.

And then there's all sorts of examples of people, and maybe even I'm one of them, people who are working in a commercial environment who found that they were more switched on when they were volunteering than when they were at work.  And that happened to me as a lawyer. 

I was working in a commercial law firm doing, you know, pretty heavy duty stuff and working a hundred hours a week for clients doing huge commercial litigation, massive court cases.  But when I was volunteering at night at the legal service, I was much more switched on and energised.  And after seven or eight years of it, I thought, well, aren't I - isn't there a message in this, aren't I kind of beginning to have to face up to the fact that I have more fun when I'm volunteering than I do when I'm at work.

LYNNE LANDY:        
Well, many big corporations now, corporate philanthropy is growing at last.  It's been very strong in America, but it's just really starting in Australia now, and many big businesses give their staff a day off a year to go and do some specific task and then they get more involved in the organisations and want to do more.

And what we find with some of our volunteers, they'll go and do the one-off project and then they might end up as a board member contributing all the time.

So it's been very interesting to see how this works, and two weeks ago...

JON FAINE:                
I also found, and I think business can be a bit stuffy and very hierarchical, and I found that I was much more at home in - when I was volunteering, I was much more at home in the less formal, less structured environment.  I just enjoyed it more where it was what you did was less judged...

LYNNE LANDY:        
Indeed.

JON FAINE:                
...and less measured and less - there were fewer labels attached, people were more interested in what you did rather than what school you'd been to.

LYNNE LANDY:        
Absolutely.

JON FAINE:                
To put it to its absolutely rawest common denominator, if I can say that, Lynne.

LYNNE LANDY:        
Well, one of the statistics that I found this week, the Australian Bureau of Statistics survey in 2006, have found that they are trying to capture, increase the contribution of people 55-plus because that's where there is a bit of a gap for people who, especially those with professional experience.  So we are tapping into that market just at the right time.

A lot of people are retiring earlier, and much as they want to have their boat and they want to do the various things, there is still a great sense of satisfaction when you feel that your skills are being specifically used.

JON FAINE:                
Given the skills shortage as well.

LYNNE LANDY:        
Indeed.

JON FAINE:                
We can't afford for those people to just stop making some contribution even in kind or as volunteers.

LYNNE LANDY:        
Well, we had a little summit of our own a couple of weeks ago when we invited the not-for-profit organisations who are involved with us to an afternoon session, and one of our board members is very experienced in organising this type of conference.  We asked them all, you know, what keeps you awake at night, what are the things you really need, so we could make sure that we were giving them the service they need and that we aren't just going down the wrong path.

And it was very interesting.  They came up with a lot of the same answers, like most of them need marketing, PR and media coverage, they need governance advice, constitution, training and development of board members, strategic business planning, staff management and development, and related HR services, legal and fundraising.  There were a lot of other things, but they were the main objects of their need.

And it was obvious to us that these small, very deserving not-for-profit groups, they're so short of time and staff, they're often one-man bands, some of them are really small, the phone never stops ringing.  And to come together with other CEOs, they just loved it.  And they really - we felt we were doing the right thing. 

So I think it was quite pleasing, really.

JON FAINE:                
I think what you're doing is you're tapping into an area of substantial unmet need in the community, there's little doubt about that.

So if people are inspired, Lynne, having heard you explain what it is that Greatconnections is doing, how do they in fact get in touch?

LYNNE LANDY:        
Well, our website is www.greatconnections.com.au.

JON FAINE:                
So that's just one word, greatconnections.com.au.

LYNNE LANDY:        
Yes.  You must put the au on the end.  And the telephone number...

JON FAINE:                
Oh dear.  What happens if you don't?

LYNNE LANDY:        
And you get some...

JON FAINE:                
Do you go off to some Russian porn site?

LYNNE LANDY:        
[Laughs]  No, you go onto an American labelling company.

JON FAINE:                
Oh, Greatconnections could have all sorts of...

LYNNE LANDY:        
Somebody thought it was a dating service.  [Laughter]  I had to show him it's not.
The phone number is 03 8682 6750.

JON FAINE:                
So there's a website and a phone number.  The phone number once more, 8682 6750. So that's 8682 6750, or go to the website greatconnections - all one word - greatconnections.com.au.

And founding patron, Lynne Landy, who together with her husband, John, lived in Government House for, oh, how many years?

LYNNE LANDY:        
Five - three-and-a-quarter.

JON FAINE:                
Three-and-a-quarter years until a couple of years ago - is my co-host on the Conversation Hour today as we talk about the contribution that volunteers do make and continue to make in our community.