Volunteering

Volunteering Australia has recently updated its national standards documents.http://www.volunteeringaustralia.org/policy-and-best-practise/national-standards-and-supporting-material/

Prompted by our need, Flinders Human Resources have agreed to a minor project on Volunteering at Flinders.

Our documentation is on the new Oasis website.

I will be meeting with Volunteering SA in a couple of weeks to begin a process of ensuring our documentation complies, the recruitment of 3 new volunteers, their orientation and skills development.

Shiela has recruited 2 new volunteers to assist her at Sturt.

Oasis hosted a volunteers expo organized by Careers on Tuesday afternoon, 4 to 6pm. I made good contact with ‘Volunteering in the South’, a branch of Volunteering SA/NT. I think we may make a good connection with them rather than the city office.

Curriculum

Following a discussion at a recent team meeting, Shaowen has had discussions with the first year Engineering coordinator about Oasis providing moral/ethical input to students in the classroom.

I will have a discussion with the coordinator about ways Oasis might facilitate this.

My initial thought is that rather than act directly to run such a program, we innovate along similar lines as MoTiv’s ‘Night of Philosophy’ that allows the students themselves to engage with their engineering mentors on moral and ethical issues. That would protect our integrity as catalyst rather than provider.

Well Being

SWAPv, a research and teaching unit in Education, is planning a three day conference on the theme of well being in July 2016.

The way is beginning to open for Oasis to host an inter-disciplinary get-to-gether of academics who are working directly on this theme in support of the conference and into the future.

Social Entrepreneurship

Social Entrepreneurship was a major theme at the Conference of European University Chaplains Dave and I attended in Holland. It links to wellbeing; well being is the object toward which social entrepreneurship is directed.

The University has picked up on technological entrepreneurship with the New Venture Insistute (NVI) at the new high-tech facility at Tonsley. I have asked the VC why Flinders is not taking up social entrepreneurship. So I have been directed to have a meeting with the Director of NVI and Exec Dean of Social and Behavioural Sciences. It will be an opportunity to explain how Oasis is an example of social entrepreneurship, advance the idea of an interdisciplinary well being network at Flinders and support for ‘agile’ management systems that have evolved out of the ‘start-up’ scene that empower volunteers and activists. I think it also links with how we develop the placement of Social Work students in Oasis.