Asociación Scouts de Colombia, International Volunteering Forum, 20th IAVE World Volunteer Conf 2008

Asociación Internacional de Esfuerzos Voluntarios

IAVE  COLOMBIA Asociación Scouts de Colombia
Forum Proposal:    Internacional Volunteering:
“Volunteers in Scouting and Olympism”

• Name: Carlos E Villegas
• Position and Title: President of the National Council
• Organization: Colombian Scout Association
• Address: Calle 34 # 28-33, Bogotá, COLOMBIA
• E-mail:   carlosevillegas@hotmail.com
• Phone: +57 1 287 2335
• Fax: +57 1 232 7691
• Current membership status: A member in good standing through October 2009
• Forum topic category: Internacional Volunteering
• Presentation Title: “Volunteers in Scouting and Olympism”

Profile of the person submitting the proposal:
Carlos E Villegas has an Architectural degree, and graduate studies in Administration and Management (Harvard University), Finances and International Businesses and High Studies in Sports. President of the Colombian Scout Association; member of the marketing committee of the Colombian Olympic Committee Volunteer in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, and candidate to work at the 2008 Games in Beijing.

Abstract of the proposal:
The top events of Organizations like the Olympic Movement and the Scout Movement, that is, the Olympic Games and the Word Scout Jamboree, that have been taken place every four year for the past hundred years, could not be possible without the contribution of thousands of volunteers that, in both cases, come from many different countries in what is a truly cultural and social experience. It happens that many of the volunteers that participated on the first editions of the Olympic games of the modern era, celebrated at the beginning of the 1900s were Scouts.

Nowadays it is estimated that adult volunteers donate more than 360.000 (three hundred thousand) hours every year devoted to social projects and the diffusion of the educational project of the Scout Movement among youngsters in almost every country and territory of the word. At the Athens 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games, more than 45.000 (forty-five thousand) volunteers helped athletes, visitor and issues like security, logistics, transport, and so on. All this effort represents an enormous social capital for the world.

The impact of the sports industry and the educational program of these two Organizations are associated to education, health, development and peace causes around the world.

Examples of topics to be addressed on this presentation are the following:

• The concept of volunteering,
• What motivates volunteers,
• Factors affecting the volunteering,
• Selection, recruitment, training, support and retirement of volunteers,
• Civil society organizations workforce as share of economically active population,
• The volunteer Law in Colombia (Ley 720 de de 24 de diciembre de 2001).