30 C O N T E X T 1 3 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 3 S C Annual School nual School 2012 chool 2013 IHBC An 011 IHBC Annual IHBC Annual School School 2013 IHBC IHBC Annual Scho tend to apply in our professional engagement. This voluntary set includes the following hands-on skills: •• Enthusiastic and inspirational encouragement •• Optimistic but still realistic outlook •• Dedicated listening – as a user of silences •• Personal-capacity- and resource-building skills •• Working with and not for people (you are not a consultant) •• Sensitivity to the dynamics of groups, with all their complex strengths and weaknesses •• Activity and resource programming skills – ‘getting the ducks in a row’ •• Knowledge and experience of political structures •• Technical skills in fund-raising and place-making. This is, of course, an aspirational list. Not every voluntary situation will call for the use of all of them. One soon learns to pick and mix, and to refine and time the skills as situations require. For me, working in this voluntary area has offered some inspiring and weirdly unexpected personal experiences. First under the ‘inspiring’ heading is the early realisation that some – even many – ordinary folk are achieving extraordinary things out there. Some who are only casually involved at the start may suddenly discover that they have eminently applicable talents, skills and attitudes. This realisation has been variously described as coming out of the blue or as a sudden joining up of the dots. Either way, the community benefits and the volunteer enjoys a sense of fulfilment in becoming the right person at the right time in the right place. Realism in this area involves an early audit of the human resource available, and thus recognising limitations in capacity and achievable aspirations which need additional resource and inspiration to raise the game. Recognising what harmful professional baggage you or other fellow professionals involved still carry can also bring on a rush of realism, leading to a helpful adjustment of behaviour. For ingrained negative attitudes such as ‘we tried this in 1973 and it didn’t work then’, and ‘we must uphold the established pecking order’ in our discussions, you need to develop effective coping strategies to reduce blockages and maximise successful outcomes. My most startling experience was the firm reluctance of a fellow professional to contribute time and skills in a particular community situation. I assumed that this was because of the expected family and other commitments. When I gently probed the cause, I was taken aback to learn that they had recently lost their post in public service and it now hurt to be asked to give freely what they had previously been gainfully employed to do. This was nothing to do with selfishness, but more to do with the wastefulness and pain of redundancy and consequent severe blow to their professional pride. Happily, we were able to work through this one, but in the present times I can imagine that this situation could be repeated elsewhere. So far, I have been careful to separate professional and voluntary situations and skills. However, ‘localism’ continues to change our working landscape. The line between professional and voluntary is becoming blurred. We may as conservation professionals be increasingly called on to deliver results through new localism structures such as town teams or neighbourhood plans.These require a new balancing of authority and may offer fresh challenges to our established patterns of working and skills which we need to anticipate and embrace.Yet again for us worthy and hard-pressed conservation professionals, the one constant is change. This article is based on the talk that David Lovie gave at the annual school. David Lovie, a past president of the IHBC, runs his own business as a heritage writer and consultant. The success of a community town-square project depends on a great deal of voluntary effort.
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