The nature of volunteering is a freely and willingly given gift of time. This selfless solidarity is on the verge of shattering. It is useless to bury our heads in the sand; the volunteering crisis is not an empty term.
Associations are struggling to recruit new volunteers and especially to retain those who until now have given time and energy for others. When a volunteer leaves, it’s also the memory and knowledge of the association that goes…
Moreover, a glaring injustice must be recognized in the compensation of those who support associations. Indeed, every taxpayer who donates to an association benefits from a significant tax advantage. In contrast, volunteers who invest daily in general interest associations and who often assume heavy responsibilities, do not derive any benefit other than their own satisfaction of serving a just cause…
For several years, the idea of granting a reward to volunteers has been raised. However, it always encounters the sacred principle of the freely and willingly given gift of time.
- Let us then welcome this new bill.
A bill (registered at the Presidency of the National Assembly on June 22, 2011) aims to validate a quarter in the calculation of their retirement for members of a general interest association for five years of responsibility within the office.
It is not much, certainly, but it is a start… It finally allows us to touch the dogma of the completely selfless volunteer, sometimes a cumbersome legacy of our Judeo-Christian culture…
In any case, the crisis of vocations is such that without the rapid implementation of new volunteering practices, an unprecedented associative tsunami in history is to be expected…
This bill is supported by at least 80 deputies, which gives it a strong chance of being passed. !
