Next session
Date: Wednesday 8 October 2025
Time: 9:30am – 12:30pm (AEST)
Location: Online, via Zoom
Cost: FREE (supported by VMA funding)
Volunteer managers often walk a fine line when it comes to relationships with their team. Is it OK to accept a volunteer’s Facebook friend request? Should you attend milestone birthday celebrations? And what happens if a volunteer crosses a boundary with another staff member?
This workshop is a practical, interactive session designed to explore the real-world challenges of managing professional relationships in the modern volunteering environment.
Through discussion and scenario-based learning, we’ll unpack what healthy boundaries look like, how to build trust while maintaining professionalism, and the kinds of systems and support structures that can help.
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of the workshop, participants will be able to:
- Recognise the importance of setting and maintaining professional boundaries as a volunteer manager
- Apply strategies to develop strong, respectful relationships with volunteers
- Identify organisational infrastructure and processes that support healthy boundaries in practice
Meet the trainer
HAZEL MAYNARD
Hazel Maynard
Sector Development Trainer
Following an early-life career change (from patents translator to not-for profit), Hazel has worked for a number of Not for Profit organisations in the past three decades, including the Australian Red Cross, Amnesty International and The Cancer Council Victoria. She has managed large and small volunteer programs.
Hazel is a trainer for Volunteering Victoria and runs public and in-house training sessions for the not-for-profit sector. She is passionate about encouraging people who are socially isolated or marginalised to volunteer, and upholding the rights of volunteers. Hazel has volunteered for much of her life, joining St John Ambulance Brigade as a volunteer first-aider when she was eleven because she liked the uniform – this relationship was short-lived as she fainted at the sight of blood on her first assignment.
Hazel became a board member of Volunteering Victoria in 2006 and was the President of the Board of Management from 2008 to 2010. She was awarded honorary life membership of the national peak body, Volunteering Australia, in 2006 and has had a number of articles published in professional journals, mainly on topics relating to volunteer management.
Next session
Registrations full? Contact [email protected] to be added to the waiting list.
