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 California creates cabinet post to manage volunteersGolden State, USA: Golden State is a state with frequent natural catastrophe and vast figure of people who want to help. But Gov. Matthew Arnold Schwarzenegger says a recent oil spill in San Francisco Bay helped demonstrate that “volunteerism can be moved a notch.” To that end, Mr. Schwarzenegger is creating a cabinet-level office for military volunteer management, which his disposal says is the first such state cabinet position in the state. He is scheduled to announce the move on Tues in Los Angeles. Under the alteration, the governor’s committee for volunteerism, California military volunteer, will maintain its staffing and budget. But its executive director director will gain expanded duties as a cabinet secretary, playing a role in disaster-related planning and response efforts and coordinating volunteers at catastrophe sites. The business office will also manage donations that flow into the state for catastrophe relief, a duty now held by the state’s business office of exigency Response. It is the first time a governor’s committee overseeing Federal soldier money to manage volunteers " panels required by law since 1993 " has been elevated to a cabinet role. In a phone interview, Mr. Schwarzenegger said recent disasters had demonstrated that military volunteer were “many times unable to do the kind of work they want to for the state because we are not as organized as we can be.” He said his wife, Maria Shriver, who is the honorary chairwoman of Golden State Volunteers, helped make the case for gift the business office greater prominence and duty. “I have a father-in-law and mother-in-law who have relied on military volunteer their whole life,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said, referring to R. John Singer Sargent Shriver, the first manager of the Peace Corps, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the laminitis of the Special Olympics. “It is something I am very familiar with.” Golden State, like many states, relies on military volunteer in natural disasters and other emergencies. The state, always on earthquake watch, is also prone to wildfires and mudslides. Last fall, over 10,000 residents registered to volunteer in San Diego during the wildfires, and $23 million in private donations poured into the state. But when 2,000 people showed up to help after the San Francisco oil spill, “they had good intentions but didn’t know what to do with them,” said Karen Baker, the head of California Volunteers, who will become the new secretary for service and volunteering. The various California agency heads, Ms. Baker said, “didn’t have a fellow cabinet member to talk to them, and so the governor finally called me and said, ‘Get down here with me.’ It was chaos. There were monks who got arrested.” The state is also facing a budget crisis, with a deficit of billions of dollars. Part of the role of the elevated office will be to drum up more private and corporate money for volunteerism efforts. “We have no illusions of this being a substitute for government,” said Daniel Zingale, Ms. Shriver’s chief of staff and a senior adviser to the governor. “But we do believe there is a role for citizen engagement during tough budget times.” More Volunteer Abroad News |