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Sample Position Description
From the Idea File
The Lutheran Resource Center, Clear Lake, Iowa
The Director of
Volunteer Services
Characteristics
The personality
characteristics are as important if not more so than the paper
credentials. It is not fair, nor is it relevant, to demand that the DVS
have academic degrees as the only index of her/his ability, particularly
since there are at present very few academic opportunities to prepare for
this relatively new profession.
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The following personality
characteristics are very important for this work:
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Positive people, not
skeptics
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Compassionate objectivity
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Fair and honest in
relationships
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Take responsibility for
her/his own feelings, so s/he can allow for her/his own loyalties and
prejudices, and compensate for them by giving other people the benefit
of the doubt
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Basic commitment to the
preservation of the integrity and dignity of all people, and respect
for their rights to develop to the fullest extent of their capacities
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Open to new ideas and
seeks new insights and learnings
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Eager to learn
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Empathy – accurate
empathy is essential; the DVS should be a good listener, who really
tries to understand how other people feel; should be able to accept
the fact that people are pretty irrational and often behave according
to what they believe instead of the facts.
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Good communicator –
articulate in written as well as spoken word
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Teacher and motivator –
able to clarify goals and nurture teamwork. Autocrats do not survive
for long. Must be perceptive and sensitive to the feelings of all and
able to draw out their strengths and abilities, their life-learned
experiences so they can be applied productively
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Takes initiative and has
courage to take risks and be able to learn from failures as well as
successes
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Sense of humor
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