Financial compensation for advisors - an alternative

[Kerry Stewart]

this topic has likely already been introduced but I'm not yet really conversant with this site and want to post an idea before I forget it totally!

Many health care organizations track and report on the number of volunteer hours their advisors donate to them. An annual goal is included in many reports. But nobody except the volunteers really understand what this represents. Instead, I would like to see all organizations translate hours to dollars. Then I could for example, happily say I have contributed $100 in equivalent value as a result of my advisory volunteer time this month.

How owe to arrive at a dollar amount? Many options are open to us as a national organization. Use the lowest provincial hourly wage and we will be impressed by the total equivalent value contributed annually. Or, use the "average" health care salary in Canada. More realistic I think would be to use the average healthcare management salary translated to an hourly wage. This makes a lot of sense to me because so many of us dedicate hours of time to executive leadership meetings and projects. Recently I joined a 2 hour meeting with 1 hospital executive Vice President, 1 oncologist, 1 clinical department head and 1 human resources manager. I was there "for free" or at no cost. But no matter how you cut it, my contributions must have had equivalent value or I would not have been invited to participate. so what dollar amount could I say was donated to the organization in lieu of actual compensation?

i think PAN Community should take this on. At least, let's have a lively discussion!

Respectfully,

Kerry Stewart