Subject:
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the joys of volunteering
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Mon, 11 Mar 2002 03:42:48 GMT
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Sadly, rule 1 about volunteering is "you can't please all of the people all of
the time".
"You should have done it like <this>!" As a volunteer, you do your best with
the people, time, money, etc available. You often know you could have done
better if you had had more people, time, money etc, but that wasn't the way it
was. Then, having given your all, you get back a tidal wave of "you could have
done it better", "you could have done it bigger", "you should have done it
differently", "that wasn't the highest priority", etc etc. Yes, you probably
get the odd "thank you" but mostly you get a barrage of criticism, and even if
it is meant "constructively", it pretty soon feels like one slap in the face
after another. It's easy for a volunteer to get fed up and give it away. Or to
just feel that it's time to step down and take a break and get some time back
into other parts of their life.
"But I have offered to help!" It is a major logistical task in itself to
organise a large group of volunteers. There are always so many people who will
happily help, but only on the weekends, but only if you give them a couple of
days notice to organise a babysitter, but only if you can get someone to give
them a lift home, but not in a way that conflicts with their
religious/dietary/whatever principles etc. Frankly it is often simpler to do a
job yourself than try to coordinate a large group of other people, each with
their own "special conditions", yet you can so easily offend people if you
refuse their offer to help.
LUGnet was founded by volunteers and is still run by volunteers. Just because
some of us have sent in some membership money, it doesn't fundamentally change
this. From time to time, some of those volunteers are going to burn out. We can
reduce this burnout if we all do more to say "thank you, I appreciate it" and
go easy on the criticism (even if it seems like Good Advice or Constructive
Criticism). It's easy to say "change this", "do that" without appreciating how
much effort goes into just keeping things ticking over, let alone making new
things. Automating things may make life easier, but it takes time and effort to
set up the automation and a lot of automation needs to keep a human in the loop
(e.g. prevent porn sites being proposed as Cool Site Of The Week).
Finally, if you want to step up to the plate as a volunteer, understand that
unless you have a lot of spare time, the right expertise, and so on, then you
may actually be making the job harder not easier. So, don't be offended if your
help isn't wanted in that way at that time. Being offended just makes someone's
life harder too.
LUGnet *is* a wonderful thing. The volunteers who run it are doing wonderful
things. And the rest of us need to appreciate it a bit more often and say so a
lot more often!
Kerry
--
============
Kerry Raymond
kerry@dstc.edu.au
Proud to be LUGNET Member 599
www.lugnet.com/people/members/?m=599
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Message has 5 Replies:
 | | Re: the joys of volunteering
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| I try not to be much of a "me too" kind of guy around here. Mostly post like that just waste space. But this case is differant. I really think that Lugnet in general is a great place to get more from what you could possibly get from any other place, (...) (23 years ago, 11-Mar-02, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: the joys of volunteering
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| Hi Kerry, I must admit the world does need more volunteers. I have been a volunteer Fire Fighter for many years and fought the fires over Christmas and with a lot of my fellow fire fighters we are always there when the time comes. But it is very (...) (23 years ago, 12-Mar-02, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: the joys of volunteering
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| (...) I am a new lego fan that hasnt sent in my $10.00 yet, but i will be. I have had some much enjoyment from this site i couldnt begin to tell you. Not to mention the information and help that I have received. Users of this site seem to go out of (...) (23 years ago, 13-Mar-02, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: the joys of volunteering
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| In lugnet.general, Kerry Raymond writes: [snipped a lot of good stuff, go read the original post!] (...) I agree. I only wish I could find the time to contribute more to this wonderful place on the 'Net. I realy do. But at this moment I can hardly (...) (23 years ago, 14-Mar-02, to lugnet.general)
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