Appreciation wanted for volunteers

Fri, 2008-03-28 08:27

jrose

And the latest ...

[url=http://www.rabble.ca/now_what.shtml?sh_itm=606fabfab076ef246ebd55505baeb... wanted for volunteers[/url]

quote:

I've been working in a committee that organizes "grassroots" community events. The committee involves both volunteers and full time staff from a university.
The expectations of the committee seem to be that everyone should pull "equal weight," but the expectations don't seem to ever take into account that about half of the organizers are being paid full-time to organize these events, while the rest of us are donating our time.
How do I raise this with the paid folks without making them defensive? I'm not looking to be paid – I'm happy to volunteer my time, but I'd like to have the power difference acknowledged.
Old-Fashioned Volunteer Labour

Fri, 2008-03-28 10:38

#3

Michelle

Ooooh, this is a good one and hits close to home! Except that I'm the paid person, not the volunteer.

My own experience is that, as someone who is paid to organize events as a huge part of my day job, the onus generally falls on me and other paid people to do a lot of the "drudge work" and to be the central point person who makes sure everything is getting done (and doing it if there isn't time). The assumption is that if I'm getting paid work time to do something and other people are volunteering their time, that there has to be the utmost respect for people's volunteer time (since they generally have work or school as their work and they're doing this on the side) and that no one is burdened with more than they can deal with. And that respect is paid to the fact that they're spending their own time on a project that I'm spending work time on.

So I completely agree with Ms Communicate's advice. I would definitely want to know if anyone I was organizing an event with was feeling unappreciated or overwhelmed or unhappy.

Fri, 2008-03-28 10:43

#4

jrose

Michelle, I feel underappreciated and unhappy as a volunteer. [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img] (Joking, of course!)

Fri, 2008-03-28 10:47

#5

Michelle

[img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]

oldgoat, look! Are those pitchforks and torches I see on TAT??

Fri, 2008-03-28 10:57

#6

Wilf Day

quote:

Originally posted by Michelle:
[b]Except that I'm the paid person, not the volunteer.[/b]

Really? You're paid for all the hours you're on babble? Not just for the notional cumulation of minutes here and there that you spend actually moderating, as opposed to monitoring?

Lucky you. If true.

Fri, 2008-03-28 12:27

#7

Michelle

No no, silly. My DAY job, not my moonlighting gig. [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]

Fri, 2008-03-28 12:34

#8

The Wizard of S...

Moonlighting, now that was a good show. Right up until Dave and Maddie finally did it. Then it jumped the shark. Interesting side note. The tune they finally did it to was "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes. As a younger man, I tried to find that tune on 45. No dice. But it was on a soundtrack from a flopped movie in the discount bin at A&A Records. And that movie was Dirty Dancing. I bought the soundtrack on cassette for next to nothing. Two weeks later, the soundtrack hit the charts, the movie spiked in popularity, and went it went back up to full price.

[ 28 March 2008: Message edited by: The Wizard of Socialism ]