Lesson learned re: volunteering

[audreyh1]

Lisa,


I am with you...and the others. Do not put up with it. I switched organizations (hospice) after volunteering for a decade. The volunteer coordinator at the state level was getting on my nerves with her directives.


I heard later, from my volunteer coordinator at the local level that the state person felt, "These volunteers need to treat this as a job."


Uh, N.O. But, that did explain how the state person felt comfortable with the things she had been asking/requiring.


The organization I have been with the last couple years seems to actually value their volunteers. Life comes first, do what you can and we value it so much...over and over and over again they tell us that. Yes, that feels much, much more like volunteering as I expected it to be.

Wow - that just blows my mind that the coordinator doesn't get it that these volunteers are doing stuff for FREE so of course they are not going to think of it as a job. How dense!

 

[rodi]

I volunteer - but only in areas I can control. For example, I coach a US FIRST FLL robotics team. It's incredibly time consuming during the season - but I don't have any bosses and I keep the team small so I can manage it easier. (Fewer parents to deal with). I used to volunteer as team mom for sports teams - but there started to be pressure to spend more, do more, from the volunteer coordinator and leagues - (not from the parents of team members, or coaches)... so I stopped volunteering. Same with scorekeeping... somehow the other team scorekeepers were always MIA. Hard to cheer on your kid if you're always stuck scorekeeping.