Reply to Volunteering ain't all it's cut out to be.

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Reply to "Volunteering ain't all it's cut out to be."

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You may need to put in time to earn the org's trust.  When they know you are reliable and do a good job, then they can start to have expectations of you. Before that, they're just hoping you show up.  [/quote]

This is a Catch 22 situation. You can't tell people you need their specific skills to help the organization, and then when they show up have them sit in a corner twiddling their thumbs on something useless.

As a fabricated example, imagine Habitat for Humanity had a skilled and licensed master electrician who signed up to volunteer. They show up and instead of having them do electrical work, Habitat has the electrician spend the day sitting on a bucket separating mixed up nails in a box.  Do you think that electrician will ever come back? Trust is a two-way street.

If you need someone to separate nails, then tell them that's what they'll be doing. Don't ask for skills and then waste the time of people who have them. [/quote]

To an extent that's how habitat works. In the group that I volunteer with are two general contractors one of whom is a licensed electrician and a carpenter whose hobby is furniture making. All of us do the same framing work because they have a process that has been refined over the years. It's rewarding work and all of us enjoy it.  I think a lot of people who think that have certain qualifications that organizations need need to realize when they are actually signing up for grunt work that their expertise is irrelevant [/quote]

I'm the campaigns PP. I was just flabbergasted b/c this HS friend segued from complaining about bad policies to venting about how such and such campaign didn't use her skills - "It was just a waste of my time and skills." In my thought cloud, "So you hate the policies, but don't want to do the work to elect someone who will fight for better ones? Got it."

Maybe for folks who are hell bent on not wasting their time and talent, they should plunk down the $100. Might be worth it in the long run.

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