Reply to Did Covid disrupt the parent volunteer pipeline

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Covid exposed even more inequity but also slowed it all down and allowed people to focus inward and not on their community. I see this in the PTA. We have 40-50 parents who volunteer out of a school of 400 families and most of these parents can just put their kid into a paid activity or go to a fun paid festival on weekends instead of setting up for a festival on school grounds. Free to all students and benefitting all the families that cant volunteer or financially contribute due to multiple jobs, many kids etc. We are all burned out now but not many new families are stepping up.[/quote]

Can you really blame those people for not wanting to burn themselves out for others who can’t or won’t pitch but want to enjoy the fruits of someone else’s labor? People felt taken advantage of in these largely thankless roles. [b]There wasn’t much upside for people who would like to enjoy their weekends with their families too.[/b][/quote]

Based on what I've heard/seen in multiple volunteer run organizations, the upside is when your friends volunteer with you. Then you're hanging out with your friends (and your kids are likely in a pack hanging out also with their friends) and it works. But on the flip side, you may be less likely to invite in other volunteers and people accuse your PTA/leadership team of being cliquey and not friendly so you get fewer volunteers. Catch-22.[/quote]

Well, it works but given the choice of doing other things, many people would rather do other things with their free time. It’s not like they can’t gather and hang out outside of school with friends. And this goes back to the job being thankless. People will criticize the job you do. Not inclusive enough, bad decorations, food not up to par (why no vegan, gluten free, dairy free, etc etc choices?!), prizes not good. [b]Have you ever helped run these things? It’s not some amazing time with your friends and kids all running around. It’s a headache and people wonder why they’re banging their heads against the wall bothering at all given the grief you get.[/b] [/quote]

PP here and yes. I've run things for the PTA, been a board member in a rec sports organization, done the training-required volunteer roles for swim team, led things for church, and done a variety of other volunteer roles. Still am. After all, the people who volunteer for one thing usually are the ones who run everything. I know it's thankless. I also know when people have been complaining about it being thankless they've mentioned what could make it better, and it's usually having more fun with other volunteers.[/quote]

If you’re one of the rare groups that has an abundance of volunteers then you’re lucky. But most groups aren’t overflowing people ready to donate lots of time to have fun with other volunteers. The point of this post is “where have all the volunteers gone” not how can I spend more time volunteering and having fun? Usually the complainers are the people driving people away from volunteering at all. They have all the ideas but don’t care to put any of them in action.[/quote]

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