There is a whole culture about Volunteerism that I've found myself indoctrinated into since becoming an adult. It started out innocently enough with volunteering for groups like my Homeowners Association and for extra projects at my first job. Then after kids came along it was the Early Childhood PTA, followed by the church. When one child was diagnosed with special needs, it became the Special Ed PTSA. When my kids joined Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts, those groups also required volunteers. This is not to mention the preschools, schools, and the various sporting activities over the years that run on volunteer power. The list goes on and on. Some involve leadership positions and large commitments of time and energy; many were just simple near-effortless tasks with a beginning and an end. My Mother can't figure out why I volunteer for stuff. She did do some volunteering when my brother and I were in elementary school, but never a lead role. While I appreciate in hindsight that she was involved in our childhood, I can't seem to understand her attitude that volunteer leadership roles are for "other people" and I should "focus on my own family." If we all took that approach and shunned the leadership positions, there would be nothing there to volunteer for or to participate with in the first place. Who are the "other people" who should be taking the lead roles? Someone has to be that "other person." And why should the mysterious "other people" help me and my family if I am not willing to do so?
What I'd like to know is, how can we NOT volunteer for stuff? Many of these organizations benefit ourselves, our children, and our communities, and are fueled entirely or primarily by volunteers. How can we expect for there to be a team to put our kids on if nobody volunteers to coach? Or for there to be a scout troop if nobody volunteers to lead it? If we don't step up to volunteer, how can we expect others to give of themselves on behalf of our children if we ourselves aren't willing to do so? Better yet, how can we teach our kids about values like giving and service if we aren't willing to model those values? The measure of our lives is, in the end, what difference we can make while we're here. And you get out what you put in. If I'm not willing to put honest-to-goodness effort into creating the kind of world I want for my children, then I forfeit my say in our future.
That said, there's a lot about Volunteerism that people seem to have misconceptions about. "I am not getting paid to do this, so you should just be thankful for anything I do." And a variant of this, "I may not be doing my job completely, but I'm doing a little bit when I can, and that's better than nothing." Of course when it comes to volunteering, it's important to give of yourself whatever you can even if your time commitment may be small - but that should be taken into consideration when opting what to volunteer for, not after taking on too much. Something is better than nothing. But at the same time, some volunteers that I have encountered over the years have treated volunteer jobs as unimportant and easily ignored when one becomes ill or life otherwise becomes busy. While it's true that volunteer jobs are the first to go when a spouse is out of work or a family member is ill, and rightfully so, that should not mean that the volunteer job should be ignored. It still needs to be addressed. Volunteer jobs are often similar to paying jobs in that people are depending on you, and others can't do their job (of their efforts will have been for naught) if anyone's part goes undone. If the group is depending on a volunteer to do a certain task by a certain time, then the volunteer has the same responsibility to let others know if they are in need of help. With a paying job, you'd call in sick or ask a coworker to cover if you were going to be absent. Volunteer jobs should be treated the same way.
Something I have lamented on several occasions over the years is that well-intentioned volunteers, often the ones with the biggest hearts, don't know when it's time to ask for help or resign. They don't want to be seen as quitters so even though they aren't able to get their tasks done, they don't ask for help and they don't give up their position. This makes for a very difficult decision on the part of the group's leader. If a volunteer knows that they are going to be unable to fulfill their obligations for a period of time and they let the leader know, arrangements can be made to cover for those tasks, and everyone is happy. If a volunteer resigns, the group can advertise their position as open and recruit another volunteer. Or the leader can do that task themselves, or delegate to another volunteer. But when a volunteer simply fails to perform a task (or fails to perform the task within the necessary time frame) without notifying anyone, it leaves the leader to guess what has been done and what still needs to be done. It also leaves the leader with the choices of doing that person's task for them behind the scenes, nagging them to do it, or as a last resort, removing a volunteer from their position (never pleasant for the leader or the volunteer). None of those options are very good.
Add to that, it's often difficult to know which path to choose because volunteers all have different styles. Some will always get their tasks done even if it sometimes involves asking for help or delegating. Some will do fabulous work, but only some of the time, depending on their personal schedule or other factors. Some read email, some don't. Some take ownership of their task; others prefer to wait for instructions. (Which is OK!) Some can receive instructions one time and run with it. Others need reminders every time something is to be done. So when you lead a group of volunteers, you have to relate to each volunteer not only based on what their position is within the organization, but also based on what their talent and "ownership style" is. Leaders need to keep mental tabs of what everyone needs to be doing and when, who needs email reminders and how far ahead, who needs phone reminders, and who will be insulted if reminded. Leaders also need to read minds to know who might be ill or just getting behind even when people don't tell you, or who has gotten busy at their job or with their child and has put their volunteer role on backburner. Leaders need to anticipate when they need to step in even if nobody tells them, and Leaders need to apologize for the mistakes of others without mentioning that it was someone else's mistake. Leaders need to be able to withstand criticizm and complaints from not only other volunteers, but at times, from the very people that the group is attempting to serve. Leaders also need to do all of this without the benefit of being able to talk things over with a friend, because since the volunteers often know each other socially, this would constitute gossip. Leaders also need to sometimes do double-work just in case. For example, what do you do when you are depending on a person to (okay some of you might recognize this) to bring the snacks to a certain event, but that person only does so about half the time and rarely lets you know when that half will be? The leader winds up having to always take the snack themselves or ask someone else to do so, but keep it in the car trunk as backup in case the first volunteer doesn't come through. This kind of double-work is exhausting. But the alternative is confronting the volunteer, which often leads to hurt feelings - and since we all know that volunteers are fueled by the warm fuzzy feeling that you get from volunteering, confrontation is rarely the way to recruit or maintain volunteers.
It is easy to judge the leader of any organization (or the boss at work) for their decisions. What I wish others realized is that it's just as hard to pick up the phone and tell someone "I appreciate your work but....(insert constructive criticism)" as it is to hear that criticism. What I wish would be for each person who feels like they could have done a better job to try being the leader or boss of something. See if you can make everyone happy all of the time. See if you can get things done on time when the pieces of the whole are not done on time. Go for it! But I can guarantee you that there will be times you get backed into a corner because as the leader, there are times you get put in a position where no matter what you do, someone will find fault with it. You're the top of the command so anything that goes wrong is your fault. Everyone else can be sick/busy/uninterested in doing a certain task, but the leader has to see to it that everything gets done anyways. The leader can't get sick or have a family emergency without finding coverage (like the time my daugher was bitten by a dog right before our PTA meeting with officer elections - I called the 1st VP from the ER with instructions on how to run the meeting.) Imagine how smoothly things would function if everyone replaced themselves instead of putting things off on the leader! Perhaps more people would be willing to volunteer to lead? It's no wonder that year after year with any organization I've ever been a part of, the hardest role to fill is that of the leader.
The other thing I wish volunteers would realize about the decisions that leaders must make is that oftentimes is boils down to procedure. It's not personal and has nothing to do with friendship or personal relationships. If a certain task needs to be done by a certain time, and a person fails to come through once, often this can be brushed off, especially if there is an extenuating circumstance. But if it happens repeatedly, the leader must counsel the person and perhaps review the agreed-upon tasks and timeframe. This, unfortunately, involves documenting occurences. If problems persist, the leader is left with really three (or four, if you consider the drastic) options.
(1) The leader does the task behind the scenes and lets the volunteer take credit for it.
(2) The leader can delegate the task to another volunteer (not as pleasant, because it involves talking with the other volunteer about the fact that the first volunteer has not come through - can be seen as gossiping)
(3) Depending on how crucial the task is, the leader can consult with the other leaders/board members as to whether the task can simply be left undone. (Not always an option, and can also turn into gossip.)
(4) Go through formal procedures to remove the volunteer from their position (awful for everyone involved)
So as a leader, I've been put in the position of having to choose one of these options more times than I can count. I tend to go with #1. I had to do #4 on one occasion and believe me, there is no way to do it without hurt feelings and worse yet, without notifying other people and thus the "gossip" factor. So #1 is the most unobtrusive, nicest way to handle this predicament.
Hmmm. Now that I'm re-reading my post here, I have to wonder if perhaps my Mother was right...
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