Typically, when I think of volunteering, I imagine an organization with a mission and work to do, recruiting free labor and supporting individual recruits to accomplish both their own purpose and the purpose of the organization. I’m beginning to see things a bit differently. For example, when I help my mother around the house or [...]
Archive for the ‘Observations’ Category
Getting clearer all the time
Fortunately, I’m increasingly able to draw some distinctions regarding our work. It always keeps coming back to the same thing, so I’m going to say it once again. Hopefully, I’ll get it! BizWorks Studio is about The Volunteer Experience. That means it’s not primarily about the organization, the cause, the project, or the program. These [...]
Why volunteering is so important
Volunteering can remove money from the social contract. Let’s put that in very simple terms: if volunteers and organizations trade an experience in which the volunteer receives an opportunity to make a difference, the opportunity to make a friend, and the opportunity to have fun, then the organization can ask the volunteer to contribute work. [...]
Model for civic coordination
Today it seems there are many resources and many answers available to address issues and opportunities in our cities and towns. Somehow though, they don’t seem to come together in powerful ways that move action forward. Instead, the landscape is littered with new initiatives, new organizations, new committees and task forces, and meetings, meetings, meetings. [...]
Get me otta here!
I live on the edge of an organization whose success I would love to see. Not too long ago, it came apart. Staff, key volunteers, and even board members left. What remains is a severe lack of capacity. Most of what was known about the operation of the organization had not been transferred either to [...]
Mission, vision, bla, bla, bla
What is the crucial ingredient that makes business run successfully? I love reading all the answers provided by business writers and consultants. Each one sounds a little different from the rest. I suppose that’s just good marketing. Some experts like to start at the beginning. Where is the beginning anyway? Have you ever met someone [...]
Volunteering does lead to paid work
As a stepping stone to paid work, volunteering is terrific. Here’s why: You get to show who you are. And because you’re volunteering, who you are is probably already willing and able, generous and passionate about the work. As a volunteer, you receive formal and informal training that leaves you more qualified to do the [...]
Covering that shift
I’m volunteering with a program that facilitates meaningful conversations in jails. Our fearless leader is off on vacation, having worked out a schedule for us volunteers based on our input. Trouble is, things change. For the last session, and the next one, someone on the schedule has not been able to make it. Each time, [...]
Stretching
Maybe you haven’t landed your dream job yet – have you tried landing that dream job as a volunteer? Seriously. Maybe you can’t figure out how to get paid for the work you most love doing – how about volunteering to do exactly that work? Forget for a moment all twenty thousand reasons you cannot, [...]
Volunteering in small communities
Living in a small town makes volunteering a different adventure than when I lived in the big city. There, you can find meta-systems that facilitate volunteering and support volunteer-based organizations. Here, these systems are entirely informal or don’t exist at all. Here there’s no volunteer center – no clearinghouse or referral function. That happens mostly [...]
