Volunteering & Volunteer Students

First, a shout out to Francesco’s, the lovely gelato shop in downtown Corvallis. I’m sitting in a comfy chair by the window, laptop on my lap, composing this post. (I’m not having gelato: I’m helping myself to the free Internet access.)

Today marks the end of our first full fiscal year. We haven’t accomplished all our goals, especially where fundraising is concerned; yet, we’ve made great progress. Our paperwork for 501(c)(3) status is with the IRS. We’re registered with the Oregon Department of Justice. We hosted two fundraising events.

Thanks to Phil McClain, who works at Oregon State University and has volunteered his time and expertise to create a database for us.

Michael Peterman (husband of Melanthia, our secretary) gave us a generous donation to close our books on a high note.

We have much to celebrate this year and much to do in the coming year. Hint: Anyone who’d like to host a fundraiser or has ideas on ways to raise money and/or awareness for our organization, please let us know.  A golf tournament? A dance? A photo exhibit?

I’m heading home now to call Leah. I usually call her at 9 or 10 p.m. and find her 16 hours ahead in the Philippines. We’re working on the selection of the next scholarship candidate. I’ll save the report on the latest hiccups in our process for my next post.

Spreading the Thanksgiving Cheer
 
Thanksgiving! It is a time for families and a time to share with the world just what it is you are thankful for. I love the holidays, and I certainly love sharing time and energy with those I love.
 
An observation I have made is that volunteer opportunities abound during the holidays. Why is that? I know the obvious reason…that people are feeling generous with their time and energy and want to give back. Sure, but why the months of November and December? What about the rest of the year? I am curious…
What compels you to volunteer during the holidays?
And what creative opportunities have you found?
Do you volunteer the rest of the year as well?

Christmas Volunteer Opportunities: http://www.ehow.com/how_2069697_volunteer-during-christmas.html

Why Volunteer During Your Holiday: http://www.articlealley.com/article_546983_29.html
 
Keep in touch!
 
Until next time,
Nicholas Beatty

My wife Sandy and I volunteered at Wheeler Mission in Indianapolis for the first time on Sunday afternoon. We had been wanting to for quite some time but never got around to actually doing it and boy am I upset that we had not till now. We had so much fun interacting with the men of Wheeler that I want to go back every Sunday that we can.

We met several men during the couple of hours of playing games and hopefully opened dialogues that can be taken further. I played domino’s with Leon, George, and Darryl. Although I don’t think Darryl was a homeless man in the Wheeler program. We played for about and hour and a half and enjoyed each others company. I tried to ask questions of the men with the hopes of them opening up. I thought they responded well to me and I hope I displayed a level of respect to them.

My wife and two sons played Yatzee with Kieth. Keith was tauted as the Yatzee king. They played for about two hours and I believe Keith won.

My youngest son actually played a game of Chess with a man named George and beat him pretty good, but at least Julian, being seven, gave it the college try and made Georges day. Julian went on to actually beat a 26 year old in checkers. I forget his name. I did not really get a chance to meet him myself.

All in all, it was a very positive experience and my family and I look forward to going back very soon. We saw the need in the faces of the men their that are going through various problems and addictions and it is our hope that we made the short time we were there memorable.

I pray that all the men of Wheeler have a great week, especially those we interacted with.

Matt

Since the end of June has arrived, I thought I’d share some thoughts about my adventure as the VP of Networking for the Puget Sound (Seattle) chapter of the American Marketing Association (soon-to-be former VP come July 1).

As a longtime AMA member, and big fan of the ‘08-’09 president, Katherine Hall, I was happy to volunteer to help her, as well as this year’s entire board, achieve its goals.  And, in light of the sad economic climate, I think we did pretty well in terms of membership base growth, offering value via timely and relevant programming content, creating a social media strategy, and last, but certainly not least, facilitating some great networking opportunities.  However, as with almost anything I direct my energy towards, I had my own set of goals related to my participation as well.

As I wrote in my “12 Rules of Networking for 2009″ white paper, Rule # 10 Get Involved in Something speaks to the importance of not just showing up, but rolling up your sleeves and really contributing, as I also mentioned in this post from earlier in the year.  I believe that you have to make a conscious effort, and constantly self-monitor, to be sure you’re adding value as a volunteer and occasionally actually doing things if you are in a leadership role.

All too often I’ve seen folks in executive positions adopt a laissez faire atittude towards leadership while in a volunteer role, and as you might expect, in this setting, it does not go over well.  Maybe you can get away with that approach when you’re in a paid position at a for-profit company, but when you are volunteering for a professionally oriented non-profit, and you and all those around you are not paid or seasoned execs, in my experience, you certainly won’t get the outcomes for which you are hoping. Well, unless your desired outcomes were to have walked away from the experience having put forth as little effort as possible, and having made as few decisions as possible, then woo hoo — mission accomplished!

Unfortunately, the reality is though, that you’ll have loads of non-responders (to emails, invites, etc.), people bailing on you or the organization left and right (attendance at meetings, or lack thereof, are sure indicators of this), and at a minimum you definitely won’t retain the majority of your constituents into the next board term.  I’ve seen it over and over again, and since all involved are volunteers, giving freely of their own personal time, you can bet this lack of hands-on leadership will be remembered when the calls are being made for that exec job opening as the VP of Whatever for a new product launch in town. You can guess whose phone won’t likely be ringing.

OK, back to me now….my goal was to elevate the networking efforts, visibility and focus of an organization on which I depend to keep me engaged, as well as visible, in a professional community of marketers. And, so far, based on the direct feedback I’ve received, I’d say “mission accomplished.” With basically no budget, a few non-starter team members (promptly redirected), a social media strategy focused on LinkedIn and Facebook, and 2 rock star Junior Mints, we did what we set out to do.

I leave the board and my team with a sense of accomplishment, a smile on my face, and total confidence that my mentoree and award-winning  team member, Karin Zabel, will carry the torch as the new VP of Networking into the ‘09-’10 year with serious momentum and then some! Go Karin & go PSAMA!

 At the weekend we held a stall at Tesco in Borehamwood to recruit people who will become Heartwood tree guardians. We signed up lots of people and hope to sign up even more to help, not only with tree planting but with all sorts of jobs to help create Heartwood Forest.

So whether you like walking, digging or spotting wildlife there is a huge range of jobs that you can get involved in. Here’s a taste of what you could be doing to help create a fantastic wildlife habitat for future generations:

Planting trees – One of the most fulfilling experiences that everyone should do at least once in their lifetime! Help to plant over 600,000 trees that will make up Heartwood Forest.

Caring for your Community Orchard – Take care of young fruit trees and watch them grow from tiny saplings to fruit bearing trees.

Leading Guided Walks – Share your passion for Heartwood and for woodlands and lead guided walks around the site.

Photography – Take photos of your favourite spots and watch them change over the seasons and the years.

Nature Detective – Record when the bluebells first raise their heads, what kinds of butterflies are making use of the site and how many nesting birds you can spot.

Rabbit Proof Fencing – There will be miles of rabbit proof fencing protecting our young sapling trees. Help us by walking the boundaries and letting us know where it has been breached.

 So come and get involved. Whether you can spare an hour or several days we would love to hear from you.

Heartwood volunteering stall at Tesco in Borehamwood

Today, I’m sharing some observations and insights gained while volunteering to do resume reviews at a local mall for a job fair. To say I’m disgusted by what I saw is an understatement. And I’m not talking about the resumes. I’m used to seeing boring career autobiographies, all out career confessionals and self-centered, “this is what I want” documents. That’s not what bothered me. That can easily be fixed. That’s what I do. What got to me was the sheer laziness of the job seekers I met. I am appalled and want to use them as a good lesson in how NOT to approach a job fair, or a job search for that matter.

I understand, from here on, I am generalizing. I also get there are people who understand a job search requires effort and time and energy and follow-up and more effort and some research and more follow-up and even more effort. I’m not talking to them. Those enlightened, focused searchers can stop reading now or pass the link along to a friend who isn’t quite up to speed on the fact that jobs don’t magically appear and the world doesn’t owe them a living.

Now, on to things I learned at the job fair:

1. Show up when offered an opportunity to network with business owners, employers and career people. In 4 hours, I spoke with only 12 people. (I kept a tally to measure efficacy of the event versus my time to participate.) Every exhibitor there commented on the lack of traffic and the lack of participation by local job seekers. If I were not an eternal optimist, I would have packed up after the first hour. I believed things would pick up. They didn’t. And the event was well publicized.

2. Dress the part. Do you know how many flip-flops, t-shirts (with questionable logos), ripped jeans and halter-tops (on women who had NO business in halter-tops) I saw? People, if you want a job, look the part. Slovenly is NOT business casual. If you don’t care enough to look your best, how are you going to convince a potential employer you care enough to do a good job for them?

3. Be able to articulate what you do and what you seek. I sat next to a woman who was recruiting for a local power company. She politely asked everyone what s/he did; what type of position s/he sought. One guy said, “I want a job in business”? What the ____ does that mean????? Prepare a 30-second elevator speech to sell your skills immediately. Don’t know what an elevator speech is? Google it. There’s plenty of info out there; even some YouTube videos to help you boil down skills and express the value you bring to an employer in 30-seconds. By the way, “I’ll do anything” (another frequent refrain) is NOT a job search strategy and makes you appear weak and desperate.

4. Leave your bad attitude at home. One attendee stormed over the power company booth and demanded to know why the booth, two spaces down, was unmanned. “I filled out this application and now I don’t know what to do with it.” To Yolanda’s, the power company rep, credit, she got up, went to the other booth and tried to show the woman what she needed to do and help her figure out where to turn in the application.

True the booth sponsors should have been there or left better instructions, but Earth is a tough town and sometimes the difficulty in the application process is part of the screening. If you can’t figure out how to handle something that is going to benefit you on your own, how effective are you going to be when it comes to problem solving for a potential employer?

Anyway, this woman became more and more agitated. Finally, rather than breathe any more of this Negative Nellie’s venom, Yolanda agreed to take the application and turn it in for her. Yolanda then spent 15 minutes walking to and from the mall office to turn in the application. Frankly, she was much kinder than I would have been. I probably would have trashed the application. (Not really, but I would have thought about it really hard and at least editorialized when I did turn it in ….) NO employer deserves to be subjected to that “the world owes me” attitude. Here’s someone trying to her best help and all this attendee can do is spit venom and whine about how inconvenient things are for her. Later!

5. If you’re going to a job fair, bring your resume. Pretty obvious, but I overhead, several attendees say, “No I didn’t bring my resume with me today.” Hello. You’re attending a job fair and you left your resume at home??? I have no words.

6. When offered free job search advice jump on it. I have an interview prep package I provide all my resume clients as a thank-you for doing business with me. It’s also available on my Web site for the nominal fee of $20 for non-clients. Part of my giving back to the community was to give anyone that spoke with me that interview prep package for free – FREE. I started out making an email sign-up sheet, but decided I was taking already a day out of my work week to help and really didn’t want to end up with a typing project when I got home after volunteering. (I was anticipating a lot more traffic than materialized.)

What I did instead was hand every person a business card, told them to send me an email requesting the interview prep info, letting me know they’d met me at the expo – didn’t have to be pretty, didn’t have to be properly punctuated. I wanted them to take some initiative and save me having to type in their email address. After all, I’m giving them something for nothing. The only requirement was to go home and send a simple email. Did anyone, ANYONE do it??? You guessed it. Not one unemployed, job-seeking soul took the initiative to send that simple email and request a valuable package of interview information. (And I waited six days before I proclaimed no one took the initiative.) Guess they’re too busy lamenting the sad state of affairs to actually put fingers to keyboards and do something about it.

7. Say thank-you. Not as proof that you’re polite, but as a way to network and reinforce and resell your value. Of the 12 resume reviews I did, not one person sent a follow-up email. Remember, I gave them a business card with my name and email address. If no one emailed me, it’s a safe assumption no one took the time to a send thank-you to the people who interviewed them or provided information about open positions either.

In not following up, they missed an opportunity to grow their network and have an extra set of eyes out there helping them find gainful employment. I may appear to be out of the loop because I work out of a home office, but I talk with people around town and across the country every day, via telephone and various social media outlets. Frequently, I’ll have worked with a client, hear about a job that fits their skill set and send them the lead. I won’t recommend people I’ve not actually worked with outside resume creation, but I will share job leads when I get them. None of those 12 unemployed, people I spoke with will ever have the benefit of that resource because none of them made the effort to follow-up or expand their network.

To say I am disappointed by what I saw at this particular event is an understatement. Now, when I read unemployment figures are at 9.1% (or whatever it is for this week), I not only mentally correct the perspective – 9.1% unemployment is 90.9% EMPLOYMENT – I silently add … “and probably a good portion of that unemployed figure stems for the ridiculous lack of initiative I witnessed on June 25^th”. What a sad testament to the American spirit. The America I know pulls itself up by the bootstraps and makes things happen. The America I saw on the 25^th saddens me.

Would I participate in this event again? Probably. It’s that indomitable Pollyanna perspective I possess. I do truly want to help others, so yes, I’d put myself through this again. Besides, sometimes, bad things are good examples of how not to be and I can share that experience with my readers. This was one of those bad things/good examples times.

For now, thanks for letting me vent.

Published in “Audrey: The Asian American Women’s Lifestyle Magazine,”  June/July 2009.

By Janice Miller

Plastic bags and garbage littered the gutters of the dirt street I walked down. I was headed toward the main road to catch a pedicab to the city’s central market. There was a boy selling small bags of peanuts on the side of the street. At about 8 years old, he wore a pair of threadbare shorts, flip-flops that were a few sizes too big, and a once-white T-shirt tarnished with layers of dirt. Patches of the boy’s dark skin peeked through a few tears in the fabric. “Mabuhay,” I said to him. He smiled up at me, his eyes squinting shut from the glare of the afternoon sun. “Mabuhay,” he said, “Kamusta ka?” “I’m good,” I answered. As a pedicab pulled over from the busy road and drove toward me, I handed the boy some of my grocery money and waved goodbye to him.

I met that boy nine years ago. I was 17, just out of high school and “not-voluntarily” volunteering six weeks of my summer to help impoverished children in Dumaguete City, Philippines with Little Children of the Philippines Foundation, Inc. (LCPFI), a subsidiary of the nonprofit Little Children of the World. I use the term “not-voluntarily” because it was not me but my family who felt I should trek through the humid jungles and smog-filled streets of the Philippines to stem a better connection with my mother’s homeland.

Volunteering had never been something that I had actively pursued. There was that one time I volunteered in elementary school as a Girl Scout, but I didn’t consider that to be completely voluntary since that was required work for a badge. As selfish as it sounds, I was like most American teenagers who felt they shouldn’t have to give up their highly prized free time if there was no incentive beyond a simple “thank you.” Given this attitude, I was surprised to find myself on a plane headed to the Philippines to help street kids I’d never met before get the food and education I never had to fight for in America.

As a part of the foundation’s program to aid street children, I spent my days doing case studies on local children and their families, detailing every aspect of their lives right down to their finances. My reports were used to identify whether or not a child could use a sponsor to help their family pay for school, food and medication if necessary. In the evenings I tutored two girls who were having trouble with their math and English in school.

It may not sound like I was very productive during my stay. When you think of volunteer work, you generally think of instant results such as helping in a soup kitchen where you know that the person you are feeding will be leaving with a full stomach. I can’t guarantee any of the children I interviewed received sponsors or whether the two girls I tutored performed better in school because of my help. I do know, however, that the time I spent with them gave them hope. I also know that it was because of those children that I was able to see a clearer picture of my mother’s childhood.

My mother, who naturally wants me to appreciate my good fortune, used to tell me stories about her childhood and how she had to grow up too fast. One of her first jobs as a child was painting the fingernails and toenails of some of the women in her neighborhood. Our family trips to the Philippines were spent in the family home, not a hotel. We slept on the floor, not in a bed. We showered with rainwater from an outdoor barrel, not with a faucet in a tiled bathroom. The scene was the same on every visit and I became accustomed to “roughing it” for the few weeks we would stay. As a child, the experience was like a fun camping trip. In the end, I went back home to my soft bed in America.

Volunteering was different. I wasn’t being welcomed into a home to chat with a family member. Instead, strangers eagerly ushered me in with hopes that my report on their struggles would gain their child a sponsorship and a more promising future. When I volunteered I saw my mother’s stories unfold in front of me in every child I talked to. Those “stories” were a reality to the children in the Philippines, and they didn’t disappear when I left.

Since the days of my mother’s youth, the Philippine government has made efforts to aid its people by developing programs and passing laws to help stop child labor and provide assistance to poor communities. In 1998, the country’s National Youth Council (NYC) reported that the estimated number of the Philippines’ street children was 1.5 million. There are more than 7,000 islands that make up the Philippines and its street children are scattered among them. To date, the NYC study was the first and only performed by the country to assess its poverty level.

Since that summer, I haven’t had a chance to fly to the Philippines for more volunteer work. Now, student loans and other financial obligations prevent me from traveling, but I haven’t forgotten that boy I met on the street nine years ago, the families I interviewed, or my mother’s stories. It’s such a simple concept that if you identify with a cause, the need to volunteer is inherent. However, as only a once self-absorbed American youth can confess, the journey to reach that point of selflessness is a long one.

Today, I am a freelance writer and a voluntary-volunteer. While I may not be physically in that country, I donate my time between articles by helping the same organization I gave six weeks to, nine years ago. I serve as the editor of LCPFI’s first e-newsletter targeted toward its own volunteers. The quarterly publication serves as the only thread keeping volunteers connected to each other, the organization, and the culture and people of the Philippines. Although my work doesn’t directly aid the Philippines’ street children, the newsletter reminds its readers that their help is still needed.

A few months ago President Obama asked us to volunteer our time and help our fellow Americans as our country continued to fight its way through a tough economy. Shortly after this request, an overwhelming number of Americans felt a need to heed the president’s words, if only for a day, and become beacons of hope to a world with an unstable future. Today, everyone is scrambling to hold onto the extra change they once voluntarily tossed into Starbucks tip jars; it might be more difficult than ever for Americans to consider giving up their time to help a stranger down the street or in another country. But now that we are struggling we can understand the challenges and feel compassion for those who have always suffered, just across the globe, for a time much longer than we have. I plan to continue volunteering my free time to help a cause that I am passionate about. It is my hope that my peers, wherever they are, will voluntarily-volunteer their time as well, to a cause they can connect with and feel inspired by. It’s fantastic when you can help others, but it means more when it means more to you.

At the DDA, we’re thankful for all of our wonderful supporters, clients and volunteers. One specific supporter I would like to thank is Miss Vancouver, Tracy Chand. Tracy, who has previously worked with the DDA at different residential sites, currently works as a school teacher. In addition to her job, she is also running for Miss Petite Canada and tirelessly advocating for us at the Developmental Disabilities Association through speaking to others, attending parades, events and volunteering.

Thanks Tracy! You are an inspiration!

If you or someone you know is also interested in volunteering, please contact Victor at vtang@develop.bc.ca.

By Anis Salvesen

Earlier today I was browsing through my Gmail, and at the top of my screen was the following quote:  “Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.” (JFK)  I’m not sure what the context of that particular speech was, but the words certainly apply to my life.  I often associated giving of my time, volunteering, as giving something up – giving up a Saturday to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, giving up a lunch hour to volunteer at a soup kitchen, giving up a weeknight to help a child learn to read.   Don’t get me wrong, I did not believe volunteering was some great sacrifice made possible only by extreme dedication to a particular organization or cause.   I believed that the rewards far, far outweighed anything I had to give up in exchange.   My point is, I saw volunteering as equivalent to simple (albeit  not necessarily huge) sacrifice.

I confess that associating volunteering with even just a tiny bit of sacrifice made it harder for me to volunteer.  Sure I wanted to help a child learn to read, but did I really have the ability to give up one night a week?  In written form it seems rather selfish, but in the real-life context it seemed much more legitimate a concern.   What if the kid lived in a gang-ridden neighborhood so that I needed my husband to drive me there and back, but he had to work late on that particular night?   What if at work we got a new project or I was going on vacation, so I had to work late?  What if I had the most stressful day imaginable at work and got one of my migraine headaches and just needed to be home and rest?  What if it was one of those weeks that my husband and I really needed a date night and that was the one night we had free?

I admit that I tend to be more of a worrier than most, but I suspect the notion of giving something up in order to give to others is not unique to me.   That is why I was so excited when I came across a blog post all about the topic of voluntourism. I encourage you to read the blog post itself, but I will mention here some really great statistics mentioned in the post.

It seems that more and more people are catching on to this trend of combining work and play in one trip.  “According to the Travel Industry Associations of America (TIA), more than 55 million Americans have taken some form of volunteer vacation and nearly twice as many are considering doing so.”  To put that number in perspective, 55 million voluntourists is roughly the equivalent of every person in the states of California, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Arizona combined!

I’ll let that number sink in for a minute.  Then I’ll share just one more impressive statistic mentioned in the blog post.   A survey sponsored by msnbc.com and Condé Nast Traveler, which polled more than 1,600 people,  revealed that 20% of those polled had taken at least one volunteer vacation, and 62% more said they are likely to take one.

After reading the Travelanthropist blog, I naturally went on the UniversalGiving website, and I found a wealth of great volunteer travel opportunities!   How about volunteering in Belize as part of a bio-diversity conservation project?   Or how does a coral and coastal ecology volunteer opportunity on Silhouette Island, a little-visited island in the Seychelles archipelago sound?  For those who prefer to stay a little closer to home, we also have volunteer opportunities in the United States.   For example, we have a volunteer opportunity called “Development Projects in Native American and First Nation Communities,” which would allow  travelers to volunteer with the Navajo nation in Arizona, among other opportunities.

I could go on about various volunteer + travel opportunities, but I’ll let you check out our site for yourself.   Thanks so much for reading this blog post.  Happy travels, and don’t forget to pack sunscreen!