Re: Dealing with a common problem
Re: Dealing with a common problem
- Subject: Re: Dealing with a common problem
- From: Hank Harken <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 16:48:18 -0700
Sid sez...
>
I have found in my experience after 2 years in Exec
>
positions that most members have the attitude that it is our job to
>
entertain them once a month. Either they don9t understand the work involved
>
or they just don9t want to jump in and get their hands dirty. It truly is a
>
common problem that is not easy to solve.
This is a common problem for all organizations which rely
heavily (or completely) on unpaid volunteers. I've been a leader
within various youth organizations and I've encountered the
same attitudes. I don't think I have a solution but perhaps
a brief "informercial" at the beginning of each meeting or in each
UG newsletter, such as..."This group's activities is made possible
by members like yourself who devote some and sometimes a lot
of time in planning events. Please consider helping in some way".
It just occured to me that my local UG had a practice of crediting
people for some volunteer work with an extended month of membership.
This may be one way to get some members' attention...
I used to organize "bulk mailing parties". I'd pick up the newsletters
direct from the printer and get the mailing labels from the UG officer
who managed our membership database and take them over to
my house. Meanwhile, we had already made the announcement
in the previous newsletter for volunteers to meet at my house at a
prearranged time to label newsletters and sort them to meet the
USPS requirements for bulk mailing discounts. The promised incentive
was a free additional month of membership for each volunteer
who participated. We usually had 4-8 people show up to help.
Considering the group usually needed a couple of hours to do the
job and the dues were only about $35/year (less than $3/month),
the volunteers were really donating valuable time and were much
appreciated.
The volunteers' time was much more valuable than the equivalent
of the $3-$4 of extended membership they received but I had people
driving 30-45 minutes for two hours of bulk mail labeling and sorting.
Of course, there was jovial conversation about all things Macintosh,
information sharing, informal troubleshooting, and advice on
hardware and software. It was really very nice.
Executive and board positions are a bit tougher since the planning
is a continuous thing.
Hank
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