JimF-LowBari Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 5 minutes ago, greg_orangecounty said: Depends if the driver just drivers, or is also responsible for loading/unloading on a truck without an electric lift gate. But I agree 100% on what it means to be a volunteer. Years back at a parade and talked to a volunteer driver for a Junior corps (that will remain nameless). That driver was also responsible for daily maintenance to make sure his vehicle stayed on the road. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scheherazadesghost Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 6 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said: Having a father who had a CDL just had to shake my head. No idea what the hardest job is but being responsible for safety of members on the road for good part of the day is a helluva responsibility Attempting to rank volunteer jobs by who has it the hardest work is worthless anyway, unless one is attempting to create some kind of tiered award or acknowledgement system. Not downplay a volunteer's contribution by comparing to others'. I thought this was a team activity, but what do I know? More reason to steer clear until I see clear signs of improvement. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 1 minute ago, scheherazadesghost said: Attempting to rank volunteer jobs by who has it the hardest work is worthless anyway, unless one is attempting to create some kind of tiered award or acknowledgement system. Not downplay a volunteer's contribution by comparing to others'. I thought this was a team activity, but what do I know? More reason to steer clear until I see clear signs of improvement. Think some of it is human nature and people want to feel important. Worked a week long very large car show and flea market for decades. Never heard anyone compare how hard the jobs were. But heard plenty of bragging how important their job was. And talk about in fighting when tasks overlapped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 7 hours ago, JimF-LowBari said: Still a load of laughs when we were with Hanover later 2000s. Can you image him and Dave Fisher together 😆 i've experienced it. luckily i was already too far gone to be affected 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scheherazadesghost Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 14 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said: Think some of it is human nature and people want to feel important. Worked a week long very large car show and flea market for decades. Never heard anyone compare how hard the jobs were. But heard plenty of bragging how important their job was. And talk about in fighting when tasks overlapped. For sure. And it comes down to the shoestring capacity most of the orgs are dealing with, as mentioned earlier. I'm beyond compassionate about that. However, again, don't bring on volunteers if you can't adequately support and supervise them. Listen, I was on staff with the Jeffs at Vanguard and had light management responsibilities over volunteer drivers. I was not good at it, and was completely unsupported and untrained by my dueling supervisors for those responsibilities at the time. I've been part of the problems alluded to here. A poster child for whiplash-inducing staff turnover rates. But the buck didn't stop with me, a young rookie at the job. It did several levels up in management though. I've blocked most of my memories from 2008 the experience was so bad. Shoestring capacity is still no excuse for running volunteers into the ground. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFitz19 Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 A number of years ago I, at that time a long standing Cadets donor, volunteered to help out at an event for local bands at Symphony Hall in Boston. The staffer in charge was quite arrogant and condescending to us volunteers and gave poor directions. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. Later that same day I complained in an email to he who shall not be named. IIRC, he replied that he would speak to that staffer. There was never another Cadets volunteer possibility near me in Boston, but I have never forgotten the obtuseness of that staffer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terri Schehr Posted March 6 Author Share Posted March 6 (edited) 2 hours ago, JFitz19 said: A number of years ago I, at that time a long standing Cadets donor, volunteered to help out at an event for local bands at Symphony Hall in Boston. The staffer in charge was quite arrogant and condescending to us volunteers and gave poor directions. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. Later that same day I complained in an email to he who shall not be named. IIRC, he replied that he would speak to that staffer. There was never another Cadets volunteer possibility near me in Boston, but I have never forgotten the obtuseness of that staffer. That’s terrible. Jim had pretty good luck as a driver with them. Everyone was nice to him. We were donors, too, so he was doing it for nothing. He said that in his opinion, no one worked harder than the carrot crew and the woman who took care of the uniforms. She had to alter those stinky things a lot because members would lose weight throughout the summer. The odor was pretty bad. I remember that smell from my marching days. It was a combination of bus funk and the worst BO ever. Edited March 6 by Terri Schehr 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 4 hours ago, JFitz19 said: A number of years ago I, at that time a long standing Cadets donor, volunteered to help out at an event for local bands at Symphony Hall in Boston. The staffer in charge was quite arrogant and condescending to us volunteers and gave poor directions. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. Later that same day I complained in an email to he who shall not be named. IIRC, he replied that he would speak to that staffer. There was never another Cadets volunteer possibility near me in Boston, but I have never forgotten the obtuseness of that staffer. i've seen this on multiple levels of the activity. i have also seen where just other volunteers poison it. i saw social media stuff recently about a WGI guard regional in Texas where parent volunteers turned off many units by being power hungry and not respecting people's pre-show process and fan experience Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scheherazadesghost Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 21 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said: i've seen this on multiple levels of the activity. i have also seen where just other volunteers poison it. i saw social media stuff recently about a WGI guard regional in Texas where parent volunteers turned off many units by being power hungry and not respecting people's pre-show process and fan experience Sounds again like a situation where an org bit off more than they could chew with volunteers. It's the same with expecting donors to break down the doors without having an effective donor cultivation strategy in place. Plenty of inexperienced nonprofit admin who cut their teeth in for-profit settings make both mistakes. That said, did a quick web search on both "handling disrespectful volunteers" and "how to keep volunteers happy and engaged" and was flooded with free resources. Seems like my fellow Texans didn't do their homework and expected volunteer utopia. It's really easy to underestimate the strategies needed for a healthy npo if you've never done it well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greg_orangecounty Posted March 6 Share Posted March 6 3 hours ago, Terri Schehr said: That’s terrible. Jim had pretty good luck as a driver with them. Everyone was nice to him. We were donors, too, so he was doing it for nothing. He said that in his opinion, no one worked harder than the carrot crew and the woman who took care of the uniforms. She had to alter those stinky things a lot because members would lose weight throughout the summer. The odor was pretty bad. I remember that smell from my marching days. It was a combination of bus funk and the worst BO ever. I forgot about the uniform Moms. I take it back; THEY had the hardest job! They did it out of love but in reality they should have received bio-hazard pay. For fun, we would do Rorschach tests on the mold pattern on the inside of our cadets. 🤢 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.