VOLUNTEERS: A LUXURY IN A PRACTICAL WORLD

Volunteers are like yachts. No matter where they are, they arouse your curiosity. Who are they? Where do they come from? Why are they here?

They could stay moored where it's safe and still justify their being, but they choose to cut through the rough waters, ride out storms, and take chances.

They have style. They're fiercely independent. If you have to ask how much they cost, you can't afford them.

Volunteers and yachts have a lot more in common these days. They're both part of an aristocratic era that is disappearing from the American scene. They're a luxury in a world that has become very practical.

Day by day, the number of volunteers decreases in this country as more and more of them equate their worth in terms of dollars and cents.

Three years ago, an acquaintance from Minnesota did a column on volunteers in an effort to point out they don't contribute to our civilization. Her premise was wrong she concluded, they are our civilization - at least the only part worth talking about.

They are the only human beings on the face of this earth who reflect this nation's compassion, unselfishness, patience, need and just plain loving one another. Their very presence transcends politics, religion, ethnic background, marital status, sexism, even smokers vs non-smokers.

Maybe, like the yacht, the volunteer was a luxury. And luxuries are often taken for granted.

One has to wonder. Did we, as a nation, remember to say to the volunteers:

A Thank you for our symphony hall.

Thank you for the six dialysis machines.

Thank you for sitting up with a 16-year-old who overdosed and begged to die.

Thank you for the hot chocolate at the youth group meeting.

Thanks for reading to the blind.

Thanks for using your station wagon to transport a group of strangers.

Thanks for knocking on doors in the rain.

Thanks for hugging the winners of the Special Olympics.

Thanks for pushing the wheelchair into the sun.

Thanks for being.

She offers some points to ponder? Does the media stand behind them when they needed a boost? Do the professionals make it a point to tell them they did a good job? Do the recipients of their time and talent ever express their gratitude?

It frightens me, somehow, to imagine what the world will be like without them.

10 Rules for Getting Volunteers and Using Them Well

A past issue of Nebraska Economic Developments offers another slant on the topic. It listed the 10 most effective rules for getting volunteers and using them well. The rules are:

1) Never stop recruiting.

2) The best way to get a volunteer to work is to ask him or her.

3) Volunteers require a well-defined, specific and understandable task.

4) Volunteers, as a group, are impatient and will leave to do other things if they do not                     have a job to do.

5) If a specific job is crucial, recruit two volunteers for every one that's needed.

6) Every recruiter is a potential volunteer, and every volunteer is a potential recruiter.

7) Reconfirm in your mind and in the volunteer's the job he's to do by calling before the                 appointed time for work.

8) Recognize volunteers for the time they have taken to help and for the effort they have                    put forth.

9) Volunteers are the easiest to ask to work again.

10) Remember to thank them.

University of Missouri Extension is the link between resources of the four University of Missouri campuses, Lincoln University and Northeast Missouri residents.

For additional information contact our County Centers. I'm Community Resource Specialist, David Hill. Make a Great Day!