EMC263 Use Volunteers? Y/N 6/6
To:   Emergency Communications Units - Information Bulletin
To:   Emergency Management Agencies via Internet and Radio
By:   Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) of the
      California Governor's Office of Emergency Services  

EMC263 Use Volunteers? Y/N 6/6   Release 11/13/00

These bulletins are a continuation for those in government
who manage emergency response situations regarding the use
of volunteers and common concerns

6. As to not having time to supervise volunteers 
   a. Can they be given jobs that don't need much supervision?
   b. Can a qualified volunteer supervise other volunteers?
   c. Can you screen them so they require little supervision?   
 
 7. "I don't need them"  
   In a way this is the most difficult concern for not using
   volunteers for it isn't really the "reason". Oh maybe if 
   your government hasn't had an emergency in the last 30
   years, or if somewhere there is a government agency
   that is so rich with funds that it never has a need for
   further staff time or work then maybe there is someone who
   truly doesn't "need" volunteers. Few Emergency Management
   Agencies have that luxury. They truly _need_ further help
   in various situations. Only where a government has been 
   lulled into a sleep mode by the lack of a disaster or a
   real emergency for a decade or so do we see anyone who has
   no "need" for the use of volunteers in emergency response,
   at least in their own thinking. It may be that it takes a
   real emergency to bring home to that agency or staffer that
   he/she really does "need" community volunteers. More than
   one EMA manager has been heard to say he/she learned that
   the hard way.
  
  8. "I had a bad experience with one of them and swore never
     to get involved with volunteers again"
     
    This can be difficult to even discuss for often the person
    will not openly mention it. However, once they do state it
    is their reason for not using volunteers it can be with a
    truly "closed mind" to the entire subject.

    I worked with a person that captured in her mind an event
    so strongly that it was as if it had just happened when in
    fact it was decades past. She was still experiencing the 
    event as a part of her physical and mental makeup and it
    affected her in ways she could not see. She had the option
    to understand her reaction, honor it, then let it go, and
    to move on, but had not done so. She had not yet discoverd
    that life has a way of presenting challenges to see what
    we will do with them; further, that there is a principal
    in each challenge that contains a hidden gift that only we
    who have the experience can discover.

Applying this to an EMA official with an unsuitable experience 
with a former volunteer, it is most likely that the underlying
emotions that were triggered by the event are still in control. 
Only by one's own choice can the move beyond that be achieved.
Certainly it is extremely hard to think along those lines, much
less to do it. But once we move into that space in our thinking
the opportunities (gifts) that _cannot appear until we change
our perspective_ will, in fact, come to those who can take that
step in consciousness.           

 Cary Mangum, W6WWW        E-mail: cary.mangum@macnexus.org
                           ---
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EOM