EMC283 Because They Care!
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  

EMC283 Because They Care!     Release 4/2/01

Why is that there are times when it is so difficult for agency
and government staffers to realize why volunteers do what they
do? It's as if their reasoning goes "if the person isn't on our
paid staff they somehow are not one of us." While it may not
show up as disdain, it appears in subtle ways that say "paid"
is better than "unpaid"; sometimes almost to distrust. 

Fortunately, in contrast, there are those special government
paid-staffers like Glorria Morrrison of the City of Huntington
Beach California who wrote:  "Volunteers do what they do BECAUSE
THEY CARE, not because of a law or a mandate." (CERT Newsletter
1/2001)

Last year we did a bulletin series on the various reasons why
paid staffers didn't use volunteers. (EMC258-263.)
Here's a summary of "reasons".

COMMON CONCERNS TO USING VOLUNTEERS:
  1. I don't want to work with, or coordinate, volunteers:
       a. I donšt understand them
       b. My staff feels threatened by them
       c. I don't know why they volunteer to help us
       d. I don't comprehend what motivates them
       e. I or (my staff) don't know how to manage them          
  2. I don't have space (or equipment) for them
  3. I don't have time to prepare work for them
  4. I don't have time to train them
  5. I don't want to deal with liability issues
  6. I don't have time to supervise volunteers
  7. I don't need them
  8. I had a bad experience with one of them and swore never
     to get involved with volunteers again
     
Because the series covered each of these in some detail we
will not dig into it again. Suffice it to say that it is
a topic that is directly related to the past series EMC276-
282 on the Mind, Ideas and Images. Their inner images and
thoughts about themselves and those people who volunteer
must be in some form of conflict. 

For we who volunteer as almost a way of life (meaning we've
volunteered for some service from day one) we know of the rolled
eyes of people who don't have a clue as to why ANYONE would work
like we do without a paycheck.

Maybe that's why someone (author unknown) wrote the "Ode to
Volunteers".
 
 Many will be shocked to find
 When the day of judgment nears,
 That there's a special place in Heaven
 Set aside for volunteers.
 
 Furnished with big recliners,
 Satin couches and footstools,
 Where there are no committee chairmen,
 No yard sales or rest area coffee to serve,
 No library duty or bulletin assembly,
 There will be nothing to print and staple,
 Not one thing to fold and mail,
 Telephone lists will be outlawed.
 
 But a finger snap will bring
 Cool drinks and gourmet dinners
 And rare treats fit for a king.
 
 You ask, "Who'll serve these privileged
 Few and work for all they're worth?"
 Why all those who reaped the benefits
 And not once volunteered on Earth.
 
 (Quote from  Huntington Beach CERT 1/01 Newsletter).

 Cary Mangum, W6WWW        E-mail: cary.mangum@macnexus.org
                           ---
Bulletins are on the ACS Web page: http://acs.oes.ca.gov/  - and a
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EOM