Re: Volunteer TW Services (was: Ethical Questions)

Subject: Re: Volunteer TW Services (was: Ethical Questions)
From: Guy McDonald <guy -at- NWLINK -dot- COM>
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 15:40:13 -0700

Deb Ray stated:
I have yet to find a charitable organization that wants
volunteer TW services. No kidding!

<snip>

What's interesting here, I think, is that there's a
strong parallel between doing volunteer TW work and
working as a TW in a paid position. For example, folks
had a real misconception of what services they really
needed.
-----------------------------
I'll check in on this thread. From my perspective, it looks like Deb, Elna,
Beth, Camille and Jill all had one (or more) bad experiences with
volunteering their services. On the other hand, Sharon, John and Sella
expressed positive comments with regards to their volunteering. Deb Ray
raises a few questions that intrigue me, primarily because of my recent
eye-opening look into a few local non-profit organizations . Rather than
focus on the misconceptions of what a TW does for a living (which in my
opinion, said "misconceptions" are becoming less popular in the business
community through assertive education on our part), I would like to focus on
the non-profit organization itself. Specifically, the inherent weaknesses
of a non-profit organization that are not readily found in successful
businesses. Elna Tymes hit the nail on the head when she said "that in most
cases [non-profits] are very clear what they want of volunteers, and your
contribution of services doesn't mean much to them." Furthermore, she led
this statement with a pronouncement that few non-profits possess the
business savvy to effectively employ working professionals, who have some
spare time to help the non-profit. I agree.

Two recent instances in my life have led me to make this judgement, both of
which I will draw conclusions from at the end of this note. Another thought
first - Should we submit to drawing up a contract for services when donating
piece-meal work? For me, this is a personal call dependent on a
case-by-case assessment. In most instances, I dare say the answer is no.
But there are many of you who operate in such a manner that contract
signing, prior to volunteering, would be wise. Frankly, my mind wandered
into legal issues when Elna mentioned contracts. If sued by a non-profit
organization, I would rather stand in front of a judge with no contract than
have the organization waive something that could be pinned on my shingle.
Why give unscrupulous groups ammunition to waylay poor innocent little tech
writers?

My last two negative experiences with non-profits left me with two major
thoughts which I am happy to share. The first notion I used with both
organizations but, like Camille in her story - I was blindsided by an
uneducated person. The second conviction came to me after learning from my
last two experiences and then reading comments posted by the aforementioned
Techwhirlers.

Here's my $.02
1. Spend a reasonable amount of time to make a real assessment. Then sit on
it for a week, percolate, ponder and pontificate before returning to the
organization with your proposal(s). I stress the word proposal. Otherwise,
you will be stuffing envelopes, answering the phones or scrubbing toilets.
Ironically in some cases, this is *exactly* what the organization needs the
most. :)
2. Invest time in teaching process management techniques to key players
within the organization, then use them during the project.

Thanks for the questions Deb, derived from a note that Beth forgot she sent.
,-) It's nice to see something new on the list, at least this one hasn't
caught my eye before!

Guy McDonald
guy -at- nwlink -dot- com




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