Volunteering

When I read articles about Big Brother/Big Sister programs and neighborhood associations, I always think I am colluding in the deterioration of the American social fabric by not volunteering. Then I think again and realize that's insane, I totally volunteer. I am on a board, and I just finished five years on a major committee; I run a big event at E's school; I bake for just about every bake sale and duly take my shift at ticket tables and cake walks; I organized community service activities for both E and M's religious school classes...made my point?

Part of the reason my volunteering doesn't feel like volunteering is because a lot of it uses the same skills I use in my work (uh, not the baking). So I can start my day (call it, oh, yesterday) with coffee with another board member (half gossip, half strategy), segue into a phone call with another mom working on the school event, and then meet with my boss--and it kind of feels like I'm always doing the same thing (I don't mean that in a complaining boring way, but in a descriptive way) (uh, I guess I'm revealing the fact that I'm not a dentist).

I'm also very strategic about my volunteering. I bake, because it's easy and needed, but aside from that, I choose things where I, me, Becca, with my specific skill set and experience, can make a difference. And I'm good at saying no--or ignoring requests for help, as the case may be. Now, S might disagree on that last claim, but truly, the requests pour in, especially from the school, some generic, some to me, but once I've got my volunteer agenda for the moment set, that's it.

And of course the goal of this post is to complain, because I wouldn't be me if I weren't complaining. When I volunteer, I figure out what I can do, and then I do it. I am meticulous, perhaps even punctilious (you know I just wanted a chance to say punctilious) about meeting my obligations--and this is another place of overlap between work and volunteering. But I know a lot of people who just say yes yes yes, who volunteer for everything, and then drive themselves into the ground and/or do a for shit job. And I fail to see the value in that. Aside from the food/shelter/health/education basics, if something doesn't get done, it doesn't get done, and it's usually better to not do it than to do it badly, or to make yourself crazy doing it. So if this year there's no barbecue...well, whatever (the barbecue is probably not endangered, just pulled it off the top of my head to make my point).

And don't even get me started about volunteer martyrdom...

(Hmm, this post also provides the opportunity to use the word sanctimonious.) (That would be applied to myself, not the volunteer martyrs.) (Or perhaps that should be martyr volunteers. Only I like volunteer martyrs better.)