I don’t want to hijack either, but that sure looks like an interesting read and perhaps says a bit about cultural differences between Canada and the U.S. (From a socialist vs. capitalist perspective, I mean.)
Getting back to volunteerism, I didn’t do much as a kid, but as I get older I’m finding more time to volunteer in my community for special events, and garbage clean up and the like.
Have I ever been volunteered? Well, I have a wife and kids so I am volunteered so often that we even have a term for it. The term is volun-told. I am volun-told that I will help all the time. I was volun-told by my wife that I was responsible for all of my sons Boy scout BBQs, I was volun-told that I get to chaperone high schoolers to dances, I get Volun-told by my parents to pick up various family members across the southwest for family emergencies like when my grandfather died and when my grandmother had a heart attack.
Volunteered? Volun-told is a much better term.
I haven’t read that thread, but it should be mentioned that every “branch” of the United Way is different - ours has really shaped up and significantly decreased their administrative overhead. My boyfriend does a lot of video work for them and serves on a committee now, and with the changes they’ve made I feel a lot more comfortable with them. (I still give my money elsewhere, but not because of anti-UW antipathy.) I do think 2-1-1 is a fantastic idea and should be publicized more.
ETA - I’ll be goddamned if I’m giving to them at work, though. My last job, we had to send in a form even if it said “0”, and my district manager called my HOUSE to try to get me to contribute so we’d get 100%. I explained to him that I donate to my own charities and that I was exceedingly unhappy with being strongarmed into charity.
The United Way in some regions does NOT support the Boy Scouts, which convinced many of us to cease our support of the United Way.
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I have dealt with the mandatory corporate service - when a consultant I had to put time into raising money for the United Way (it counted as billable hours on my timesheet at least). It was made clear that not participating would be a Career Limiting Move.
Those evil Boy Scouts require service hours for rank advancement, and the hours can NOT be in support of the Boy Scouts.
My sons will have to deal with the mandatory service at their local high school. My older one is a certified referree for soccer, so he can earn his hours by being a ref for kid games.
We had to do 30 hours of volunteer work a year in my Jewish girls’ high school. I don’t really remember what I did anymore, beyond some tutoring of younger kids in my neighborhood and the occasional helping with setup/cleanup of some activity in my synagogue.
This past summer, I was interning in the corporate headquarters of a large pharmaceutical company, and they had ‘intern volunteer day,’ for which we were all given shirts and driven over to the local soup kitchen/food bank. We cooked, served, and cleaned up lunch, then helped shlep large volumes of canned goods from their storage facility across the street to the main area. You could see their eyes light up when they first saw us - most of their volunteers are retired people, and they were thrilled to have some young 'uns to move heavy stuff.
Oh goodness, now I remember. We were supposed to be required to do this and my mom wrote a note saying how forcing community service as a requirement for a sacrament defeated the purpose of volunteerism and she couldn’t go along with it. So I guess I got out of that. :smack:
I think you got a lot out of it, then. There are reasons most homeless people are homeless, and it turns out that there’s not much you can do about those reasons except, as you said, help them survive another day. See…you did learn!
In my high school, we were required to do community service to move up to the next grade. It was an “ungraded requirement” for Global/US History/Participation in Politics and was split up with 10 hours in Freshman year, 15 each in Sophomore/Junior year and 20 in Senior year.
I volunteered at the Red Cross because my neighbor worked there. I don’t remember what I did and I didn’t learn anything and Senior year she just filled out the form saying I did it and I stayed home.
I had to do community service for my honors orientation class at the University of Maryland. We went around stenciling “Do Not Dump- Drains to Bay” on storm drains. Didn’t get much out of it.
Looking to “benefit from the experience” rather misses the point.
Yeah, but what I think they wanted me to get out of it was sympathy for the plight of the homeless and a determination to help them in the future, maybe with a dash of “there but for the grace of God…”. They failed miserably at that.
I didn’t mean “benefit” as in walking out with leftovers, I meant it as in did it make you a better/more caring/more compassionate person? Presumably people who voluntarily volunteer feel better in some way for doing so. I, a forced volunteer, most certainly did not.
In high school, I did a few volunteer things with different clubs, in an attempt to have something to put down if colleges asked. The one that really stands out in my mind was passing out candy canes or something like that at a nursing home, and how sad and perfunctory it felt. We didn’t spend any real time there, or interact much with the residents. If anything, it gave me a sense of how pointless half-hearted volunteerism is.
In contrast, I volunteered with a youth/runaway hotline in college since I wanted to see if counseling really was for me. I volunteered longer than my training required me to, and it was really a worthwhile experience even though I had to give up occasional Friday and Saturday nights.
I was greatly entertained, and think your new word is a good one for drafted “volunteerism”.
I’ve never been “volunteered” for anything. I have, OTOH, done considerable (true) volunteer work at various times in my life - mostly in/for/with various churches or church organizations. I’ve always found it tremendously rewarding.
I find the idea of drafting “volunteers” despicable. I am of the opinion that if the individual doesn’t want to do it, they’re not going to get anything out of it - and the intended beneficiaries aren’t going to get much, either.
I hadn’t seen the thread that sparked this one - my participation on SDMB is sporadic, and I haven’t spent much time here lately - but that one scares me, badly. It sounds like he’s trying to outdo FDR + JFK by some orders of magnitude - and at public expense. 
And, as attested by this thread, it will not have the desired effect on participants, but it will increase public debt - already a devastating burden on my grandchildren (thanks a lot, Bush + 6 yrs. Republican Congress - NOT!). All we need now is for a Democratic president to “double down” on it. I’m an independent, one who might very well have voted for Sen. Clinton - I would at least have thought hard about it - but this looks like the last straw to me re Sen. Obama. :mad:
In college my fraternity had to volunteer so many hours a year to meet some requirement from National. Two that I distinctly remember were:
Cleaning up some park. Unfortunately, the “park” was not some manicured urban park where we would pick up trash with pointy sticks. It was a national park preserve along some river with a great view of some Pennsylvania industrial factories on the other side. Next to the river were woods then active railroad tracks then a steep 80’ embankment then the road then more woods and so on. Basically people dumped everything from old tires and car batteries to washing machines and a Honda Civic that looked like it was cut into quarters which we were supposed to pick up. And of course it was drizzling and overcast the whole time just to make it that much drearer. The park rangers dropped off a big box of garbage bags, telling us “you’ll need these!”. We sure did. My buddy and I spent the next 20 minutes filling up garbage bags in a nearby stream/dranage culvery and then rolling the giant water ballons at the rest of our fraternity brothers playing on the railroad tracks below.
The other was running the local “Haunted House” during halloween. So basically you had a bunch of drunk frat guys in costumes entertaining a bunch of drunk townies and their kids. Magical.
We needed volunteer hours to graduate high school (in Korea). Most of us just worked as assistants at a local post office - somehow this counted as volunteering. (I mean, I guess it was volunteering since we didn’t get paid, but I’m not sure who we were supposed to be helping, exactly.) All I remember from that experience is that the dude who ran that particular post office was at least 70 and kept patting my legs as I filed letters. :dubious:
When I was still a regular church-goer (also in high school) we’d go on weekend field trips to local charity homes for disabled orphans. I actually enjoyed that but I don’t think we went regularly enough to really be of any help - sometimes it’s actually more work for the regular workers there when newbies come crashing in, eagerness to help notwithstanding.
The one that left the worst taste in my mouth was as follows: I used to be on the board of this huge student organization that was affiliated with a cable company (we were alumni of their academic quiz show), and one winter the company wanted us to go “volunteer” one day at a local orphanage so they could make a Christmas special about it. On the one hand, the orphanage got some publicity and some money out of the deal, but everything was so affected - we were so busy worrying about the camera we barely had time to actually think about what we were doing there.
I’ve also worked as a volunteer translator for grassroot organizations and volunteer tutor for younger students, which is what I feel most comfortable with.
150 during my Jr/Sr years of high school for my IB diploma.
10 for catholic confirmation
10 coming up for a traffic ticket
For adults this makes sense, but I think that it’s ok for parents and schools to push kids to have experiences that they don’t seek out–to read a book they wouldn’t have considered, to take three bites of a food that looks gross, to try a sport, or take a fine arts class, or to contribute community service. Many kids won’t push outside the familiar but learn something once they do. It’s not a success every time, but all it cost was a little time, and it’s better to have tried a bunch of things and discovered a few that you hate, a few that you are indifferent to, and a few that you love, than to have never tried anything at all unless it appealed to you at first blush.
But, didn’t every time you saw one of them think to yourself, “Hey, I did that”?
Even if you didn’t get much out of it, maybe someone else did, which I think is one of the stronger points of volunteering.
I don’t know if this is strictly legal, but in the US Navy, your company officer/CPO, will “strongly” suggest that you “volunteer” (if you want to get Liberty in the next nice port of call).
I believe this is illegal (according to the UCMJ), but most CPOs practice it!
I once worked for a company that didn’t make you volunteer, but you were looked down upon if you didn’t. So to make life eaiser, a lot of us just did it to make our work life better. Pick and choose your battles.
I would love to volunteer at an animal shelter. I love dogs, but I can’t have any at my apartment. Plus I once saved an abused dog and helped her to love people again. Took a year though it was very rewarding.
Man I miss that dog. Divorce sucks.