tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3712886818225825296.post4982141782290047767..comments2024-02-05T20:52:11.990+10:00Comments on DJ Cronin: Mindful Leadership ™ ® © : What shapes us?DJ Cronin (Diarmuid Joseph)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14217163695140434673noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3712886818225825296.post-84979907070575828882010-05-24T23:22:00.462+10:002010-05-24T23:22:00.462+10:00Perhaps there should be a study on why we become v...Perhaps there should be a study on why we become volunteer managers. So here is my contribution to the study. I believe that it has been my destiny to manage volunteers though I perhaps did not know this until recently. <br /><br />For me I think that volunteering is in the blood. I was very close to my grandmother and people have often commented that I am very much like her. On retiring as a commercial teacher, my grandmother was asked by a friend if she could teach typing to blind people just for 6 months. So my grandmother, a generous and very giving person by nature, volunteered. Some 20 years later when she was in her 80s she was still teaching blind people to type and also taught herself Braille so that she could also teach them to use a Braille machine. So I grew up meeting lots of blind people, or visually impaired people as is more politically correct these days. My grandmother would often have her new found friends over to visit as they had become so much a part of her and our lives. <br /><br />My parents were very involved in volunteering in committees and auxiliaries for schools and Girl Guide groups. Volunteering as badge testers or assisting at guide camps, being on steering committees, working bees etc. Later they were involved in community groups. My mother was involved in Altrusa, a women’s only service group who fundraised for many worthy causes and my father was involved in Nadow, an organization which assisted disabled people to get back into office work.<br /> <br />For me I can’t remember a specific age when my volunteering began but I know that as a brownie guide there was an awareness of assisting in the community that was very much a part of the Girl Guide culture. Later in life I not only volunteered on committees for schools, sporting bodies and other community organizations, but I also coordinated volunteers without even being aware that this was to become my destiny. My tertiary qualifications were in computing and administration and I had a number of jobs which utilized these skills as well as sales and marketing skills. I had worked as a computer operator, a scheduler, a help desk coordinator, a medical receptionist, a sales consultant, a ward receptionist, an administrative assistant and finally a volunteer coordinator. <br /><br />I have always enjoyed talking to people and being able to assist people. Volunteer management empowers us to delegate to volunteers to assist people and provide a service to people in need. As volunteer managers, because of where we have come from, our natural propensity is to give all that we can give, do that little bit extra. Customer service to the extreme!!! And perhaps that is why we do it as there is an expectation that we will do that little bit extra and go that extra mile for no additional payment because after all we are looking after volunteers.Wendy Moorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13905408753088729631noreply@blogger.com