There is an old cliche / saying which is familiar and understandable to kids, but adults seem forget its lesson and meaning.  As a kid, I would grab my baseball glove (which I had naturally re-laced the night before and had been conditioning on the dresser all night) and head out to the nearby school playground to meet some friends and play some baseball.  It was a lot like the movie "Sandlot" but without the rival team.  While everybody brought their own glove, a couple people brought their favorite baseball bat, and then there was the one person who brought the most-needed accessory:  the baseball

The game was over if the baseball was lost, went down a sewer, onto the top of the school, or – and this was why everybody was nice to the kid – he had to or wanted to go home.   From this, our social consciousness has come to know the "take your ball and go home" mentality.

I always thought this was something solely done as a kid when merely upset with another kid.  "I’ll just take my ball and go home."  Sounds like something a kid would say in anger.  Surely an adult wouldn’t do the same. 

Or would they?

As many people know and have been following for the past several years, I have been volunteering at a local community theater in my free time.  So much so, it seems, that the word "free time" is now unknown to me.   What I have become to realize frightens me.

People Volunteer On Their Own Terms

It makes sense really.  You care about a cause or a charity, so you decide to spend some of your free time to help out the organization.  The problem is there are so many organizations wanting a piece of our time, as well as other things in life we feel we "have" to do.   So when we volunteer, we want it to be something we want to do, when we want to do it.

But once you enter the organization’s leadership, that should change.

As the 1st VP of the community theater the past 3 years, I have set aside my own personal wants to be on stage, and instead have concentrated on efforts for the good of the organization.   Yes there are still things I "want" to do, and there are often unpleasant things as well.  But in joining the leadership, I have given a kind of a pledge to stick with things and do things that may not be so pleasant.

But others don’t do the same.

We are living in a society as a whole that thinks if they give their time, then they can quit at any time.   The classic "take my ball and leave" tactic mentioned earlier.   As an organization, we have deadlines and expectations that have to be met.   But as soon as I mention to a volunteer that something they are working on needs to be done on a schedule (ie: need it by this Friday) invariably I am met with "Fine, if you want a deadline I’ll just quit." 

Where’s the sense of commitment you showed when you originally volunteered?

Another example:  most plays and performances strictly prohibit videotaping of performances.   Board Member:  Kick me off the board if you don’t like me recording my shows.

Huh?

Where Is The Commitment?

Where has this nation’s sense of commitment and purpose gone?   Why are people volunteering or saying they will help with something, and then if you ask them to do it RIGHT then they leave.  If you volunteered to paint an eagle, and instead started to paint an owl, and I got mad, would you threaten to up and quit and say "as long as I’m volunteering, I’ll paint what I want?" 

If you volunteer, you always do so under specific guidelines – a purpose.   If you are unwilling to be on board with that purpose and show some commitment, please do myself and all the other people trying to run volunteer organizations a favor – stay home and don’t volunteer at all.  Leave your "then just fire me" attitude where it belongs.  What we need in volunteer organizations are people who work FOR the organization, not for themselves.  And if that means we have less volunteers but more commitment… so be it.

What Do you Say?

What is your take on volunteering?   Is it your way or the highway?  How much can you push volunteers before they quit on you?  What can an organization do to lead volunteers towards your goals?

Please comment below.