Appreciation wanted for volunteers

quote:

---

I've been working in a committee that organizes "grassroots" community events. The committee involves both volunteers and full time staff from a university.
The expectations of the committee seem to be that everyone should pull "equal weight," but the expectations don't seem to ever take into account that about half of the organizers are being paid full-time to organize these events, while the rest of us are donating our time.

How do I raise this with the paid folks without making them defensive? I'm not looking to be paid – I'm happy to volunteer my time, but I'd like to have the power difference acknowledged.

Old-Fashioned Volunteer Labour

---

My own experience is that, as someone who is paid to organize events as a huge part of my day job, the onus generally falls on me and other paid people to do a lot of the "drudge work" and to be the central point person who makes sure everything is getting done (and doing it if there isn't time). The assumption is that if I'm getting paid work time to do something and other people are volunteering their time, that there has to be the utmost respect for people's volunteer time (since they generally have work or school as their work and they're doing this on the side) and that no one is burdened with more than they can deal with. And that respect is paid to the fact that they're spending their own time on a project that I'm spending work time on.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Michelle:
Except that I'm the paid person, not the volunteer.

---

[ 28 March 2008: Message edited by: The Wizard of Socialism ]