I have a question of the day.
Why do only a handful of people volunteer and follow through on helping with projects?
Today I am helping with an event. Of the total membership, five of us are working on this project. We have asked other members to help with specific requests ("Would you be willing to distribute invitations within your office?") and have in most instances run into a brick wall. We did not create the idea for the event but were asked by the leadership to create this event. I know the event will be successful, but it could have been an "out of this world" success if a few others would have added the little bit of extra effort we requested.
I have to admit that there are several people within the membership of this organization who have lost credibility points with me. I cannot rely on them to help in the future. This affects how I think about them outside of this event, too. Of course, coming from the opposing point of view, the five on the committee were great.
Your thoughts?
3 comments:
Debby, you know that this drives me crazy. But I don't know what's worse - people who never offer/volunteer to do anything, or those that do that don't follow through. It drives me crazy.
If you don't want to do something, just say "no." (Sorry, Nancy Reagan, for stealing your line.) But then if you always say "no," why are you even in that organization?
In my opinion, some people say "yes" because they're afraid to say "no". They struggle with the internal voice that says, "I don't want to disappoint this person. They might think badly of me." In reality, they fail to see that saying "yes" from your heart, when your head says "no" will in the end disappoint the person anyway.
Perhaps this also is related to the VCP. At what stage is your relationship with these people? I woud suspect that "P" people could confidently tell you "no" and know that your relationship would be okay.
Personally, I respect the person who knows their limits.
A person I once worked for told me that volunteers generally are split in threes:
1) The people who volunteer and actually follow through
2) The people who volunteer and DON'T follow through
3) The people who never volunteer.
So, basically, if you have a group of 15 people, you can only rely on 5 of them.
She said once she was able to accept this "basic rule of volunteerism" she was more at peace about it. But it still stinks!
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