Volunteering

[Tank]

I have just issued SisterAgatha a 14 day suspension for repeated trolling and general anti-social behaviour. She will be back on Halloween. How appropriate

[Icarus]

I hope that Sister A does come back.  She/he/it has been used as a HAF Pinata and valiantly (or foolishly) continues to write the stuff  that she/he/it is so insistent about.

What the hell. Maybe if Sister A comes back we may be able to persuade her that she is on a fools errand...not only here, but in the real world out there. OK not likely, but the Sister has actually brought us someone who has, so far, been pretty resilient.... or just stubbornly unaware.

Maybe if she will level with us she can tell us whether Nuns masturbate or have lesbian trysts.  Not meaning  to be  a dirty old man here. Those are legitimate wonders because Nuns are, after all, humans and subject to biological and natural chemical influences..

[joeactor]

... back on topic:

Kudos, Dave! A good way to keep active and benefit others as well.

The "Time Banking" concept is new to me - have to look into that more.

[Dave]

Well, my computer buddying serms to have a curse on it. Turned up last week to find out the enail had the wtong dste on it. Do turned up tidsy to find the client had cancelled but no-one had sent the email to tell us . . .

Rather pointed, but extremely polite, enail to library manager.

[joeactor]

I volunteered for this voice project that explains cancer to kids undergoing treatment. I play the little man on the big parrot's shoulder:

[Sandra Craft]

I volunteer often at the abortion clinic.

I, the sisters and a few more dedicated students will say prayers and rosaries by candelight outside. We sometimes plead with the women coming in and tell them "there is a better way!"

It's not often..but we have had some women walk away from the clinic!

You know, I consider that absolutely evil.  For all you know you may have taken the worst day of a woman's life and made it even more painful.  The fact that you're fine with taking that chance says nothing good about you or your companions. 

If you were sincere in wanting to reduce the number of abortions, rather than in just standing around making a display of your assumed virtue, there are so many practical things you could do instead.  You could advocate for comprehensive sex education in schools, for the free distribution of contraceptives to teenagers and the poor, you could find ways to make it easier for a woman with an unwanted pregnancy to continue the pregnancy and give the baby up for adoption, you could adopt and foster children yourself (perhaps not the best idea for you).

But do not be one of these people: 

[Magdalena]

I volunteered for this voice project that explains cancer to kids undergoing treatment. I play the little man on the big parrot's shoulder:

That was nice of you. 

[joeactor]

That was nice of you. 

Thanks - it turned out to be a fun project. The studio and animators all donated their time too.

[Dave]

That was nice of you. 

Thanks - it turned out to be a fun project. The studio and animators all donated their time too.

Good stuff, Joe. Kudos due!

[xSilverPhinx]

I volunteered for this voice project that explains cancer to kids undergoing treatment. I play the little man on the big parrot's shoulder:

 

[joeactor]

Thanks Dave and xSP!

[Dave]

Oh, dear . . .

I think that I mentioned, somewhere, that the library wanted to hold a "Gadget Day" to demo the BBC Microbit. So I have been frantically swotting up in it, wiring, coding etc. Built one of the games, found how to make it drive a speaker with a single transistor, got it working a model servo motor via an external battery (and another transistor) . . .

Then I get an email showing the poster, nothing about the Micro:bit, "Come and get you phone/tablet/laptop using problems fixed".

Reply states that we are simply experienced and relatively confident users, not experts with immediate answers (or I would be earning money on it!)  It can take half an hour (out of the 1,.5 hours of the session) to get one person confident, that is, maybe, including us working it out ourselves. With several version of Android around and Windows not working exactly the same on all branded laptops there is usually a learning curve for use. If it proves popular (they intend to push it on social media, all libraries in the city and the local press) there are likely to be more people than we can cope with in the time!

Assemble the following into a grammatical English sentances: think, out, one, you, not, did, this. Maybe: plonker, pulling, my, surely, are, you. Or perhaps advantage, taking, your, are, to, you, promote, library, expense, our, at.

Later: got a reply that did not please me, rather patronising. Suggested that, as a volunteer, I had the right to be fully consulted on any change in the ecpectstions of what I do and the right to modify new tasks where appropriate and possible. I will see what the other "Buddy" thinks - it was said that the Micro:bit day has been postponed (without telling me) so the other guy can catch up on it.

I know that they have to justify their jobs in these days of cut-backs and a successful "Gadget Day" will help keep the branch open. But politics, a lack of communications and taking advantage of my services was the reason I dropped out back in 2005.

[hermes2015]

Oh, dear . . .

I think that I mentioned, somewhere, that the library wanted to hold a "Gadget Day" to demo the BBC Microbit. So I have been frantically swotting up in it, wiring, coding etc. Built one of the games, found how to make it drive a speaker with a single transistor, got it working a model servo motor via an external battery (and another transistor) . . .

Then I get an email showing the poster, nothing about the Micro:bit, "Come and get you phone/tablet/laptop using problems fixed".

Reply states that we are simply experienced and relatively confident users, not experts with immediate answers (or I would be earning money on it!)  It can take half an hour (out of the 1,.5 hours of the session) to get one person confident, that is, maybe, including us working it out ourselves. With several version of Android around and Windows not working exactly the same on all branded laptops there is usually a learning curve for use. If it proves popular (they intend to push it on social media, all libraries in the city and the local press) there are likely to be more people than we can cope with in the time!

Assemble the following into a grammatical English sentances: think, out, one, you, not, did, this. Maybe: plonker, pulling, my, surely, are, you. Or perhaps advantage, taking, your, are, to, you, promote, library, expense, our, at.

Later: got a reply that did not please me, rather patronising. Suggested that, as a volunteer, I had the right to be fully consulted on any change in the ecpectstions of what I do and the right to modify new tasks where appropriate and possible. I will see what the other "Buddy" thinks - it was said that the Micro:bit day has been postponed (without telling me) so the other guy can catch up on it.

I know that they have to justify their jobs in these days of cut-backs and a successful "Gadget Day" will help keep the branch open. But politics, a lack of communications and taking advantage of my services was the reason I dropped out back in 2005.

That's really disappointing and demotivating after all the effort you put in.

[xSilverPhinx]

^ A lot of people take volunteers for granted, it seems. Then they think they have some sort of right to your time and energy. 

[Icarus]

I volunteered as a math tutor for several years.  My students were mostly adults who sought to earn their GED certificated so that they could have a better chance of getting a job or enrolling in a vocational school of some sort.

That was both a rewarding and a debilitating experience.  I had some students who tried very hard to learn what I was trying to teach.. More than half of them, on the other hand, imagined that merely attending tutoring sessions would magically invest them with math skills.  Do their homework? No. Study the lessons? No.

Math ,the way that I and my other volunteers taught it,  was pretty easy to digest and shown to be immensely useful even in places like the grocery store.   Aaaah, some of them were so frustratingly dumb that they could not process the idea that someone was trying desperately to give them a priceless gift without expecting any kind of compensation.

One of the things that kept me afloat was that there were a few people who understood the value of what they were learning and they also knew that their tutor was not being paid in money to do what they were doing.  They were getting paid in a different sort of way.  The satisfaction of knowing that they had helped the student along the way toward a better prospective future.