Conference turris::womannotes-v3

Growing up, my mother had full-time and part-time jobs outside the house.
Now that her income is no longer required, she has decided to direct her 
energies towards helping homeless children by baking cookies for various 
shelters and organizing massive drives to purchase new clothes and collect 
used clothes for them, personally assisting a 20 year-old woman who has 2 
children and no money, studying various aspects of spirituality to enhance
her own self (she nearly cried 5 years ago when I told her I was no longer 
a Christian and while she most certainly still is, she now is reading New
Age books, studying ancient Jewish writings, and opening her mind), sends
homemade baked goods to the local AA chapter, volunteers at a shelter for
runaway boys, and patiently deals with the dynamics of her only daughter.
=8-)

Knowing my strident politics, a few months ago she asked whether I viewed
her contributions as important as if she had a "real" job.  I was amazed
at her question!  Her contributions to society are more real and, in my
opinion, far more valuable than many professional jobs I can think of,
because what she is doing is personal.  It's from one person to another,
and it makes an important difference to someone's life.  I wish I could
say the same thing about my "job"...

Carla

    If I had my druthers, I'd volunteer in the community.
    
    However, certain financial obligations make that relatively impossible.
    I used to work in the non-profit sector...I enjoyed the work, but
    couldn't exist on the salary.
    
    I admire those who are able to give their time to community service.
    
    How does one find out about volunteer opportunities which are available
    after 5:00?
    
    Judi
    

        I understand the hospitals especially have been troubled by the
    loss of that particular work-force in recent years. People are working
    longer or finding other "compensated" work after retirement, and having
    a similar effect. It strikes me that there should be some way to
    compensate those people, too. It's an incredible amount of crucial
    work. I wonder if it wouldn't subtract from their "gift" somehow for the 
    people that choose that way to contribute.
                                                     M...

    re: .2 and finding out about volunteer activities after 5pm
    
    When I was younger and crazier (is that possible?), a full time
    student raising 2 toddlers alone, I decided that I wanted to do
    volunteer work also [where DID I get the energy???].
    
    I just made phone calls to agencies that interested me.  I ended
    up spending every Friday evening (6pm - midnight) as an emergency
    counselor at a walk-in crisis clinic, and every other Thursday
    evening as a physician's assistant (doing what an RN would do in
    private practice) at the local Planned Parenthood Clinic.
    
    More recently, I wanted to volunteer at Angell Memorial Animal
    Hospital.  But they are *unionized* and cannot allow non-union
    [read that "unpaid"] workers with the animals!
    
    Just call the kind of agency you are interested in (e.g., animals,
    children, run-aways), and ask if they could use evening or weekend
    volunteer assistance.  If they can't, ask if they can refer you
    to an agency/group that CAN.
    
    One obvious possibility is hospitals...they are open all the time,
    but maybe they have union problems...hmmm?
    
    	Pennie

    
    re: .2
    
    	There's lots of opportunities to contribute after 5:00!  Call your
    local Girl Scout office (they're in the phone book), and they'll set
    you up with a troop.  Be careful, Brownies have to meet after school,
    but the older girls (Juniors, Cadettes, Seniors) can meet in the
    evening.  
    
    	Call your local sports leagues (soccer, softball, whatever).  Their
    numbers are often in the newspaper.  Most towns have a Recreation
    office that can point you in their direction.  Several of the single
    men in my office are coaches on evenings and weekends.
    
    	Call your local schools.  They often need coaches for sports teams
    or chess teams or "flat earth societies" or whatever.  Again, older
    kids are more likely to be able to meet in the evenings.
    
    	Larger towns usually have Boys clubs and Girls clubs.  I've never
    worked with them, but I have the impression they run evening programs -
    as do the YMCA and YWCA.
    
    	I'm more kid-oriented, but I bet Hospitals and Nursing Homes would
    snatch up any time you have - as would "Meals on Wheels" that many
    churches sponser.  
    
    	Many towns governments also need volunteers.  You wouldn't believe
    how many committees there are.  Pick one you like - perhaps the
    Recycling center?
    
    	The point is, pick an activity that you enjoy, and ask around. 
    Don't be discouraged if the intitial response isn't as enthusiastic as
    you hoped.  Other volunteers are just people who are often over-worked
    and taken-advantage-of, and they many just be having a bad day.
    
    	You have to be careful - most organizations will take as much as
    you will give.  "Just say No" can be very hard when you believe in the
    cause.  But people who volunteer for the community live longer and rate
    themselves as happier and more well-adjusted (paraphrased from
    Psychology Today).  It can be very satisfying.
    
    Good Luck!
    
    	Elaine - an confirmed Girl Scout leader (we're camping this
    weekend!)
    

    One of my closest friends quit work 4 yrs. ago when her second child
    was born.  Originally, she intended to resume her career (technical
    writer/course developer/instructor) when her second child started
    school.  But, she has become increasingly involved in all sorts
    of volunteer work and loves it more than she ever did her "real"
    job.  She told me that the volunteer work she has been doing has
    brought her more satisfaction than any of the technically related
    work whe was paid for ever did.  I told her that it's probably doing
    a lot more good for the world, too.
    
    Lorna
    

    My mother quit working outside the home when I was born, but she puts
    in many hours a week "typing" Braille books for the blind - it is
    really hard to find volunteers to do this work anyhow, and very few of
    them are well enough educated to handle the technical college
    textbooks, so that is mostly what kinds of books she is asked to do
    (mathematics and music books - she was a mathematician, and is also a
    violist).  In general, mother has always had lots more free time than I do
    - and I don't even have any children.  She did several other sorts of
    volunteer work, and still had time to watch TV, knit, crochet, read,
    and so on, as well as keeping a spotless house and taking care of two
    admittedly-bratty (OK, so I'm *still* bratty!) children.  If she had
    kept her outside job, too, she wouldn't have any more time available
    than I do.
    
    I am only involved in three volunteer efforts (more or less) on a
    regular basis.  All three have a tough time getting people to
    volunteer, since people have so much less free time.  It is much easier
    to get people who can contribute money than time, no matter how good
    the cause.  I only volunteer for things that I know I can do in spare
    moments at my own pace.  For example, I type things, mail things out,
    sort stuff, fold/staple/multilate newsletters, and stuff like that.  I
    NEVER volunteer for telephone trees.  And I have told the last several
    people who have wanted me to volunteer for things that I just can't do
    it - I get upset when I don't have any time to myself, after a while.
    
    
    The thing about volunteer work is that it is nearly always work that
    really needs to be done by someone, and is greatly appreciated, but for
    one reason or another can't be made to be paying work.  It might be
    much fairer if all volunteers got paid, bu I don't think it is going to
    happen, ever.  I volunteer because it gives me satisfaction to help out
    - assuming I agree with the cause and like working with the other
    people who volunteer, anyhow.
    
    /Charlotte

    My Mom didn't work either; she just reared 8 kids, worked as an unpaid
    teacher assistant at school, and when the kids were mostly grown, began
    volunteering at church, the Cancer Society, the public television
    station, and the hospital.  On Friday, she had her hair done. :^)
    
    In their "spare time" Mom and Dad raised prize roses. Three months
    before her death of cancer, Mom was volunteer secretary for a national
    astronomy conference. Mom's favorite phrase was, "I'd rather wear out
    than rust out."  
    
    proudly,
    Marge

    I think that Volunteer work is very admirable and important,
    but I also think that society should be willing to pay for 
    these services and not rely on these problems getting solved
    by volunteers.
    I also think that to volunteer full-time means that someone else
    is supporting you. This is fine for some people, But the importance
    of women in the workforce today is that women now have a CHOICE,
    their future does not depend on finding and marrying the "right"
    man. Some women may not be so interested in getting married and
    having children, for these women it is very important to be able
    to support themselves.
    P.S. My mother always worked, as a nurse, and I am very proud of her
    too.

I volunteer once a week (after work)at Children's Hospital in Boston
and we are always looking for folks (617-735-7885).  It's great and
there are a lot of benefits such as:

   o  Get good pointers for your Nintendo skills
   o  Learn the latest scoop on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles
   o  Learn what's cool and what's not
   o  Get to play and not look stupid or childish


By the way, I would not want to paid for the work I do there!  It
wouldn't be the same.

To make someone who is sad smile, to help their healing process, to
make a heart to heart connection, that is something very special!

john

    My grandmother was an educated (Radcliffe) and cultured woman, and when
    she had her children, she decided to let the nanny primarily raise them
    and she went out and joined organizations and did charitable things and
    was a pillar of the community.  So not all women who volunteer do so in
    addition to their child-raising responsibilities.
    
    My mother has gotten to the point where she really enjoys being able to
    volunteer and work on things and be her own boss for a bit (actually, I
    think that's the main kick many volunteers get - being an organizer or
    coordinator and having many skills and using all of them and still
    being their own boss and affecting the world in a positive way). 
    
    Personally, I expect to volunteer to work during the vast
    majority of my life to help people, and make the world a better
    place - with pay or without.  If I was fully supported by a wealthy
    man, maybe I'd have more hours to do this, but if there's no wealthy
    man in my future, I'll still do it - just a bit less.
    
    -Jody
    

>For someone who doesn't have a job, she doesn't have much time to sit 
>around.
>
>She owns a silk flower business. 

And that isn't considered a job?

Carla

    Mark, you've just demonstrated the standard bias.

    re: 15
    
    I have a "business" that has no other employees besides myself, has
    no payroll, has no open hours; it is basically a **business** that
    produces goods that may be sold.
    
    I take on several clients a year, and produce my goods in my spare
    time.  It is not steady work by any stretch of the imagination.
    
    I do good work; I am a "creative type" for all intents and purposes,
    **and** a business person.  I am **both creative and entrepreneurial.**
    
    I think your mother is too.
    
    nla

    Sounds like the only real "job" to you is one where the person works
    for somebody else, Mark.  Yes?

    =maggie
    
    no, I don't think that is what Mark is saying. if I took up my
    painting again for the shear pleasure of doing it, and managed
    to sell some of my pictures, and even sell a picture to someone
    who had asked me to draw something for them....I'd not regard that
    as a job..
    
    I'd regard the money as 'gravy' getting paid for something I have
    fun doing.
    
    this may be a problem with how we look at jobs but I think I understand
    the distinction Mark is making..
    
    Bonnie

    One way to compensate people who volunteer in addition to a paid
    job would be to let them deduct the hours worked on their income
    taxes (at the rate the work is worth) as a charitable deduction.
    Perhaps not much, but something.  Does anyone know how/where to volunteer
    to teach adults to read?
    	Linda

    This topic has hit me strongly.  I am an avid proponent of volunteerism
    and often find myself frustrated that working full time and raising 3
    kids alone doesn't leave me much time to contribute.
    
    My mother also did not work outside of the home.  She raised 3 girls to
    be responsible and caring women.  She gave lots of hours to the local
    YWCA, a nursing home, a philanthropic women's club, and several other
    volunteer opportunities.  She also played bridge and had her hair done,
    which was the accepted culture for women of her age.  I am proud of my
    Mom and am pleased that she feels she has contributed (and still does
    contribute) to society.  By the way, she is college educated and can
    hold up her end of any intellectual conversation.
    
    I have always worked for a paying job since graduation from college, oh
    so many years ago.  I have also given birth to 4 children, kept a home,
    survived a divorce, gotten my MBA at night school, and done what
    volunteer work I can.  It has not always been a steady task, like a
    weekly visit to a hospital.  But there are many ways to volunteer that
    are appreciated and useful.  For instance, currently the new AIDS
    shelter in Boston needs its halls painted.  We are taking a Saturday to
    do this.  
    
    The values I live by are the reason I volunteer.  I am a very fortunate
    person.  I am intelligent, healthy, able to support myself and my 3
    kids (with no child support or alimony), have a good sense of self, and
    wonderful friends.  Because of this, I want to help those in life who
    have far less than I.  I DO NOT want to get paid for this.  The
    compensation I get is the good feeling inside that I have helped, the
    smiles from those I have helped, the calls that ask if I have time to
    help again, the understanding that I can share with others what I have
    been fortunate enough to acquire.
    
    No, we should not pay volunteers.  They are needed because the work
    they do can not be paid - usually because the funds don't exist.  Much
    of the good work in this country has been done by volunteers.  The
    national group called RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteer Program) which
    gets seniors out volunteering was started as a volunteer effort in NY
    state (I was involved).  This has become a valuable part of our culture
    today.  Most schools would not provide all they do without volunteers -
    and most of us are pretty upset right now about how much our taxes have
    gone up to support our schools.  And the list could go on for days.
    
    Volunteers are needed.  Our country has been strongly affected by the
    fall in volunteerism, much of which is attributed to the numbers of
    women who work today.  It is a sad truth of our times.  If you can
    volunteer in ANY way, do so.  And don't expect any compensation in a
    material form.  But be happy for the smiles and gratitude that will
    come your way.
    
    Ellen

    Well said, Ellen!
    
    An article in my Church magazine (The Ensign), June issue, reminded
    me that this is only part of my life and a busy part at that.  With
    luck (I won't say whether I consider such luck good or bad), I'll live
    long enough to increase my volunteer activities.
    
    aq
    

    re .21 counting hours donated as charity on income tax
    
    I thought this can be done -- I seem to remember reading it in a
    pamphlet given out by Salvation Army, but I can't find the folder. I
    have recently started knitting for Goodwill Memorial and have requested
    information from them about deducting the donation of my hours worked.