{"id":109,"date":"2012-02-06T16:48:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-06T16:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coyoteblog.posterous.com\/no-more-warm-fuzzy-language-to-talk-about-vol"},"modified":"2020-02-11T08:23:52","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T16:23:52","slug":"no-more-warm-fuzzy-language-to-talk-about-vol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2012\/02\/no-more-warm-fuzzy-language-to-talk-about-vol\/","title":{"rendered":"No more warm, fuzzy language to talk about volunteers!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Volunteers are neither saints nor teddy bears. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But you would never know it from the kinds of language so many people use to talk about them.<\/p>\n<p>Back in November 2009, I got a mass email sent out from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unvolunteers.org\/\">United Nations Volunteers<\/a> to several thousand people that illustrates this oh-so-well. It said, in part:<\/p>\n<p><em>This is the time to recognize the hard work and achievements of volunteers everywhere who work selflessly for the greater good.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Selflessly?<\/p>\n<p>And then there are those companies that sell items for organizations to give to their volunteers, with phrases like:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left:30px;\"><em>Volunteers spread sunshine!<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left:30px;\"><em>Volunteers&#8230; hearts in bloom!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In a word &#8211; yuck.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Not all volunteers are <em>selfless<\/em>! <\/strong>Yes, I fully acknowledge that there are still some volunteers that like  to be thanked with pink balloons and fuzzy words &#8211; but could we at  least acknowledge that there are many thousands of volunteers who do not  respond to this way of being recognized?<\/p>\n<p>Volunteers are not <em>all<\/em> donating unpaid service to be <em>nice<\/em>, or to make a difference for a greater good of all humanity or to be <em>angels<\/em>. Volunteers also  donate unpaid service:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>to gain certain kinds of experience<\/li>\n<li>for a sense of adventure<\/li>\n<li>to gain skills and contacts for paid employment<\/li>\n<li>for fun<\/li>\n<li>to meet people in the hopes of making friends or even get dates<\/li>\n<li>because  they are angry and want to see first hand what&#8217;s going on at an  organization or within a cause, or to contribute to a cause they feel  passionate about<\/li>\n<li>to feel important<\/li>\n<li>to change people&#8217;s perceptions about a group (a religious minority in a community may volunteer to demonstrate to the majority that they are a part of the community too, that they care about other people, etc.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>NONE of those reasons to volunteer are selfless<\/strong>. But all of them are <em>excellent<\/em> reasons to volunteer, nonetheless &#8211; and excellent reasons for an organization to involve a volunteer. <strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>These  not-so-selfless volunteers are not less committed, less trustworthy or  less worth celebrating than the supposed <em>selfless<\/em> volunteers. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s quit talking about volunteers with words like <em>nice<\/em> and <em>selfless<\/em>.&nbsp; Let&#8217;s drop  the fuzzy language and <strong>start using more modern and appropriate language to talk about volunteers that recognizes their importance<\/strong>,  like<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left:30px;\"><em>powerful<\/em><br \/>\n<em>intrepid<\/em><br \/>\n<em>audacious<\/em><br \/>\n<em>determined<\/em><br \/>\n<em> qualified<\/em><br \/>\n<em>innovative<\/em><br \/>\n<em>revolutionary<\/em><br \/>\n<em>fastidious<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s  even call them <em>mettlesome<\/em> and <em>confrontational<\/em> and <em>demanding<\/em>.  That&#8217;s what makes volunteers <em>necessary<\/em>, not just <em>nice<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>In short, <strong>let&#8217;s give volunteers their due with the words we use to describe them<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>And don&#8217;t even try to say volunteers save money, because that starts yet another blog rant&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotecommunications.com\/volunteer\/value.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Value of Volunteers<\/a> (and how to talk about such)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.forumer.com\/jcravens\/44087\/Volunteers+-+still+not+free%21+Even+at+Wikipedia%21.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Volunteers &#8211; still not free! Even at Wikipedia<\/a>!<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.coyotecommunications.com\/volunteer\/volunteers_on_web.shtml\">Required Volunteer Information on Your Web Site<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Volunteers are neither saints nor teddy bears. But you would never know it from the kinds of language so many people use to talk about them. Back in November 2009, I got a mass email sent out from United Nations Volunteers to several thousand peop&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20,13],"tags":[98,100,176,276,289,291,387,523,529,530,532],"class_list":["post-109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-volunteer-engagement","category-community-relationsoutreach","tag-communications","tag-community","tag-engagement","tag-language","tag-management","tag-managers","tag-promotion","tag-value","tag-volunteer","tag-volunteering","tag-volunteers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3fFJB-1L","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5403,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109\/revisions\/5403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}