q: what is a ynpn?
a: young nonprofit professionals network
last night, i attended (briefly) a meeting on volunteer management at von trier with dave. i was indeed late, but it wasn't my fault! those delicious tacos at live as well as a frosty draught got the best of me....
i am not sorry.
in fact, i am sorry i didn't stay longer to eat more tacos, drink more beer, and watch jeff goldblum's incredible struggles against gigantic man-eating dinosaurs
(what a lovely man.)
the event was hosted by the education committee of ynpn, and reminded me very much of the first friday training session, only less focused because everyone was there with their own agenda and expectations. all in all, it wasn't the presentation that was so bad. if it weren't information we'd received already, i might have been really interested. the problem was the aftermath, or what dave came to call "the fixers."
every one's dealt with that person who asks a question they already know the answer to. in fact, the questioner is often only looking for someone to back him up in the conclusion he's already drawn. (read: he wants to be right, and wants someone else to say so.)
after said question is proposed, the fixers come in and make suggestions that usually begin with phrases like, "well, what i usually do..." or "you know what i think..." and in the end offer little to no new information that the questioner had not already discerned in their wicked little mind.
every one's looking for validation, right?
from what i gathered, everyone at that meeting was deeply affiliated with a particular non-profit. the problem with this: the topic was volunteer management. it seemed that many of them were very far-removed from the volunteering process in reality. some of the comments on strategy [like how to treat volunteers in problem situations (for instance, overly needy, aggressive, or perhaps physically incapable)] enraged me as a volunteer observing this group.
it seems as if non-profits forget that people are doing work for them that people in the real world do in fact get paid for. they may not be giving dollars, but they are giving their time to do jobs most np managers and coordinators just don't want to do. when is the last time a board got together to stuff envelopes for 3 hours outside of work? if donors are the lifeblood of non-profit sector, volunteers are the living tissue that houses the well-intentioned spirit.
(sorry about the envelope metaphor)
does anyone else consider the volunteer-organization relationship? it's one thing to say you appreciate them, but how do you make them feel? are they taken for granted, or perhaps spoken to in a condescending fashion? maybe the next session will be about coming back to the grassroots of the movement.
dinosaurs:1
non-profits: 0
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