EMC311 - Why We Volunteer

Why people volunteer is sometimes a real puzzle to the paid staff of agencies. It just doesn't make sense to them, just as setting high standards for their performance does not seem to make sense either - "after all, they're volunteers" is the sad lament too 

often heard from paid staff who cannot grasp what is so obvious to others.

Herb Hardin, CAP (retired) wrote about this topic to Stanly Harter in January 1997, offering it for use in the bulletins:

Herb wrote: "I found your missal on volunteers interesting and reminiscent. I still recall the opposition I received when I proposed to...the founding of the...SAR flight in 1961. I provided them with the "requirements of membership": $10 a month dues, 20 hours/Mo. MINIMUM time for meetings/ training/missions, buy your own equipment (estimated at over $500 in 1961); pilots had to pay for their training time and cross-train as ground pounders and all ground pounders had to qualify as aerial observers so each would understand the other's job and needs, and therefore, be better equipped to support each other in a unified, air/ground TEAM. Wing HQ laughed, scoffed and said "you can't expect people to do THAT!".They were, of course, very wrong. UNLESS you "lay it out" and require high standards, you will, of course, never achieve them - as you so well know and have preached for so many years. As a result of those high standards, our little Squadron led the entire U.S. in number of missions performed and number of lives saved for two consecutive years -1969/70, in land, air and ocean missions in support of the Honolulu Fire Department, U.S. Coast Guard, State Forestry, etc."

Leadership by example, setting high standards for volunteers (who must become "unpaid professionals") and sticking to your guns when it comes to requiring/enforcing training and professional performance; those are essentials for successful volunteer operations. THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON FOR THAT IS THIS: THE VOLUNTEER CAN TAKE PERSONAL PRIDE IN HIS/HER PERFORMANCE AND JUSTIFY THE TIME, EFFORT, MONEY INVESTED IN THEIR EFFORTS. It is a psychological loop of positive reinforcements.

There is, truly, NOTHING SO REWARDING to an individual as knowing that he/she has done something good, something of value, something important for their community - and done it voluntarily. It is a very important way of returning to one's society a little of what all of us take FROM the society - just by being part of it. If EVERYONE would put back into society an equivalent (in whatever constructive fashion they choose) a fair part of what they take from it, THIS WOULD INDEED BE A PARADISE - and the golden rule would reign supreme."

(Capitals are as used by Herb Hardin in his original material. Entire bulletin is a repeat of EMC172 issued 2/22/99 and then titled Volunteer Rewards.)