Recently I contacted a head office volunteer group to support other people. I explained I had volunteered with a similar local group for over 10 years (and we have done a lot) and I wanted to spend more time helping others and being able to do so more, as they were a national group.

After getting a "no" response back, it was very patronising. I felt this was based upon the group wanting government funding (to employ a person), which can't be guaranteed, is very unlikely and this is not what I consider volunteering.

Not everyone wants to photocopy, or put the rubbish bin out, and too many large charities have become far too corporate or big business.

A lot of local groups are dying off (membership wise) and yet people are supposedly "volunteering" with larger 'brand name' groups (if they can even get in) and those who do are in many cases only involved for potential "employment" down the track.

Dear Nathan,

Ross Gittins wrote in the Age on 8/7 that the
wellness of our community can't be measured by
economic figures, "We're paying a high social price
for material success."

Dan Simpson of Northcote agrees that "You can be employed
but unfulfilled, own a home but be lonely, and have
access to credit but feel marginalised." Simpson tells us
that "True success is supporting people to reach fullness
of life, and that is never the outcome of a financial
transaction. It comes from knowing that someone trusts
you will repay a loan despite a poor credit history;
and that your repayments mean someone else
will have access to that money.
It comes from being treated with dignity and respect."

I agree with Simpson that financial circumstances shape our
lives, but they don't need to define us.

As Simpson points out - It is our sense of community and
interactions with our neighbours, friends, and family
that leads to a sense of wellbeing.

I recently heard on radio a person (with a visual impairment) had applied for a (paid position) for a call centre job - and had been denied this job by the government.

They had excellent university qualifications and yet they'd not been allowed to work in the office job, upon applying.

They are going to the Equal Opportunity Commission on that matter. What are these people expected to do "not work?"

Other people (volunteers) are also being 'used and abused' as cheap labor. I know of one case, where a person had walked out of a venue - after being "a volunteer" at an event and had to stay at a festival from around 6pm until midnight and left at around 11pm as they were exhausted.

She had, had enough and went home. I was volunteering at the same event and I even gave tickets back, as I couldn't fit in with their long hours around my personal timetable, as the volunteer hours were too long. The event went for about 10 days.

All of the 'paid positions' with rest/relaxation time, went to the paid staff. Volunteers were getting second class treatment.

Hi Nathan, its great you do volunteer work. Don't be disheartened and try not to read things into situations where you don't really know what is behind the other side of the story.

The corporate size volunteer program that turned you down possibly already had enough people; the blind person who was not employed was possibly not selected because there was a better candidate with better skills.

If you choose to volunteer, its your responsibility to let the organisers know how much time and what hours you can devote. The organisers are not mind readers. Personally I think your friend who went home an hour early, should not have. She should have stuck it out or at least let the organisers know she when she arrived to work, that she could not stay until midnight. Once you commit to something its your duty to see it through.

Good on you Nathan, for offering your time to serve other unselfishly.

After was pushed out of paid employment I needed something to do so volunteer at number small organisations including local community radio 2MCE FM. Actually my last paid employment, Lithgow High School, was a totally misery due to sustained workplace bullying.
Volunteer work, but no pay, is much preferrable, more rewarding and fun than previous life.
So keep putting hand up someone somewhere will recognise your value.

It's amazing that Nathan's offer of help was refused. However, volunteering for anything is pretty dopey, given that you are probably working away to help paid organisers in a cushy job they have set up for themselves.

Then, of course, there is the theory (not mine, but that of psychologists and the like) that volunteers are volunteering not for others, but for themselves - makes them feel good, superior to others, they are busy-bodies, there is a black hole in their lives or personalities, they are control freaks, and so on; volunteerism is the result of a pathology. Given the comments that volunteers are sometimes "exhausted" and "used" seems to bear out the pathology theory.

The old army maxim "never volunteer" is the best way to go.