I twittered earlier this morning saying that today I was getting to be a volunteer for SYA for a day (helping one of the youth groups and driving a minibus) instead of just being a trustee. I quickly got three replies pointing out that trustees are volunteers, so I was talking nonsense. 🙂
They’re right, of course… but that’s not what I meant.
It’s an interesting point though… getting involved by helping with something like a youth club feels like volunteering in a way that you don’t get sitting up all night writing a funding bid or discussing strategy in a board meeting.
There is definitely a satisfaction in doing the structural, organisational stuff that you can see benefit hundreds, if not thousands, of young people. But it takes time to see the fruits of your labours with this sort of thing…
More hands-on volunteering, like helping out a group of kids, gives you a more immediate satisfaction – you can actually see how you’ve helped straight away.
So I guess it’s more like a quick fix. The trustee work is enjoyable and satisfying… but in a different way. And the best thing is to try and do a mix of the two so you get the best of both worlds.
That’s what I really meant… I just couldn’t fit that into 140 characters! 🙂