Volunteers

Vol-un-teer: A person who voluntarily (unconstrained by interference) undertakes or expresses a willingness to undertake a service.

My favorite part of yard work is the element of surprise. There are many unpleasant surprises (snail shells, morning glory, and wasp nests), but there are also many pleasant ones. Every year I am amazed at the ability of the Earth to renew itself- in the spring I love to walk around my yard and see all the plants returning.
However much I enjoy all my returning plants (daffodils, roses, raspberries) and their wonders, the plants I really enjoy are the ones that surprise me. They are the plants that I did not plan on. The plants that although I may have at some time planted the mother plant somewhere in my yard- I really can't figure out how a seed made it way across the yard. They are my volunteer plants.

This year I have some really spectacular volunteer plants. Snapdragons, hollyhock, and columbine are a few volunteers that I enjoy. I always appreciate when anything beautiful grows without any effort on my part! I love my volunteers!

The word volunteer is such a positive, warm, fuzzy word. A person that will give up their time to help other people! or an organization! or save the whales! However, I have noticed that the definition of the word is changing. Phrases like "mandatory volunteer time" and "court ordered volunteer" are becoming common. I don't know if the semantics of volunteer are changing, but most of those phrases sound like an oxymoron. This summer we have had several interesting experiences with "volunteering."

Joseph is on the swim team this summer. It has been a fantastic experience for him and we will definitely be doing it again. They have a really strange approach to parent volunteers. At the very first meeting the coaches said there was a mandatory volunteer time per family to help with the swim meets. Now that swim season is almost over, the coaches are sending out threatening letters "volunteer or we will fine you for your lack of volunteer hours." I am not quite sure how they plan on collecting the fine. Although we will put in our total volunteer hours (and we actually enjoy helping!), I am a little perplexed why they feel the need to be so threatening. I certainly don't feel like a volunteer- at least by my definition!

Joseph has been working on his Citizenship in the Community merit badge. The one requirement keeping him from finishing the merit badge is the "8 hours of volunteer time for a non profit organization." He is 6 hours into the volunteer time and I am finding it is like pulling teeth to get him to finish. Do you remember when you were little and you were about to do your job (empty the dishwasher or sweep the floor) and then your Mom or Dad said "Becky do your job" and suddenly all the fun went out doing the job? This is the feeling I am getting with Joseph except I am on the parent side. He actually enjoys the volunteer time, but being told to do something almost always takes the personal satisfaction out of the activity. "So stop telling him to do the volunteer time," you say. Aye, there's the rub. If I stop nagging- I mean reminding he may just never finish the merit badge, get his Eagle, get into college, get a job, and be a productive member of society. I jest. However, I do feel like I am walking the fine line between nagging and helping my child reach his potential through a productive activity.

So here's a few questions!

Do you feel less inclined to volunteer when the work is required?
Does anyone have a great method to get a 11 year old scout to be self motivated in scouting or anything for that matter?