Are all volunteering organisers this ignorant to their volunteers.

2manyconditions

Hi All,

I'm writing this as much to vent as to ask what you think went on here.

A number of weeks ago, I signed up to volunteer at a festival/charity type organised one. I enjoyed the day and the feel good factor too.

A few weeks later the organiser sent a text to me (using my name, not a group one) to ask if I would be interested to volunteer again. From the text it appeared it was a type of evening position. I replied that I meant to email and thanked the organiser for the text.

I then booked accomodation to stay in the area as I didn't feel like driving home after the first evening.

2 days before the festival I had not heard back from the organiser for more detail. I sent email no answer. On the day I was asked to volunteer, I tried to ring the organiser but they did not answer their phone.

I ended up going to the area anyway cause I had the accomodation booked and the organiser passed me out on the street. I was very pissed off at this point as I had spend money to stay in the area, turned out for nothing. And the organiser walked right past me (I didn't say anything cause I was a bit shocked)

Is this normal for volunteering organisations to treat someone who THEY have ASKED to volunteer like this. Its a few weeks ago now but I'm really pissed off over it. I wanted to find out who this person reports to - to send a complaint. I nearly still would but maybe the organiser isn't even worth that.

Anyone any explainations as to why this person could not pick up the phone or reply to an email just to say thanks but we actually don't need you?? I'm baffled and pissed off, did I mention pissed off. Put me off doing it again tbh :mad:

dory

Sounds like he was an ignorant ass. The kind of ignorant ass you could find in any walk of life.

So in answer to your question: No.

I presume the rise in these types of complaints is due to the rise in the amount of people wanting to volunteer. Is there anyone you could complain to?

28064212

2manyconditions wrote: »

A few weeks later the organiser sent a text to me (using my name, not a group one) to ask if I would be interested to volunteer again. From the text it appeared it was a type of evening position. I replied that I meant to email and thanked the organiser for the text.

Did they actually ask you if you would be interested in the specific event you turned up for, or was it just a general enquiry if you would be interested at some future event, without specifying which one? If it's the former, then fair enough, but if it's the latter, you just seem to have made an assumption

Age Action

Sorry to hear about your negative experience. It is truly shameful.

Age Action could not do a fraction of the work it does with older people without our huge base of volunteers. Our policy (and hopefully our practice across the organisation) is that volunteers are treated on the same basis as staff. They are certainly valued as they provide a huge range of support including our Care and Repair (home visitation/DIY) programmes, as tutors on our computer training courses for older people, in our charity shops, our information service, in administration, as stock collectors, as policy researchers and information officers....the list goes on.

Any organisation that treats its volunteers shabbily has lost the plot.

MsFifers

There is no excuse for the charity not contacting you, but in fairness, they didn't ask you to spend money on accommodation, and given that you hadn't heard anything in the days coming up the the event, maybe you should have taken that as a sign it wasn't going to happen and cancelled your accommodation?

I find most charities are completely under-resourced and the guy running the event was probably swamped and not able to keep up with things. The most likely explanation is that your email went into the "must get around to that" pile rather than any deliberate intent to cause offence.

There is no harm in letting them know that you inconvenienced anyway, and maybe they won't make the same mistake again!

(I would think it was a mistake though rather than anything else)

HellsAngel

I have had a bad experience with an organistaion called Irish Blind Sports. Smart Alec gave me the run around.
http://www.ibsports.ie/volunteering.html