Is there a word for "expected volunteering"?
I see this all the time in the small towns I visit where the locals are expected to volunteer for various organizations to keep those organizations running - the rec board, the library board, the arts society, the parks committee, etc - so their "volunteer" service to these boards and groups isn't really voluntary in the purest definition of the word. Some people who are recruited to groups such as Student Council and CLA Student Chapter at FIMS would fit this definition as well.
If there isn't a word for it, there should be!
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Thursday, January 31
Monday, January 28
Future Library Director Training???
by
Jason
on Mon 28 Jan 2008 11:23 PM CST
Our library director commutes daily from Regina to Weyburn and back, a round-trip of about two and a half hours. He told a funny story before Christmas about one day a few years ago when a blizzard hit the province and he was the only person to make it to work that day - even though everybody else on staff lived right in Weyburn! (Good thing he did too - a window had broken at their old headquarters building so he ended up spending the first half of the day shoveling out the snow drift that had accumulated in the stacks!
 )So this afternoon, a big blizzard hit Saskatchewan and since I was already out on the road after a 7am start, I had to make a decision as to whether to stay overnight in Carnduff, a town two hours away from Weyburn, try to make it back halfway to Estevan or all the way home. Being a good ol' prairie boy, I chose the stupidest option and drove all the way home in heavy swirling, blowing snow. (It should've been a clue when I pulled in for gas just after leaving Carnduff and the attendant said she hadn't heard how the roads were as far as Weyburn but two semis had just pulled in and said they were calling it a night.) But anyhow, other than a brief stop to check on a car in the ditch (nobody there), I made it with the sounds of Beach Boys "Fun Fun Fun" on satellite radio, guiding me home the final couple miles. The funniest part? One of my father-in-law's co-workers who also drives a fuel truck for Petro-Canada (ie. makes his living driving) is currently upstairs, storm-stayed because he doesn't want to risk it driving back to his hometown which is fifteen minutes outside Weyburn. Wuss!  Tuesday, January 8
On The Road Again
by
Jason
on Tue 08 Jan 2008 08:21 PM CST
I've had a few different jobs in my life. One of my favourites was my college summer job where I visited various small towns around Saskatchewan as a traveling cable TV salesman. (Yes, I know a "vacuum cleaner salesman" joke just popped in your head. Don't bother - I've heard it.)
But this job was different from being a "typical" traveling salesman. I was a huge TV fan back then (not so much vacuum cleaner fan) so I was actually selling something I enjoyed and knew about. Mini-satellite dishes like Bell and Star Choice were just coming into existence so my sales job was a lot easier as the only TV entertainment options for people were cable, a giant satellite dish that filled up your yard or the three channels that were available via what my friends and I lovingly called "FarmerVision". (The Internet wasn't available outside of universities either at that time so no BitTorrent competition either.  )I was paid a decent hourly wage but also had an escalating commission structure on top of that which moved this job into the stratosphere of college summer jobs. This escalating structure meant I got a certain amount for every new cable subscription I sold, a certain amount for every package of channels (we had four) I sold to either new or existing subscribers and even a certain amount for selling extra outlets (for those who'd never heard of a splitter.) I also got a generous per diem that could be stretched quite a bit by sharing hotel rooms with two other students hired to do line work while I did sales, eating cheaply and staying with family or friends in communities where I knew people. Once I hit various new sales thresholds - 50 subs, 100 subs, 150 subs - and so on, the amount I got for selling any one of those items I listed jumped as well. In my best summer, I sold over 300 new subscriptions, my company won a national marketing award and the escalation in commissions became so lucrative that I made more than half of what I made per year while working for literary non-profit organizations in those four months! The whole point of this trip down memory lane is that I'm pretty excited to have been given a similar assignment for the next few months at my current job. Although there's no escalating commissions to be seen, I will be on the road pretty much every day visiting each of the 46 rural libraries that make up our region to do some one-on-one computer & Internet training with our branch librarians, holding a drop-in time when local residents can bring any technology questions to me for assistance and doing a one-hour presentation on "Everything You Wanted To Know About The Internet (But Were Afraid To Ask)". In fact, I'll be visiting many of the towns that I visited while working for the cable TV company all those years ago. I'll have some downtime between sessions in most communities so my blogging shouldn't fall off (it'll probably increase to be honest!) Stay tuned... (pun fully intended) |
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