[MR] volunteers

[Skip Davis]

Greetings All 

   I do not write to the Merry Rose except to ask questions since I have been out of the Society a while.  But when I was in it was a volunteer organization since we can not force anyone to assist.  Being that we were dependent in those days on volunteers we felt it was far beneath us even detrimental to our existence to demean and belittle our volunteers.  We needed volunteers to make things work and the volunteers learned to better fit in with our society.  Our volunteers may be new or not skilled in the area that is valued by some but they feel that they can help in some way.  These volunteers may be new to the society or grizzled veterans, they may be young or old but we did not judge them on this and were just glad to have the helping hands.  To make the assumption that people who volunteer do it because they have nothing better to do with their time or that they were to young to know better was, and I believe still a gross error in judgement.  In our modern world, all have a multitude of opportunities to take up their time instead of assisting in our endeavors, regardless of their age.  Where I teach, we are about to give our school volunteers thank you baskets and continue to show our appreciation everyday, never once assuming that the reason that they are there helping is because "they have nothing better to do".  Maybe this antipathy toward volunteers that I have heard expressed is what has turned me and others who might volunteer toward the idea of N.A.V.Y. (never again volunteer yourself), if so I feel that the society is going to be in for a hard time.  

   When I originally joined the S.C.A. events were organized based around heavy combat events.  All others were basically hangers on and support personnel.  I was happy to see when I reentered that the past ideals of events had changed.  Obviously we going back to the original type thinking.  There are some that feel that those who are not aligned with their view of an event are beneath consideration and might as well stay home, or go to a different event. 

   I am sorry if I have offended anyone.  I was brought up under the ideal that if you have do not have something nice to say about someone you keep your opinion to your self, an ideal that some do not follow.  But what I have seen and heard about lately I know have some thinking that maybe the S.C.A., no matter how they may enjoy the company and activities that we do, is not what they wish to spend their spare time doing. 

To the Dream 

Skip