VA: Volunteer Assistant?

I am the proverbial volunteer – I can and so I do.  Often it is for my community or for an organization I am associated with; it is as a volunteer that I expend much time and energy.  Initially this was all good.  I had time.  I had nominal aspirations to “be my own boss”.  I learned a lot as a volunteer, or was able to put newly acquired skills to work, deepening the skill base and learning even more.  My portfolio of projects grew.  My reputation (at least within the organizations I helped) grew.  But this is where I think it ends.
The other side of this is volunteering as part of the business plan.  I can hear the gasps of shock through the ether.  Again, it gave me a forum to expand my skills, work like a professional, but ultimately with no financial reward.  I have been grappling with this and justifying it as a method of “advertising”.  It has developed into a string of negatives for me:  volunteering demands time, energy, imagination, and resources.

And despite the optimistic premise, it has yet to land a real client.  All it ultimately does is set up more situations where my talent/time/creative energy are all greatly appreciated, but no one wants to pay me for the work I do.

So this is where that ends too. I am slowly but surely disconnecting myself from my various community volunteer obligations (you know something is amiss when “volunteer” and “obligation” are strongly connected).  And I have promised myself never to take on another “volunteer” client project no matter how exciting it is, or great the exposure to other potential clients, unless reciprocity is guaranteed in some fashion.  I remember reading somewhere during my VA classes at Red Deer College, that you gain credibility by charging for what you do, and by charging appropriately.  Pro bono work is encouraged in the context of “value added” service to existing clients or in lieu of advertising or some other tangible service (read barter). 

The reason for taking on a volunteer project must be rationalized and justified, as not only will your professional life suffer so will your personal life depending on when you work on the volunteer projects.  The pros of volunteering (at the community level or for potential clients) include reinforcing many skills that are taught in the VA program (what comes to mind in particular are desktop publishing, document formatting, spreadsheet skills, and web design, in addition to office management) and building up your portfolio of projects.  The con of volunteering is the tremendous loss of time and creative energy for no monetary compensation.  .  While initially there was great pride in a job well done – improving or creating something that works – now there is just fatigue and little joy. 

I don’t plan to quit volunteering all together – for that would be to deny who I am.  But I will be much more diligent in analyzing my overall goals and needs in my determination of what I can and what I should not do.

Suzanne Welsh