Putting an end to it all

Forgive me if I'm a tad abrupt this morning. I'm a bit frustrated. I won't go into details, but I received an e-mail last night (that I saw this morning). It's to do with a volunteer job I have and with people interfering with the work that I've done. I started to write a reply - my hands were shaking I was so frustrated. I did NOT put an e-mail address into the e-mail yet so it can't accidentally get sent. I'm going to be rationale and write a nice, but pointed response to the e-mail. Then I'm going to proofread it (maybe more than once) and then I'm going to send it. It needs a reply.

Let's just say that I'm not going to be volunteering for ANYTHING in a long, long time. I'm so done with it. I'm done with the lack of respect, I'm done with the interfering, I'm done with the lack of trust. And I'm so done with organizations having to beg their members to volunteer for positions. Well - I can completely understand why no one wants to volunteer when there is no respect if you don't belong to the TOP CLIQUE. I'm not kidding - this has happened to me TWICE in the last year!!!!  Why would I want to spend my time doing something and then have it questioned? I do not need that. I also don't need to be told how or when to do my job!

Extricating myself from this organization was already in the works. I just have a wee bit of paperwork to do and trust me - that paperwork is going to get done FAST so I can get myself away from this group of people. I still have two charity quilts to quilt for this group. I'll finish them. I made a commitment to do that.

It's just frustrating that all. OK - hopefully that wasn't too painful for you, but seriously - we need to look at the organizations that we belong to. Do we get joy from being a member? If not, then it's time to move on and that's what I'm doing!

Ronda and I did a road trip the other day. We were off to deliver a block for our block exchange and on the way home, we stopped at the Burlington Art Gallery to see a show of all the guilds that belong to the Gallery. The show is called Lore: Myths, Legends, and Other Stories. The show runs until May 19 which is tomorrow!!

One of our Monday group has a piece in the show. There were wood carvings, ceramics, textile art, paintings, and photography. It was very interesting and I saw some amazing pieces. My favorite was the bark carving that was inspired by JRR Tolkien. It was amazing with all these little doors carved in the bark and little people inhabiting the wall of bark. If you get a chance today or tomorrow to see the show, you should go. You can see a picture of the caring on the web site. It's the one on the right-hand side of the group of photos.

However, I'm warning you that the place was swarming with gnats. Not the gallery but outside the gallery. As we arrived, I saw a lady swatting the air in front of her and I thought - oh boy - they can't be that bad. OH BOY - when we got out of the car, they were everywhere. It was the type of day where you really didn't want to inhale which is a tad difficult.

As we got back in the car, several of them swarmed in with us!!  We made quick work of getting rid of them!!  Holy - if that's what living near the lake is all about - I'll say no thanks. We have NOTHING like that at our house.

Gnat in the car

I did sit in the gazebo for a bit yesterday and it was glorious!!! No bugs of any kind and just the merry bubbling of the pond.

While I've loads to share with you, my mind is muddled after reading that e-mail, although my hands have stopped sharking with frustration! Maybe I need anger management classes??

So I have this to share with you. This is the progression of an ender and leader project. Oh someone asked me about another ender/leader project I was working on. I'll unearth that one soon and give you the details.

For some inexplicable reason, I love the process of taking basically castoffs and making something from them.

You start with a pile of little cutoff triangles that need to be sewn together. I believe these cutoffs came from a raffle quilt (flying geese) that I organized a while back. OK - that was many years ago. Notice that I'm almost at the end of this first step!!!

Pile of cutoff pieces that need to be sewn together

 This is the pile that has been sewn together. Now those little guys need to be pressed and trimmed.

These are waiting to be pressed and trimmed

 This pile has already been pressed and trimmed. Oh yes, sadly, this pile is small.

This pile is trimmed

 The next step is to take four of them and sew them in pairs. These ones are waiting to be pressed so the next seam can be sewn. Oops - I see an unsewn triangle in there!!

Pairs of squares waiting to be sewn together

This is what those little pairs look like when they're sewn together.

Small squares are sewn together

And after four of those squares get sewn together, this is the final block.

Final blocks

And you'll have to wait and see what the end result of that project will be.



If you're looking for something to do this coming week, the Ailsa Craig Quilt & Fibre Arts Festival is taking place May 20 - 25. This year, it's the quilts of New Zealand that'll be on display.

I feel a wee bit calmer now. I'll take the girls for their walk and then I'll finish my draft of that e-mail.
Yes - it's definitely time for me to move away from all that volunteer stuff. I'm going to be extremely selfish in the future. If there's nothing in it for me, I won't budge at doing anything! I've done my time with volunteering!

On that note, I'm out of here!!!   Breathe deep - breathe really deep!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!

Volunteers

What is a volunteer?

1. a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task.

   synonyms:

   subject, participant, case, patient; More

verb

1. 1.

   freely offer to do something.

   "he volunteered for the job"

I was chatting to my Dad yesterday as he has a meeting today about volunteering. He volunteers at a museum where he helps get the gas driven tractors ready for the upcoming local parades and shows. Yes - the apple didn't fall far from the tree in our family - both my parents volunteer and over the years - they have volunteered a LOT. Not so much when they were actively farming, but once they finished with their "real" jobs, they volunteered.

And not just sitting on a committee, but running the committee. And in many cases, they have done the same job for years.  Yep - the apple didn't far from the tree at my house.

Sometimes I wish I was a psycology (???) student doing a thesis in volunteerism.  And why?  Well it never ceases to amaze me that in a group - there is only a portion of the group who would ever consider volunteering.  And it doesn't matter how big the group is or what the theme of the group is - it is the SAME.  And then of those willing to volunteer, only a fraction are interested in doing anything BIG and only a hand full will want to be the leader!!!!!     I think it is fascinating how that works out.

There are so many questions I would love to know the answers to...........
1. Why do people volunteer?
2. Why do people join a group and assume that they can get the benefit of the group without putting anything back in?
3. Why do some people think they are above certain jobs - like I signed up just to drive the tractor, but I will leave the dirty work of getting the tractor operable to someone else. In other words - I want only the glory, not the behind the scenes work.
4. Why do people think they can abuse the volunteers (this can be other volunteers or the organization that the volunteers are working for - think INTERNS today - many of them are UNPAID!!!!!!!)
5. Can the group dynamics change the behaviour of individuals and their volunteer behavior?



And those are just the few on the top of my head. But do you not agree that this would be a PERFECT thesis. Anyway - I am just curious about all those questions and MANY MANY more. Mostly because I am a volunteer and I think it is important to our community that we volunteer.

Now I know some would same that the jobs I volunteer for are non-essential and they would be right. I don't go out and save lives or fight fires. But I think as a volunteer that you must do something that you like to do or work with people who have the same interests as yourself.


I just know that as our quilt guilds wind down their 2013/2014 year and quilt show committees are getting put together that we are all struggling to get volunteers to fill the exisitng positions.


The 80/20 rule is so much a part of the volunteer community.  How does one change that?   Can it be changed? Well - I could keep asking questions all day. And don't get me started on members of a group who are quite happy to NOT lift a finger at any time - even so much as putting away a chair!


Well - I have a busy busy day (what else is new!!!!!!!!)



Have an awesome day!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Ciao!!!!!!!!!

TSUNAMI!!!!!

Yes I do other things than quilt. And one of those is volunteering. Last year I got "roped" into helping with the Goodlife Fitness Toronto Marathon. Initially I was supposed to be a bike marshall. Easy job - get on my bike and keep up to the runners and help out if they need help. BUT in my eagerness to demonstrate what I had done for these kind of events in the past, it slipped past my lips that I could and would drive a cube van through the city. OH dear - I immediately got commandeered to drive a truck.

Last year was fun including when one of the guys got his truck stuck in a city park - especially when I told him NOT to drive there because it was wet and muddy.

So there I was two weekends ago driving my truck again. Down to Ontario Place EARLY and the truck is already loaded - no big deal. Then I had to make FIVE stops to empty the truck and I am ALONE. Not so bad for most of the stuff, but tables - well it isn't hard, just would be easier with two. They are SHORT SHORT SHORT of volunteers for that kind of thing. No falling out of the truck this year either. Yeah!!!!!

Then up to the start line to start cleaning up. This year I managed to see the start of the race. WOW - it is quite something to see all those people.

Wish I had a better picture - they are actually on Yonge Street - around the corner from the start

So then we went back to our cleaning. At one station there were a TON of teens and NO ONE had done a thing to clean up the garbage - the discarded water cups. But after my mom instinct kicked in - we got that place cleaned up no problem.

Then this past weekend was the Sporting Life 10K run. Can you guess how many people signed up to run????    5,000 - NOPE,   10,000 - NOPE - how about 25,000!!!!!!!

There were desperate for people to help out and how could I refuse James!!   So there I was supposedly just having to drive the truck to the first water station and that was that. Oh well - I had to drive it back as well. Yikes - let's just say that it was a crazy morning. I had NEVER done a water station before so I had NO IDEA. I had no clue how many people were signed up to run either.

I arrive at the water station location. The volunteers were mostly younger kids or high school students and some parents stayed - thank GOD!!!!  Then we started setting up 24 tables - half on one side of Yonge Street which we had to do while there was live traffic on the street. No big deal. Then Gatorade coolers, water tubs and LOTS and LOTS of cups.

This was the start of the water station and while it looks like nothing - there were twenty four tables stacked THREE layers of filled cups

The other side of the street - just before the tsunami hit

Then everyone got to a station and the runners started coming. It was pretty cool because there was a bit of a hill as the runners came into our station so you could look up and see them. OH MY GOD - there are a lot of runners and they are headed RIGHT FOR US. WATER - I've got WATER!!!   Ah - the crowd is thinning - that wasn't so bad and we still have a lot of water cups.

OH MY GOD - the race is in WAVES. And here comes another one!!!!!!!    HELP - I feel like I am drowning in people!!!!!    There were FIVE waves in total and it got really really crazy. We ran out of water on the one side of the street and had to yell at people to get water on the other side. We were MADLY trying to fill more cups. It was CHAOS!!!!!!!

A few details that James NEGLECTED to tell me!!!!!!!  


Then we got that place cleaned up and we were out of there. One of the other race organizers stopped by at the end and asked if we managed to keep up???   Oh yes - James and I are going to have a chat about this!!!!!!!    Actually it was pretty fun and I have loads of ideas on how we can arrange this for next year so we don't run out of filled water cups.

Anyone want to help????????   It is pretty easy - lay out cups - fill them with water and hand them out!!!!


Loaded up the truck with all the stuff and back to Ontario Place. Haven't had a chance to chat with James yet as he was busy cleaning up the second water station.


Let's just say that volunteering (while a lot of work) was lots of fun and MANY MANY runners thanked us for coming out to help. And I ran into a fellow that I used to work with. How bizarre is that that he picked my water station to stop at!!!!


OK - so I have a CRAPPED OUT computer (I'm using the spare laptop that we have and it is bizarre). Got to call HP to see how I can get it fixed and save my data!!!

Got loads more to blog about - just not today. Hopefully I am back in the saddle to blog every day.


Keep in mind that volunteering offer - it will be in May next year - lots of fun!!!!!



Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!