My Perfect Volunteer Opportunity
I recently completed a telecourse through Dreamcrafters Inc. called Turbocharge Your Business. Based on the Law of Attraction, the main focus was on attracting your perfect customers, but we learned that the same principles could apply to attracting your perfect subcontractors, your perfect mate, etc.
I like the concept of volunteering, but in my experience, whenever you volunteer for a specific task or activity, the organization involved always expects much more than that. For example, several years ago, I decided to become a Big Sister, which was a wonderful experience. However, I was pressured to also participate in various fundraising and promotional activities, such as working in a smoke-filled Bingo Hall at the time I’d usually be thinking about going to bed.
During my first year as a POC member, the Director of Membership had to step down for personal reasons, and I was asked to step in. I was told it was mainly an administrative position, updating the member database and sending out membership kits. I was happy to take it on, and remained in the position for nearly three years. However, what started out as a few hours a month grew to a few hours a week, as the membership grew from under 100 to nearly 400 during that time. In addition, because the Board members were located across the country, I had to participate in telephone meetings, which often lasted several hours. I am not really a telephone person and found this quite excruciating. Then there were all the phone calls and emails from prospective members and new members…. It was a valuable experience which I don’t regret, but when my term ended last fall, I decided I would take a break before getting involved in anything else.
Since then I have been looking, off and on, for a volunteer opportunity that would be in keeping with my interests and talents. I’ve searched Volunteer Hamilton, Charity Village, and Volunteer Match, and of course there are always opportunities within the various groups I belong to, but nothing seemed to really excite me.
Just before Christmas, I came across a posting on Volunteer Match looking for a volunteer to research websites with career information for high school students. This was a big part of my job for over five years, and I have over 1000 links which I collected during that time. This is the perfect opportunity for me. It will give me a chance to finally go through those links to delete those which are no longer active, and at the same time, I can provide a service to some young people.
I do believe this is an example of the Law of Attraction at work. I loved working as an employment counsellor and sometimes have regretted leaving that world behind to start my business. However, over the last few months, I am attracting more and more clients from related industries: recruiters, resume writers, trainers, and so on. It’s really quite amazing.
I can’t wait to see what I will attract in 2007!
