Volunteering and community responsibility

General
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I can address this from the perspective of someone who has done a lot of community organizing. I used to produce or co-produce a couple of annual non-profit festivals, along with frequent smaller supporting events; I sat on the board of the org that “owned” the events; I helped run elections for the board; I moderated a couple of the forums that members of the community used and managed the board’s website; all on a 100% volunteer basis.

Basically, as a volunteer, your responsibility is to do what you say you’re going to do. You don’t HAVE to do any volunteer job, but if you SAY you’re going to do one, you owe it to the community to do it – OR step away with clarity so that someone else can do it. Maybe you can’t do it, or don’t want to do it anymore, or just need help doing it – life happens, and everyone gets it. The important part is clear and open communication – you can’t quiet quit if the job needs doing. You just have to be above board about your intentions, even if you think you’ll disappoint people by stepping away. (And sometimes, the community may decide that, in absence of someone to fill a job, that maybe the job doesn’t need to be done. It happens.)

So, to answer more simply: the main thing a volunteer organizer owes is transparency.

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There’s an unspoken set of issues around what the job is. A new volunteer might decide that some things need to work differently. The community might object to that change. Or not. Or they might be split on the question!

I’m speaking very generally here, but these questions surface every time a new person volunteers for IF Archive or IFDB or IFWiki filing/moderation/tagging/etc. Or forum moderation, obviously. And then there’s NarraScope, which has had a new lead every year.

The only broad answer is to bring new people on board before the last old person leaves, so that you have some time to work together and figure out how the show runs.

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i have a responsibility to do a job if im getting paid for it. a volunteer has a responsibility to communicate what they’re doing and step down when they can’t do it. they dont have a responsibility to do it.

eta: basically what ivan said, he said it better

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I didn’t vote in the poll; I think it’s the wrong question.

I think a better question is: what should we do when volunteer organizers take over a role and then don’t fulfill that role?

Options include:

  • Call the organizer out
  • Call the organizer in
  • Volunteer to help (up to and including volunteering to take over the role yourself)

… and each of those options can be done publicly or privately (one-on-one, or with an internal, private group).

You can also work within the existing organization to transfer the responsibility to someone else (perhaps yourself), or just start your own volunteer organization and volunteer for that.

So, which options are appropriate for which situations? Obviously, that depends on a lot of details specific to the situation.

  • How much harm will be done if the job simply doesn’t get done?
  • Why didn’t the organizer fulfill the role?
  • What alternatives are available?
  • Does the organizer believe they will fulfill their role in the future? (If so, is that belief justified?)
  • What’s the power structure within the existing organization? Can one or more other people within the organization transfer responsibility to someone else? (Or does the organizer control the organization?)
  • Can you do the job? (If it’s a leadership position, will other people follow you?)

The question “Does a volunteer who accepted a previously-existing role have a responsibility to fulfill that role?” doesn’t really help anyone decide what to do. It doesn’t tell me whether to call the organizer out, or call them in. It doesn’t tell me whether to discuss the matter privately or publicly.

And it doesn’t tell me anything about whether I should volunteer to help, whether I should try to convince the organization to transfer responsibilities, or whether I should start my own organization.

I strongly recommend against calling out IF organizers based on the result of this poll

Based on, ah, other threads about this topic, (threads that got pretty flamey and so I don’t want to link to them) I’m particularly worried that if the results of the poll turn out to be “yes”, one or more people here will use that data to make bad decisions.

Even if the results of the poll are overwhelmingly “yes”, it would be a mistake to conclude “the community” has agreed that we have a community norm to publicly call out volunteer IF organizers who don’t fulfill their role (or who don’t publicly/transparently discuss their obstacles).

In the other threads I’m thinking of, calling out IF organizers has not made anything better, and has simply damaged the reputation of those attempting to do it. (I’ve made this mistake myself in the past.)

If you read the results of this poll and use it to encourage yourself to publicly call IF organizers out, don’t be surprised if the very same people who voted “yes” on this poll call you out for “personally attacking” volunteer organizers.

Don’t read this poll. Instead, read the room.

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thank you dan, i’d heart your post more if i could so here is the other hearts

:sparkling_heart::sparkling_heart::sparkling_heart::sparkling_heart::sparkling_heart::sparkling_heart::sparkling_heart::sparkling_heart::sparkling_heart::sparkling_heart::sparkling_heart::sparkling_heart:

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I guess this is about the XYZZY Awards. I think as long as they’re backdated it’ll all work out in the end :slight_smile:

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It’s not about the XYZZY Awards unless you make it so.

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I was guessing what Otisdog had in mind, which isn’t something I can affect.

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Speaking generally, not about one specific situation–I do think it can be really helpful if there is a backup plan in place so that if something goes wrong, people already know what to do about it.

Here’s a thread from a few years ago where people share their plans.