#1. Why community service Matters - A Personal Leadership Journey
Why community service Matters - A Personal Leadership Journey
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We are living in a community that has come to be more inward-looking. We live busy lives - raising children, construction careers, tending to ageing parents, enrolling in adult education, travelling to exotic locations and trying to stay fit and healthy. We face rapid technological change, falling for the newest gizmos and then struggling to frame out how they operate.
Why community service Matters - A Personal Leadership Journey
The modern economic and financial events have exerted titanic stresses on individuals and organizations. What we are starting to perceive - and fear - is that we will not be returning to what was. But what will be the new normal? We're increasingly a more movable population. Our community has come to be more polarized economically as wage distribution has been skewed towards a smaller share of high wage earners.
These trends and issues are steadily reshaping North American society. And what may fall in the cracks along the way is a critically leading aspect of what has helped define Canadians and Americans as caring and kind people: service to our communities.
My belief is that community service matters: that it plays a vital role in helping originate strong, vibrant and inclusive communities. And at the level of the individual, it can lead enormously to one's leadership growth. In this paper I'll share some of my diverse experiences in community volunteer work, what it has meant to me, and how it helped me along my personal leadership journey. And I will close with a call to operation to stimulate the reader's personal reflection on community service.
My volunteer community service work was never done by design. That's to say, I didn't have a grand plan in mind when I began volunteering my time to varied groups, or even as I proceeded along. I plainly seized opportunities as they arose. But when I look back, I do feel a sense of pride and accomplishment - that I have made a confident difference in the communities where I lived and touched the lives of people.
This reminds me of a quotation from Deepak Chopra:
"I embrace the unknown because it allows me to see new aspects of myself."
Chopra's message is an invaluable tool with which to keep us open to outcome and not attached to it.
Let's begin. Before I moved to Ottawa any years ago I lived in New Brunswick where my wife, Sue, and I raised four kids. I've never quite understood what propelled me into doing volunteer work shortly after I graduated from university. My parents categorically never did much in the way of volunteer work. So I didn't have them as role models. But my earlier efforts included serving on the boards of directors of a credit union and, later on, cooperative housing. However, I realized after a few years that I didn't particularly enjoy the politics that underlay much of this volunteer work. I had to deal with enough of that at work. I decided, as a result, to direct my attentiveness to what I'll call frontline community service work.
That opportunity came when my son Michael, now 26, was five years old. As a previous Cub and Scout in Montreal (where I grew up), I urged Michael to get complex in Beavers (ages five to seven). I became a Beaver Leader, and for the next eight years followed Michael along the Scouts Canada schedule until he was 14. There were many work nights when I felt too drained, after wolfing down a quick supper, to head off to Beavers, Cubs or Scouts with Michael. But I can categorically state that within a few minutes upon arriving that my battery was recharged. Enthralling with the other leaders and leading the kids straight through their schedule was a lot of fun - and rewarding.
Taking the boys on hikes and camping trips was especially rewarding as you watched them put onto practice what we had taught them at our weekly meetings. Of course, there were times when one's patience as a leader was tested. And there were some weird experiences with the boys. For example, I took our small Scout troop on a camping trip to Fundy National Park. It rained a lot and everybody was getting pretty squishy, and I instructed the boys to convert their socks regularly.
On the third day, some of the Scouts started complaining about sore feet. One of the Scouts was in quite a bit of pain. Upon considering his feet they looked like swollen prunes. He was in the early stage of developing trench foot, a malady base with soldiers during the Ww1 who spent a lot of time in wet trenches. My clarification was for the boys to air out their feet for an afternoon, while drying out their footwear. A part learned for the Scouts! But it meant delaying activities while we dealt with the problem.
My years in Scouting produced one very pleasant surprise many years later. By sheer coincidence, the fiancé of my oldest daughter's best friend turns out to be one of my previous Beavers. Robert is now 27, and a fine young man who works in Ottawa. I still vividly remember his grinning face as a six year old, who was a good sport and team player with the other boys. After a two-decade gap, it wasn't just a surprise to meet him again but it was wonderful to see how he had matured and come to be a contributing member to society. One of the rewards of leading youth.
Parallel to my Scouting adventures, I became actively complex with the United Way straight through my work in a federal regional office. I started out as a canvasser during the fall campaigns, Enthralling up to coordinating it for my group in Fredericton, New Brunswick. during that very busy period, I began to understand much good the confident impact that organizations like United Way have on local communities. This especially came into focus when habitancy who benefitted from Uw programs came to speak to canvassers and coordinators about how they were helped (e.g., disabilities and condition problems). In particular, it instilled in me how fortunate I was as an individual, as well as my children.
After a few years with the United Way, I shifted my volunteer efforts to the Red Cross. One of the activities I became heavily complex in was delivering first aid/Cpr training. While there was some remuneration for this, much of the training I gave was done voluntarily, such as to those in Scouting, both leaders and youth.
Being a Red Cross instructor over any years was a wonderful studying palpate from any perspectives. First, knowing that you were helping equip habitancy to rejoinder effectively to first aid emergencies was very satisfying. And this was reinforced when it complex training youth.
Second, it categorically helped enlarge my speaking skills, and especially how to plan and deliver training sessions. The courses were typically done on weekends Enthralling 16 hours of instruction. By Sunday night I was exhausted, but feeling very satisfied that I had done something constructive for my community.
And third, because I am a big supporter of the Red Cross, delivering first aid training helped originate awareness of the club and its programs.
Tied to my Red Cross work was other aspect, and which would finally lead to my involvement in the most meaningful volunteer work I have ever done - but first some context.
In addition to being a first aid trainer, I was also a member of the Fredericton Disaster Response Team. This comprised a large group of habitancy who responded to small and large-scale disasters (e.g., house fires, flooding, and supporting quest and rescue personnel). Some experienced members of the team also volunteered for assignments in other countries where they provided humanitarian relief following such events as hurricanes and earthquakes.
The nature of this volunteer work with the Red Cross is helping habitancy in times of crisis. The Red Cross has one strategic goal, which I find very compelling: "To heighten the situation of the most vulnerable." For me, this statement sums up eloquently what the Red Cross is about.
My most considerable palpate I had with the Red Cross, and in fact with any community club I've been involved, is my work in retain of the Kosovar refugees in the spring of 1999. There were diverse views on whether it was appropriate for the federal government to airlift civilians out of a war-torn area in Eastern Europe to Canada. But for the Red Cross and its volunteers, it was a matter of extending a helping hand to those "most vulnerable."
The refugees were flown to Canadian troops Base Greenwood in Nova Scotia, and then bused to Cfb Gagetown in New Brunswick. The refugees consisted of men and women - young and old - and children. The plan was to house them temporarily in the Cadet barracks section of the troops base.
Leading up to the coming of the refugees, the Red Cross identified volunteers from their network. I arranged to take a few days off work since we would be working at Gagetown from midnight to dawn. The Red Cross then arranged briefings for the volunteers to clarify our duties and how to guide ourselves on the nights when our "guests" arrived. I also did some crash first aid training for some of the volunteers.
On my first night I arrived nearby midnight, and began the wait with the other volunteers for our guests. I assuredly felt apprehensive about what was to unfold, especially since this was a new palpate for all of us. Finally, nearby 2:00 am seven motorcoaches filed gently onto the base, each packed full with people. Each bus had two translators to support with the transition.
These habitancy had traveled seven hours from Cfb Greenwood. When each bus rolled up to the unloading middle point where a dozen or so Red Cross volunteers waited, we could see the haggard faces of the Kosovars peering at us straight through the windows. Some young children waved to us; others were very shy, taking occasional peeks, then burying their heads in their mothers' arms.
I vividly recall my first palpate with the Kosovars. The first bus rolled up to the unloading area. The door opened and one of the translators stepped forward with his arm nearby the shoulders of a boy about 16 (the same age as my son at the time). "Hey everyone," the translator shouted to us, "It's his birthday today!" So we did the appropriate thing and sang happy birthday to this young lad. He bounded down the steps of the bus and ran up to us. He had the biggest smile on his face and began pumping each of our hands. It was a very emotional occasion for all of us.
I had to put aside what began running straight through my mind. How could this boy be smiling after what he and his house had been straight through in Kosovo? He had nothing but the clothes on his back, plus a few added items that were provided to each refugee at Cfb Greenwood. This contrasted sharply with my own four children, then ages 10 to 19, who liked to complain about how hard they had it. Sound customary to any parents?
This teenage boy taught me an leading part that night: as middle class Canadians, we come to be caught up too categorically in the small stuff and materialism. We need to periodically take stock of where we're at in our lives and re-examine for what it is we stand. What propels us as individuals? What do we do to help make the world, and our communities, a good place in which to live?
It was Viktor Frankl (in his book Man's quest for Meaning) who said:
"Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms ïEur to pick one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to pick one's own way."
I worked until dawn that night and a subsequent night at Cfb Gagetown to help greet more refugees and to support them to their accommodations. I felt very humbled and honoured to have been able to help in such an leading relief effort. While many of the adults were exhausted and appeared cautious, a few were smiling. Some joked with us. Possibly the most considerable moments occurred when very young children took the hands of the Red Cross volunteers and walked with them to the reception centre. Trust.
The two nights that I worked at the base were magic. I know that the other Red Cross volunteers will hold these moments as precious treasures. As individuals on a shrinking planet, we grew as human beings, and as leaders, from this experience.
Juxtaposed against this community service work with the Red Cross was my involvement with Fredericton's well known Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival, held every September. The difference was striking, in terms of community service. Some habitancy might prefer volunteer work that is more consistent in theme. But I like, and prefer, diverse habitancy and taking on Enthralling and varied projects. The Festival offered such a challenge.
The planning for a five day festival takes one year. When the event ultimately arrives in September, an intense, highly collaborative effort is unleashed. Over 400 volunteers make the Festival happen each year, with attendance topping 50,000, drawing habitancy from all over North America, as well as even parts of Europe. There is only one paid employee. The organizers, who make up the board of directors, are all volunteers who devote huge amounts of personal time to see the Festival realized. They're wonderful people.
I had been a volunteer with the Festival for a few years, but for the 1999 Festival I was asked if would be an event employer for three consecutive nights in one of the large tents. My tent held over 800 people. As event manager, I was responsible for overseeing the execution each evening, which consisted of three cut off acts by musicians. I led an eight member administration team, which in turn had over 40 volunteers in varied capacities.
It was staggering to watch some 50 volunteers arrive each evening about 5:30 and then launch into an intense, team effort. There was no time for debating turfs or bickering over trivial issues that are base to organizations. habitancy had to pull their weight and understand the interdependency among the dissimilar teams. This was shared leadership in action.
I went into this role with only a little palpate with the Festival. It meant working from 5:30 pm to 1:30 am each night at full tilt. As many problems arose during each event, I had to work closely with the managers and their teams. Problems ranged from inadequate electrical capacity to drunk patrons to overcrowding in the tent (with the City Police watching closely) to an ambulance call for a healing illness.
Yes, it was taxing at times. On the first night, I asked myself: "What have I got myself into?" But working the Festival was an incredibly rewarding experience. I met many wonderful volunteers and patrons from all over North America, and was hugely impressed the sheer commitment of the volunteers whose sole goal was to deliver memorable experiences for the patrons.
My main point in recounting my palpate with this music Festival is to underscore the importance of stretching oneself as a learner. We can't maximize our studying and personal increase if we don't put ourselves in new situations. And these situations need to go beyond workplace assignments and new jobs. They need to consist of community service work.
In 2000, Sue and I moved our house to Ottawa. My community service work has not been nearly as intense, and has been centered primarily on music festivals. Sue and I have been volunteers with the Ottawa Folk Festival for 10 years, Enthralling both the summer festival and winter concerts. We've met dozens of wonderful habitancy who donate their time unconditionally to help add spice and vibrancy to Ottawa's culture. And being a jazz aficionado, I joined the Ottawa International Jazz Festival four years ago, and have loved every little of it. Again, the folks who help out are a great bunch.
Service to our communities comes in many forms. It is up to each of us to rule where and how we wish to leave a confident mark. I would recommend that getting complex in community work needs to be associated to our personal vision on how we lead our lives. It was Helen Keller who said: "Worse than being blind is to see and have no vision."
Leadership includes stewardship. It means giving back to our communities, and more broadly society, and in turn studying from that interaction. I see it as an issue of balance: how each of us as human beings approaches work, home, and community. One way to see this is as a three legged stool. Take off one of the legs and our lives are profoundly affected.
At the outset of this description I expressed my belief that community service matters. It contributes enormously to helping originate strong, vibrant and inclusive communities. And at the personal level, having shared some of my experiences and adventures, it can lead significantly to one's leadership growth.
This brings to mind some wise words from author Alan Cohen:
"It takes a lot of courage to publish the customary and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real protection in what is no longer meaningful. There is more protection in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in convert there is power."
I'll leave you, the reader, with two questions upon which to reflect. Ask yourself:
o How can I put myself out of my relax zone so that I may added invent my leadership capacity?
o Do I have the courage to do this?
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