Volunteer Work (Really Does) = Crap Work

Well, I survived my weekend at Sundance. But only just barely. I'm insanely tired and full of regret for having only seen one movie. The highlight of my Sundancing was meeting Dave Matthews. Can I tell you what a nice guy he is?! He's one of those celebrities who doesn't act like a celebrity and took pictures with and signed autographs for everyone who wanted one at the party. He also gave my friend Josh a $30 tip for a drink he made for him. Josh is going to frame that $30. I only got to post my picture with him on The Facebook.

However, I do believe that my volunteer days are over—especially for anything related to Sundance. I volunteered for the actual festival a few years ago and had the worst volunteer experience in my life. Well, this weekend marked my 2^nd worst volunteer experience ever. (Even Utah Pride doesn't compare to this. Trust me.) While I wasn't volunteering directly for Sundance this year, I will never be able to volunteer for anything even remotely related to the festival again.

Of course, some of this may be due to the fact that I do better as a volunteer coordinator rather than a plain-old volunteer. You see, I've spent most of my professional-personal life in volunteer work. (I'm in Democratic politics in Utah where there are no paid positions). I know how to effectively use and treat volunteers. But maybe political volunteering is different from other kinds of volunteering. I don't think so, but maybe.

First of all, when you are "in charge" of volunteers, it's important to give them instructions. Don't just have them show up then not tell them ANYTHING about what they'll be doing then order them around every so often. I stood around for most of the time and being the kind of person I am, I just started doing work. People didn't like this though. I was told multiple times not to do things. Like, organize the storage room so people could actually walk through it. This was BAD to do for some reason that I will never fully understand.

Second, when there are multiple people in charge of the event/organization, it should be made very clear that volunteers should be treated with a little respect. Over the course of my volunteer work, I was never asked to do anything—I was DEMANDED to do things. Often, I was demanded to do multiple things at once by 5 different people. You know, I can multi-task, but that was ridiculous. I understand that some volunteers need to be coddled and treated like imbeciles. But I'm not one of them. Especially when the volunteer "coordinator" is someone who already knows me and what I'm capable of doing. Needless to say, I didn't really get along with most of the people over the event/organization even though they were all gay or lesbian (and everyone knows how much I heart the gays!).

Third, always feed your volunteers. Especially when there is free food EVERYWHERE. Don't chastise them for eating food when they're working either. I mean, if they have to sit around and do nothing due to your non-existent instructions, don't complain that they're not doing anything. With my "charming" personality none of this went over well at all. Like I care. I spent most of time doing busy work and staying clear and not talking to any of the staff who were running the show.

In the end, I made it all worthwhile: I "stole" a free swag bag full of CD's, books and beanie caps. It was the least they could give me after treating me like a 12-year-old idiot for two days. Oh, I found a flavored water I love: Borba. You MUST try them!