Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Thank You Speeches for Volunteers

About this time last year I wrote a guest post on DJ Cronin's Blog.  As we reflect on another year I feel that it is timely to repost this thank you message to volunteers. 


One of my favorite quotes is “To the world you may be one person but to one person you may be the world.”

You may never know the profound effect that you may have made on a person’s life. A kind word, a gentle touch or a listening ear can mean so much to someone who is sick, in pain or lonely. You generously give your gift of time to make contact, provide support and encouragement and perhaps provide humor to make someone’s day a bit more bearable because you have taken the time to care and to listen.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Change: Why does it scare us?

"The world we created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking".  Albert Einstein

“We do not decide our future.  We decide our habits and our habits determine our future”.  The Abundance Principle, Jeff D Strandridge and Tim Kellerman

"I cannot control what goes on outside but I can always control what goes on inside".   Wayne Dyer
 
Stephen Covey in his 90/10 Principle believes that 10% of life is made up of what happens to you. 90% of life is decided by how you react.  He goes on to say that we really have no control over 10% of what happens to us.  We cannot stop the car from breaking down. The plane will be late arriving, which throws our whole schedule off. A driver may cut us off in traffic.  We have no control over this 10%. The other 90% is different. You determine the other 90% by your reaction to what happens to you.

“When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”
Alexander Graham Bell (1847 – 1922)

"Until the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of change, people will choose to remain the same".  Anonymous.

Are we so scared of change that we are content to remain the same and yet are naïve enough to expect things to be different?  If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.  Do we embrace change when it comes, seeing it as an opportunity to grow, to try something new, to boldly go where no one has gone before or do we cling on to the past traditional ways of doing things,  lamenting being torn away from what is comfortable and familiar.  Are we scared to try something new because we fear failure or judgement by our peers?

The following quote resonated with me.

“To laugh often and love much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the approval of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to give of one’s self, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition, to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation, to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived . . . This is to have succeeded.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Saturday, November 5, 2011

International Volunteer Managers Day

Happy International Volunteer Managers Day to all of the volunteer managers and coordinators who play an important role in the effective engagement of volunteers.  I would encourage you to visit the IVMD website and consider ways which you could support and celebrate IVMD.

http://www.volunteermanagersday.org/

International Volunteer Managers Day 2013

As we approach another International Volunteer Managers Day (IVMD), I ponder the true meaning of the day.   The banners and posters on the...