Volunteering

It has been almost a full year since I retired.  Since that time, I decided to get some part-time jobs on a seasonal basis (Kohls and Target), and take on volunteer work.  The seasonal jobs were a bit much during the Christmas season last year so I dropped the day job at Target, but decided to retain the night job at Kohls.  I still work one or two nights a week and, now with Christmas once again approaching, that may increase to up to 3 nights per week (which is the maximum that I want to work).

Ian got the first strike at the Book 'N' Bowl fundraiser

Volunteering is the thing that has really started to consume my time.  I had to be cleared by the City of Appleton in order to work at the Library, and I also started doing some volunteer work at the Gardens of the Fox Cities (in conjunction with needing volunteer hours to maintain my Master Gardener status).  Working periodically at the library wasn't too bad, until I was recruited to work on a fundraising committee.  Since July, we've had periodic committee meetings to put together the Book 'N' Bowl fundraiser.  The event was held this past Saturday at Super Bowl and we all attended and had a good time, but I'm also glad that the event is now over.  We'll need to have another meeting or two to assess our success in raising money, and we'll need to determine what steps need to be closed out (thank you notes, etc.).  However, the bulk of the work is done and I'm glad that's behind us.  We started with a fairly large committee (maybe 12 people), but it ended up being only 6 of us doing everything at the end.

At the event this past Saturday, I was approached and asked to also work on the next fundraiser:  the Used Book Sale that takes place in November.  I agreed immediately because it looks like fun -- working in the library "dungeon" organizing books that we'll be putting up for sale, and then working the sale itself.  That, too, will have a reasonably short shelf life as the book sale is in November.  After that, I'm guessing that any work associated with that committee will be intermittent and involve sorting and shelving books to be sold at the next sale.

Then, there is the periodic monitoring at the free movie screenings held at the Library.  Those are my favorite volunteer activities:  show up and get the room ready, then sit and watch a movie for two hours -- counting people as they come in so we have an accurate count of the participants.

With cold weather on the way, I'll also want to start spending days at the Library shelving books since it's nice and warm there and it means I won't have to turn the heat up at home.

I was also doing volunteer work at the Gardens of the Fox Cities:  helping with various craft and educational classes, and helping out at social functions held at the Gardens or supplying food for volunteers that are working all day.  I also ended up on a Marketing Committee that will now meet every few months during the winter.  Again, with winter on the way, I'm guessing that work at the Gardens will taper off considerably.

Also, for my Master Gardeners group, they were looking for someone to manage the Facebook page so I took that on a while back.  It is definitely the easiest of all of my volunteer jobs -- maybe 15 minutes a day on those days that I do any posting.  The work at the Gardens and the work for the Facebook page are both counted toward the 20 hours per year that I need for my Master Gardeners status.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/OutagamieMG

Our Master Gardener group has determined that we need to create a new website and I thought I might be able to help with that.  I've spent many, many hours the past few days reviewing our current website and comparing it to other websites, looking into hosting sites, and playing with the creation of a template for a new website for our group.  I don't think there is any way that I'd be able to put this together -- certainly not in any reasonable time frame.  I had no idea how really complicated it is to build a website!

One final organization that has come to my attention:  Saving Paws Animal Shelter.  I provided a monetary donation (recurring 12 month donation totaling $250), and got a nice sweatshirt, t-shirt, and tote bag from them.  I've been advised that they also need volunteer help so I'm going to keep them in mind in case I have time this winter.