Elizabeth Moore, a volunteer representative for Red Cross spoke at forum this week. At least, that was the plan. She ended up not showing, so most of us, myself included, thought that forum was off for the week. But just as I was on the edge of my seat, about to make a dash for the door and head to Rivertown, we were settled back into our seats by Vince. I wasn't expecting the lesson he gave us, especially considering the unexpectedness of her cancellation. But Vince had quite a testament to share regarding motives in volunteerism.

He seemed more perturbed about the situation than any of us, probably because he puts a ton of time into lining up speakers that he thinks we'll benefit from. This aside, I'm not clear on the specifics of why she cancelled, and why this affected Vince so. The Red Cross handles disaster relief, so they were busy responding to the disaster caused by Hurricane Sandy. Vince said it himself, "You can't plan for disaster like Sandy." Seems to me that Moore could have been dealing with the chaos as Red Cross responded to the emergency. But I believe I'm missing some information about why she dipped out on us.

The theme of Vince's spiel was this:

"Sometimes you have to stick it out with an organization that is doing less than they could do, because you stand for what they can be. As you volunteer, don't lose your head. Question it. Are people being efficient and appropriate?"

I think what I got out of it most was that he shattered that conception that volunteer organizations are the be-all and end-all. Not so. As we see tonight, organizations are no better than the people involved. As I volunteer with the soup kitchen, I'm representing the church and the others I work with. Lotta responsibility for a college student.