A little over a year ago, I changed my mind about doing as many volunteer activities as I usually was involved in. I realized I had turned into the one whose hand was always raised to help out. I also realized that when I committed myself to too many or the wrong projects that I started resenting this tendency. I took a hard look at my commitments and started to withdraw from committees for which I had volunteered. One in particular stands out. The minister at our church asked me to serve on a history committee preserving and documenting our past. I was ideally suited for this having been a librarian all my working life and having been a member for almost 40 years.
There were four other volunteers, one who has most of the church documents and photographs on her personal computer and she has been slowly transferring them to the church server. The one guy on the committee would only work on the IT aspects of the committee. Two other volunteers turned out to have very definite opinions on how the work should proceed. After 4 meetings I realized that I really did not want to work on this committee, of which I had somehow become chair. After talking it over with a therapist, I realized that I could just quit. I sent out an email to all concerned and just stated that I no longer wanted to work on this. I almost immediately felt better.
I had told the Friends of the library board that as soon as my term of president was up that I would not be an officer, but there were some things I’d still do for them. I even quit transporting injured birds for the local raptor center, a job I’d been doing for almost 20 years. I thought I would miss that especially, but it turned out not to be the case.
I have a lot of fond memories, especially of the bird rescue and transport but I made room for other volunteers and I’m happy I did.
— Oxnard15
There were four other volunteers, one who has most of the church documents and photographs on her personal computer and she has been slowly transferring them to the church server. The one guy on the committee would only work on the IT aspects of the committee. Two other volunteers turned out to have very definite opinions on how the work should proceed. After 4 meetings I realized that I really did not want to work on this committee, of which I had somehow become chair. After talking it over with a therapist, I realized that I could just quit. I sent out an email to all concerned and just stated that I no longer wanted to work on this. I almost immediately felt better.
I had told the Friends of the library board that as soon as my term of president was up that I would not be an officer, but there were some things I’d still do for them. I even quit transporting injured birds for the local raptor center, a job I’d been doing for almost 20 years. I thought I would miss that especially, but it turned out not to be the case.
I have a lot of fond memories, especially of the bird rescue and transport but I made room for other volunteers and I’m happy I did.
— Oxnard15
Fond memories are treasures, and the idea of making room for other volunteers is a wonderful way to think about it! (Macoff, fellow Dipper)
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