Sunday, February 6, 2005

Habitat

Yesterday, husband and I spent our first day as volunteers at a Habitat for Humanity building site. Since we are home improvement junkies, we thought Habitat would be a good door to knock on. Out in Northeast Portland, Habitat is building a neighborhood of seven charming little duplexes. Building started a year ago, so the units are now at the "finish work" stage. I enjoyed the work, and I definitely want to go back again. But I made some observations, and experienced some frustration that left me wondering if I’m too much of a control freak to ever really thrive in volunteer work. Or maybe some of you out there have had similar experiences.

This has been a huge project; according to our group organizer, it’s the largest project ever attempted by Habitat in Portland. And, it kind of looked like they had bitten off more than they could chew. The very fact that construction had begun over a year ago, and the units were still not even close to being finished was a clue to this. So was the fact that they had brought in a crew of Americorps volunteers to work on the project. I wondered if maybe they weren’t getting a large enough volunteer pool from the community to finish the work in a timely manner, so they had to call in the reserves.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I think Americorps is a very worthy organization, and the idea of young people performing a term of service should perhaps even be written into law. But I’m not sure they were the solution for this project…young college kids, most of whom have not yet owned a home of their own, so they didn’t come armed with even basic home maintenance skills. Now, I don’t know what kind of training was provided for them. Enough to give the organizers the confidence to appoint them "group leaders"—the ones who got to drag little queues of local volunteers around, looking for stuff to do.

I was happy enough to spend half the day crawling around on the floor caulking baseboards (the glucosamine must be working, because I’m not nearly as miserable this morning as I thought I would be…) But as I worked, I observed a greater degree of confusion, error, misdirection, and duplication of effort than I was comfortable with on a project of this size. For example, one crew was assigned to installing doorknobs and other hardware. Two hours later, we were assigned to go paint the doors. Shouldn’t we have done that before the hardware went on? I know this makes me appear totally anal-retentive (if the shoe fits…?) But multiply these little organizational gaffes by ten or twenty, and you have something approaching anarchy. People assigned to projects that had already been done. People doing things they had no idea how to do, and no one checking their work when they were finished. Groups assigned to redo work that had been done days ago, but it was just now being discovered to be unacceptable.

I found myself piping up with (unsolicited) directions and advice, simply because that is what I do. Nobody got mad at me, thank God, but I did get a few strange looks. And it just made me wonder…why are there not more people with great organizational skills out there among the volunteer ranks? Because it’s a skill that isn’t natural to the service personality? Most service-oriented people I’ve known are long on "people-skills," but short on…common sense. And they seem so reluctant to piss off the volunteers, that they’re afraid to tell them, "Okay, this is what needs to be done, this is what I want you to do, and this is how I want you to do it." Am I nuts, or don’t most volunteers approach a project with open minds and ready hands? I think service organizations sell volunteers short, if they think they will lose them if they really expect them to work.

Lord, don’t I look like the classic "glass is half empty" person? I’m reminded of the first scene in "A Charlie Brown Christmas," where Linus is chiding Charlie Brown for being the only person he knows that can take a season that’s supposed make people happy and turn it into a problem. I AM Charlie Brown…

But, of course the experience was still a good one. Though I would like to be able to offer my organizational skills to the project, I will be happy to give my hands, my back, my feet…the parts of me they are asking me to give. On the drive home, a huge bird swooped into sight ahead of us. I couldn’t make out its coloring right away, but by its size and its "flying board" silhouette, I knew it was a bald eagle. He flew low, straight down the highway, and we drove right under him. To me, this was the sign of a special blessing. Someone in the Spirit World was telling us we had done good. What more can I ask?

15 comments:

  1. My sons did a lot of volunteering for Habitat in high school.  In fact, they spent most of one summer doing it like it was a job. They said that a lot of times the Habitat people have to repair work after the once-in-awhile volunteers leave.  They learned quite a bit about construction since they were there every day, but many volunteers are with church groups who come 1x or 2x a month if that.  MY guess is that if you and your dh, with your skills and administrative ability, were to become regular volunteers, Habitat would be abolutely thrilled.  And as you get to know the employees and they see your areas of expertise, you will probably find yourselves organizing as much as hammering.

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  2. I don't know a lot about the organization...but I would be very interested in getting involved here.  That's my kind of project (very hands on).  It's my guess that they're always looking for people like you that have both the manual AND the organizational skills.  Keep going...I'll bet that they'll put your ideas to good use.

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  3. I am glad to see you got out and 'joined' and you picked a very worthy cause....
    Kristi

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  4. I love your picture in the about me. And what a sweet thing for you to do. I would love to volunteer for something like that. You must be a very special person. And I agree about painting first. LOL

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  5. We volunteered for Habitat for Humanity a few years ago. We put siding on so many houses and duplexes we could have started our own siding business after the stint! We enjoyed the experience. You are doing great service to a lot of people.  You are also fortunate to give not only the gift of labor but of time and love too.

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  6. You definitely did good.  The ranks of volunteers need organizational skills badly.  It's something I've encountered in every group I've been a part of.  Too often, people regard managing volunteers as requiring kid gloves when it all it needs is tact and appreciation.  The rest is simply management.  I wonder how experienced the Habitat director there is.  I've seen Habitat Houses completed in weeks.

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  7. I think you've identified the problems and the potential solutions accurately. They've bitten off more than they can chew and are now choking on it. Managing a multi-building project is beyond the expertise of most home builders... it requires an experienced general contractor with an equally experienced and loyal office staff backing up him/her. Mix in a range of skill levels in your workers and you have chaos.

    Volunteer your organizational ability on-site or in the office - they'll be so glad you did...

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  8. Good for you!  Sounds like a worthwhile project!

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  9. It sounds like they need you in a greater capacity than you are serving.  They probably DO have a shortage of people who actually know what they are doing, and who are willing to volunteer large chunks of time to consistently see a project through.  But don't they have some sort of paid site supervisors or something?  I don't think it would piss off the volunteers to get clear directions; people hate to feel like their time is being wasted.
    By the way, good for you. H for H is an excellent cause.

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  10. For cryin' out loud. How hard can it be to sit down with a spreadsheet and list what has to be done to build a house. Look over the list and figure out what comes first? I'd think that most of the stuff is pretty obvious. You have to put in the plumbing before you install the sinks, that sort of thing. Then make multiple copies for each building. Sometimes having your heart in the right place isn't enough. (I know I'm preaching to the choir here.)

    Hey, a bald eagle-wonderful. One sunny morning I saw some fairly large white birds in a pasture that is on my way to work. I think they were egrets. Lots of egrets. It's not that far from Fern Ridge  and I have seen them there. :-)

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  11. Everyone is a follower...no leaders apply?

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  12. it sounds like the project is a little unorganized...but still, good for you to be doing the volunteer work...hope they figure out the little glitches...it's such a good cause!

    ~JerseyGirl
    http://journals.aol.com/cneinhorn/WonderGirl

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  13. Thanks for stopping by my journal and leaving the link back to yours. I have always wanted to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. When I had the time I couldn't find anything local and I wasn't about to go cross country alone. My skills are not all that good either. I was afraid I would do subpar work. I applaud your efforts for such a worthy venture. Nelle

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  14. Great service that you did. I've been thinking lately of volunteering for them. I used to volunteer for the literacy council here, which I think was a great worthwhile cause. It sounds to me like they need someone like you. A fresh person can bring a lot to an organization if those in charge are willing to accept the insight brought to the table. However, I would wait until I had been on the job for a bit before giving constructive criticism. People tend to be more receptive if you have a bit of time under your belt. When the time is right you should approach whoever is in charge and present them with your observations. I bet they would be ecstatic for you to offer your services to make things better. :-) ---Robbie

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  15. Testing, testing.  I just made a comment then got that "website not responding" nonsense.  Ugh.

    Just wanted to say that I don't think there's anything at all wrong with noticing the ways in which the job wasn't done right.  The agency wants everyone to have that attitude.  Not only does it save dollars (that could be used for other things) when it's done properly. but everyone likes to be part of something that's a work of quality, you know?  That will encourage more people to volunteer.

    Good going on the volunteering.  I wish I could say I'd done more of the same!
    Donna

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