Thoughts on Volunteering from "Everyday Giving Blog"

5 Reasons I Love To Volunteer

Why do people volunteer their time?

As a volunteer, you don't get paid for donating your time. However, there are benefits in it for you and me when we're unselfish in giving our time to benefit others.

The following are five major reasons why I choose to volunteer. Although I don't receive a check in the mail for my help, these reasons are more motivating than money.

1. I Love Supporting a Cause I Care About

We see and experience things everyday that scream for our help.

God has given me a passion regarding some of them. This passion continues to motivate me to take action and make a difference.

Committing my time and energy to a cause that I am passionate about is energizing.

2. I Love Learning and Demonstrating New Skills

Two things that are important to me are:

• Continuously learning to improve myself
• Mentoring others by sharing my knowledge, skills and experiences to help others improve

Volunteering has allowed me many opportunities to do both.

Every volunteer experience has required me to learn and experience new things. I have discovered more about the causes I support. I have also learned and practiced new skills as I have participated in new ways.

Donating my time has also provided me many opportunities to mentor. Being a mentor to kids and to other volunteers continues to be very rewarding.

3. I Love Making New Friends

I've made a significant number of new friends through my volunteering efforts.

Some of the kindest people that I have met were employees and volunteers of nonprofit organizations.

This is not a coincidence. These are people who are willing to dedicate some of their time or even their career to making the world a better place.

These are the kind of friends that are worth meeting and keeping.

4. I Love the Great Feeling It Brings

Have you ever taken a meal to someone who was sick or paid for stranger's cup of coffee for no reason at all? If you haven't, give it a try. If you have, then you already know the great feeling you receive when doing something unselfish for someone else.

The feeling you get is no different when volunteering your time to a cause you are passionate about.

I feel great when I have the opportunity to help someone. In fact, I have found the feeling can be addictive. As I support an important cause with my time, I want to do even more to make a difference.

5. I Love Making a Difference

I want the way I live my life to make a difference. I know that you want that for yourself as well. Volunteering has provided me a significant way to do just that.

By donating just a portion of our time, we can:

• Make a difference in a person's life
• Make the world a better place to live
• Have a long-lasting impact

You can find volunteer opportunities everywhere. Look for opportunities at schools, churches, parks, community organizations, political organizations and charities.

Get involved in something that you care about and start making a difference. You will be glad you did.

© 2007 Roger B. Carr

Roger Carr is the founder and owner of Everyday Giving. Sign up at http://www.EverydayGiving.com to receive our informative article "9 Questions to Consider Before Volunteering" for free.

http://www.everydaygivingblog.com/2007/03/5_things_i_love.html

YNPNdc is Recruiting Board Members

Online Event Registration - Powered by www.eventbrite.com

Artomatic!

Omaemoda Productions is participating in Artomatic!

Details coming soon, but artists performing under the Omaemoda banner include Basso Moderno Duo and Schroeder's Songbook!

Check out our Artomatic profile here!

Check out the Artomatic home page here!

ARTOMATIC 2007
April 13–May 20, 2007
2121 Crystal Drive, Arlington, Va.
Metro stop: Crystal City
Free admission. Donations accepted

HOURS
Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday: Noon–10 p.m.
Thursday: Noon–11 p.m.
Friday, Saturday: Noon–1 a.m.
Closed Mondays

Happy Hour Fundraiser at Bourbon

Come out & raise a glass for a good cause...

Tuesday, March 27, 2007
6:30 - 9:30 pm

Bourbon
2321 18th Street, NW

Featuring Sean Quinn of textureDJs!

Drink Specials including $5 House Wine & $3 Yuengling!
Door Prizes including CDs and tickets to Omaemoda shows!
Silent Auction - More details coming!

$5 donation at the door

http://www.evite.com/app/publicUrl/omaemoda@yahoo.com/bourbonparty

Omaemoda Productions is a 100% volunteer-run non-profit organization that uses the performing arts to raise funds and awareness for local charities in the DC Metro area. We also strive to develop local performing arts talent. For more information, visit www.YouAreInvolved.org

Omaemoda is proud to announce our 2007 Community Partners: Capital Area Food Bank and D.C. Learns!

Trent Stamp's Take

The president of Charity Navigator gives an insider's perspective to the inspiring, intriguing, and sometimes idiotic inner workings of the world of non-profits and charities.

http://trentstamp.blogspot.com/index.html

As Banned (Not on TV)

In order for me to tell this story accurately, I will start where it all began. None of these "in media res" bullshit. I'll start from the beginning like normal people do.
Last Friday, March 2, I did a set at the Starry Night Coffeehouse in Westminster. That night, the crowd was sort of half-and-half. Half of them got me, half of them didn't. It turns out that the half that didn't get me were the ones sitting up front. When I did the material that usually gets a good response, these people in the front didn't laugh. They didn't laugh at anyone else who went up that night, but that's beside the point. Here's where I decide to have a little fun with them. After a punchline I wrote got very little response, I repeated the punchline with more force in my voice. This time, the laughs were a little bit more infectious. Not that much, but better than my first telling of the punchline. I then made the comment "It's like performing for a meat locker in here tonight." And the crowd kind of liked that. Whether it was my delivery or just my overall uppitiness, they kind of dug it. So I finished with my set and got off stage.
Last night, I received an email message from the venue telling me that "Friday's show is a no-go." I checked the pages of other comics who regularly perform there and saw that there was still something taking place on Friday night. I called the venue to ask what was going on.
The woman on the phone told me that I was not welcome back at Starry Night anymore. I, of course, asked why. I had been performing there every Friday for the past six weeks using 100% unrestrcited content and after every week, they've always asked me to come back. She told me it was because she received numerous complaints. What about, I asked. You, she said. What about me, I persisted. She told me that I had been doing the same material over and over again. I told her that wasn't true; it was the case that while some of my material I had done was from previous weeks, I had some new stuff in there as well. Keeping in mind, this is an open mic. The whole purpose of an open mic is for comics to work on their bits so that when they get a paid showcase, they can have a polished set to perform. It wasn't like I was a parrot, imitating previous setups/punchlines. I was changing it up a bit.
I explained this to the woman over the phone and she said, "Oh, so what about when some people weren't laughing because they'd heard the stuff before and you called my customers in my place of business 'slabs of meat'?" I told her that it was only meant to be taken as a joke. I am a comedian, that's what I do. Fairly harmless comedy material intended to make people laugh. That's it.
I guess my rational thoughts weren't enough to sway this woman. She insisted on telling me that I was still not welcome back. I know when to keep fighting and I simply hung up the phone. There is no reasoning for someone who can't reason.
So, that's another little adventure in the journey that is the life of comedian Tom Myers. I'm not writing this blog to tell you not to go to Starry Night Coffeehouse again. I wouldn't do that.I'm just telling you what happened. I'm also, dare I say it, shocked and amazed that after six weeks of loyalty and telling me to come on back, they would fold like a card player with a pair of deuces and tell me I'm not welcome back anymore.
Well, there's other games and other venues in town and I just have to go to them. It's not as though the stage time well is going to run dry. I've got about a dozen other bookings that take me all the way into mid-June. Some of them have very lucrative potential, too! So, overall, I'm not complaining.
Until later!
~TOM

Give and Take

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has launched a new blog, which is essentially a listing of other blogs about the nonprofit world:

http://philanthropy.com/giveandtake/

Check it out.