Have you ever said to yourself, “If only I knew then what I know now?” It’s frustrating, isn’t it? We learn by doing, by experiencing, by searching and by making mistakes.

And all that accumulated knowledge can be shared with one another in hopes that it helps.

When I started in volunteer management, I knew absolutely, unequivocally nothing about working with volunteers. NOTHING. Why did I get the job? Because no one else knew anything either and so it boiled down to, who could be the nicest person to the existing volunteers. (Wait, maybe I was the only one who applied, hmmmm)

So it became one gigantic university of hard knocks, successes, failures and profound moments. I learned a new volunteerism language, a new volunteer physics of attraction and motion and new applied relativity.

I hope that you look at anyone’s advice or experience with a discerning eye: Does this apply to me or more aptly, how can I learn from this? I used to tell hospice volunteers, “you have a wondrous opportunity here, to listen to the stories of people at end of life, to hear their joys and regrets and to discover what their experiences mean in your life, a life you still get to live.”

Sharing knowledge or experiences is a powerful thing. We, volunteer managers need to do more of it. The key to receiving knowledge from others is how you apply it, how it works for you.

Over so many years, I did discover a few things and I believe it is time for volunteer managers to disrupt our archaic system. Hence, the title for my book which is now available. I hope you will consider it and you will continue to apply knowledge from one another.

The Disruptive Volunteer Manager:

Digital Version

Paperback

Thank you. Keep sharing.

-Meridian