Passing it ON - Pros of Volunteering as Learning

Just spent an hour or so telling a new volunteer for my church all I know about PR and explaining the stack of pages I downloaded from the net as resources.  I have been doing what I could in PR for the church and its affiliates for about a year and a half - and it's time to pass the torch.  It's hard for me to say, but it's time for someone else to do it.  It will be a learning experience for them, as it was for me way back in the beginning.  And I will be there as a resource.

This is the beauty of volunteering.  You can stand up to do things and learn skills ON THE JOB.  My fellow actors and I learned about teaching by leading workshops at the SAG/AF Conservatory - and several of those folks still make $ teaching. 

I learned about PR because I had a small 99 seat theater group, and was part of an arts festival, and went to all the GRATIS workshops they had on PR.  Ditto grant workshops.  I learned about that because I was trying to get $ for the theater, and found other free workshops.

You can volunteer to do data entry for a group, and get used to working on a computer.  Or answer the phones, or file - or any of the common office skills.  Then you HAVE experience, acquired at NO COST to you!! 

Groups always need help with the mundane tasks of running their organizations, and there are so many opportunities for you to LEARN skills you NEED and and put to use ELSEWHERE.  I joke that I never take a UCLA extension class (they cost hundreds of dollars) I just find someplace to volunteer!

I produced a film once and learned about it by going to a bargain class at a night school and bought $100 worth of books, which afterwards I resold! I learned about the film industry by choosing to work as a temp in the business itself, so I could observe what was going on in the inner workings.  I have volunteered to read at playwright groups to work on my cold reading.  I have participated in community dance concerts for free classes.  You name it.

It's sort of like barter in which you are exchanging your labor for being taught on the job.  Of course, you have to apply yourself and being as much as you can to whatever you are doing!  But it's the time-tested mode of learning.  Everyone apprenticed once, and for my part, I find that that's really the best way for me to learn.  I have never taken any computer classes, I have always learned ON THE JOB with the help of good computer books.  What I know about photoshop I have learned MYSELF.

They say that anyone who teaches himself has a fool for a teacher, but there is also something to be said for swatting out a problem on the learning curve.  It takes some time, but whatever you learn, you RETAIN - or at least that's the case for me.  Just reading about it in a book makes no sense to me at all, as I can't SEE it.

So look around you for the opportunities which may be there for you to learn and grow - GRATIS.  Learning and contributing at the same time.

0 Comments | Post Feedback

Give it a whirl! Learn by volunteering.

Learning on the job is the tried and true way. Do it by volunteering.

Post Feedback:

You need to be a registered ThriftyFun user post feedback. If you are registered, login using the form at the top of this page. Click here to register.