Would you say you volunteered when you held the door open for someone who was struggling? Maybe not. What about picking having a child to tea when you know the parents have somewhere else they have to be.

We're looking at setting up a time bank in our local area, and its interesting to get different perspectives on what helps. Storytelling in the park? Helping someone fill in a form? Picking up an extra loaf of bread and box of eggs at the shops for a housebound neighbour? Taking a photograph of a newly arrived family to send to their relatives at home? There are so many things we can do to lighten each other's load - and many of them are hardly any trouble at all. Yet shyness and fear of embarrassment or offending someone by offering to help, all get in our way.

How can we change this so volunteering is broader and more commonplace? - for the common good

I'm just back from a two day conference on the Learning Brain. What a lot of fascinating material. So many things I hadn't realised about how we work - from a  physical, chemical, social, emotional and everythingelse-al point of view.
I met many lovely people there trying to improve the experience of young people in schools, and got some good ideas for the school-related volunteering that I do. After all, the school management may have many blocks in the way of positive change - but the volunteers have a freer hand. Maybe that is one of the key advantages of being an employee not a volunteer, you have a bit more distance, are free of financial dependency and maybe feel a bit less affected by the politics.
What do you think?
So today's question is...
As a volunteer, how does your freedom of speech compare to employees? to donors? to beneficiaries?

I wonder what the success rate is for people who think they might volunteer and those who actually end up doing something?

Just thinking about some of the barriers that might trip you up on the way... well I have my own ideas but this time I'm going to resist  putting them in here. I'd love to hear about yours though. They might be practical or cultural or emotional. They might be more about you or more about the organisation you tried to help. Please share, let's see where we get to this time.

Quick (true) story that confirms my view that synchronicity likes volunteers.

I was walking through a back street near Camden Town when I was stopped by an old lady in rags. You must help me, she said, my heart is on fire and it is burning through my clothes. Er, ok, I answered somewhat hesistantly. She showed me some of the scorch marks in her multiple layers and carried on telling me about her life and why her heart was on fire.
How do I get out of this? I thought, if only an ambulance was here to take her to hospital where they know more about dealing with these things than me. And an ambulance drove past (I walked that way to work every day and never saw ambulances before and since). I guess they're not allowed to stop, I thought, waving my arm. The ambulance driver pulled up and asked what was happening. "Well of course I'm not supposed to stop" he explained "but I'm on my way back to the hospital so I can take her with me if you like."

I think it's time to get honest about volunteering. I like Bridget's openness about how her volunteering helped her with her career.

At the end of the day, we all need to get a reward for doing anything. Did you offer to help dry up so you could ask your mum a favour? Get back in her good books after some trouble? Or to help create a clean living environment?

I don't think there's anything wrong with admitting what's in it for us when we volunteer. It's a trade isn't it? Some of your time for something that works for you. I'm interested to find out where the common ground is. A top ten of reasons to volunteer if you like. Not the obvious rational reasons but maybe the things a bit deeper, like feeling more worthwhile, being driven by guilt, enjoying feeling useful.

But don't let me put words into your mouth. You have your own reasons and I'd love to hear about them.

Q: How do you know when you've done a good bit of volunteering?

Volunteering can take you places you never thought you'd go. Into an old people's home. Out of a plane on a parachute. Discussing the options for removing sewage in an Ethiopian slum community. I bet any one of you who has ever volunteered can describe a situation you have been in that you never thought would happen.

Got a quick story to share? Post it here.

Now today's question for you, I'm interested in whatever comes to mind. Deep contemplation entirely optional and not at all necessary.

Q: Compared to five years ago, how is your volunteering these days?

I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say... (if you just joined and want to answer yesterday's question as well, please do. Your opinion is important to me. Just click on previous blog)

Remember that phrase? In the classroom or the scout hut or the dinner table? Time to duck. Time to look the other way. Just the word "volunteer" can be enough to make us dread what's coming next. What goes through your mind?

- I'll get dragged into something and never escape

- I'll have to do stuff with dull people

- It might involve dirt or smelly stuff or people I don't normally mix with

- What can I do? I'm no good at anything

- They can't mean me, there are much better people

Sounds like time for a rebrand. If the word volunteer is dragging around all this baggage of tedium, smelliness and insecurity, how can it ever raise its head and glory in the good stuff it offers?

So I want your help. I want to work with you to build a new type of volunteering. Every day I'm going to post up a new question here and invite your responses. I'm looking forward to the journey.

Today's question is

What do YOU need to get out of helping someone for it to give you a buzz?