The last #sunday thought

This is the last #Sunday Thought of MDY3 –
It has been an amazing summer and tomorrow is that amazing sunset that we all have been working towards….

one more sleep before the last sunset of this summer…

one last Sunday to go and do, one more thing, one more hour or even all of it again…..

It has been a busy summer – I honestly in my heart am a bit sad that it is at the end….

I even cried this morning thinking about this MDY3, its hours, its goals, its people, its everything….

As I sip this tea, I think this last quote should be directly from me.

But I am lost for words…… the only thing I can think is –

 

Thank you.  You are amazing people doing amazing things. Thank you very much.

Truly thank you.

#sunday thought

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. –Mark Twain

#Sunday Thought – silly hat style

With SO MANY MANY MANY MANY people out there in the world doing the Silly Hat Big Clean this weekend – (Big thank you BTW!)

this quote is for you!

 

“Grab your coat, and get your hat,

Leave your worry on the doorstep,

Just direct your feet,

To the sunny side of the street.”

 

Dorothy Fields

 

 

 

Guest Blog – Side one of a two-sided coin

This week’s guest blogger is thoughts from the side of the Non-profit. We are doing these counterpoints to show that we are all not that far apart in the grand scheme of things…comments welcomed….

 

From the Non-Profit Side by K.F.

Establishing and maintaining a non-profit organization takes a lot of hard work, committed partners, and even some luck. As the Executive Director of an international non-profit, I can tell you that having a group of individuals committed to the cause is vital to the success of any organization. From the day to day activities to the direct oversight of programs and staff, volunteers tend to be the most committed individuals within any non-profit. From running programs, to direct donor contact, to fundraising, to grunt jobs like mailing letters….volunteers are an integral part of any non-profit. Without volunteers, administrative costs would be significantly higher, programs would have less funding, and even Boards of Directors would be understaffed. But with all the positive attributes of volunteers, there are certainly draw-backs too.

While so many volunteers are dedicated, passion driven, and reliable, many are not. Let’s face it, volunteers have a long list of daily activities frequently including caring for family members, and careers. Like everyone, life is full of expected and unexpected craziness. Even the most dedicated people struggle every day just to get food on the table and kids to bed on time. It’s easy for volunteering to frequently take a back seat to kids, school, family activities, and paying jobs. However, when volunteers don’t fulfill their obligations, programs and organizations suffer.

For 12 years, I’ve been the Executive director of a completely volunteer-run non-profit. Yep, no paid staff at all. This has led to very low administrative costs and volunteer staff around the world. However, it also has prevented quick growth and expansion. Volunteers, rightfully so, frequently view volunteering as something they do in their free time. At the end of the day when work is done, kids are in bed, and a little free time is available, it’s hard to get motivated to do another job. Weekends are packed with a variety of activities or chores that need to get done, and volunteering doesn’t always make the top of the priority list.

While most of us can understand the dilemma, when life gets in the way of volunteering, programs suffer. For instance, often volunteers are in charge of sending thank you notes to donors. Ensuring that donors know their gift is invaluable is vital to any organization. If thank you notes aren’t sent in a timely manner, donors can feel taken for granted. When donors know their gifts are appreciated they are more likely to donate again and tells others to do the same. An increase of personal contact with donors leads to an increase in donations. Unfortunately the opposite is also true.

Additionally, volunteers often resign from their duties with little or no notice. Because the volunteer position is not generally viewed as a “job”, volunteers frequently feel they don’t have an obligation to provide notice of their departure in advance as they would a paying job. Most of us have had a conversation with our friends or family about how we must start “saying no” to leading or participating in extra activities like heading the school’s bake sale, or being on yet another committee at church. In the frazzled world we live in, those conversations (at least in my house) frequently take place over a glass of wine with friends after a long, exhausting week. We feel empowered to set limits for ourselves and want to make a change immediately. No one can fault us for that. The problem arises for those organizations we have previously committed to, when we simply make the phone call or send the email on Monday morning saying, “It’s been fun, but I need to simplify my life. I hope you find someone else soon.” What volunteers don’t always understand is that the impact they are making is HUGE. Maybe they feel underappreciated, or maybe quitting is all about their personal lives and stress, but either way ending a volunteer position without the same type of notice given to an employer has a negative impact on the organization and other volunteers.

On the organizational side, I’ve heard similar concerns from volunteers. Organizations that make quick decisions about ending volunteer positions or changing the way individuals are allowed to volunteer can make those volunteers feel like they were simply spinning their wheels and not making a real impact. Sadly, while many organizations want their volunteers to treat their positions as if they are employees, volunteers are not always give the same consideration when changes are discussed or necessary. Volunteers are frequently the most knowledgeable about their positions and needs within a program. Countless volunteers have been shocked when they learn we have job descriptions for their positions, ask their options about programs on a regular basis, and have deadlines we expect to be met. Finding the balance between expecting the volunteer and the organization to treat the position as a “real job” is difficult, but vital if organizations want less turn-over and professional workers.

Training for volunteers is also frequently lacking on an organizational level. Volunteers want to help, but they also want to know the organization’s expectations clearly and want to do their jobs well. Organizations that don’t put time into teaching volunteers exactly what is needed only contribute to the problem of high volunteer turn over and a lack of prioritizing the volunteer work. Motivating volunteers is often over-looked, especially when taking time up-front to train and educate volunteers about the organization’s mission can seem more time consuming than it’s worth.

Unfortunately this applies to members of an organization’s Board of Directors (BOD). Often individuals interested of being on a BOD have wonderfully altruistic motivations for doing so….they want to use their professional skills to make a difference around the world. However, without in-depth information about programs, board expectations, cultural considerations, future goals, and organizational history, potential BOD members have difficulty committing. For instance, if board members feel as if there are no guidelines for choosing and keep board members, there is little motivation for them to accept a position or continue on the board. Even an interview process before offering a board position to a new member increases the likelihood a new board member will be committed and active on the board. Regardless, there is no way to ensure a board member will follow the job description and be a productive member of the board, but organizations that don’t have a clear process for finding committed member will be less likely to have BOD members who are willing to work hard and be productive, rather than having a line item on a resume.

Like other volunteers, a wide range of other commitments often take priority over board obligations. However, additional problems like different ideas of the board’s role, and personality conflicts potentially lead to stalled work. While it’s rare that overt conflicts occur, underlying frustrations around how to problem solve, appropriate ways to budget or plan for the future can cause meetings to feel as if they don’t move forward or come to a conclusions. Individuals who are risk takers and prefer to plan based on where they want an organization to be in the future often have difficulties agreeing on a plan with those who are more conservative and want to plan based on the past.   Those with a social work background, have a hard time focusing on evaluations of staff or finances, while those with an accounting background are more focused on concrete information and statistics.

At the end of the day, every non-profit organization knows that volunteers in any form are vital to their work. Their tireless efforts are more often than not a huge asset to any organization. While there are always difficulties within any organization given personality differences, job overlap, and other commitments, it’s clear volunteers are invaluable. If organizations want volunteers to be invested in their work, those organizations must also be invested in providing volunteers all they need to be successful. Without effort for both sides, the volunteer system within any organization will fail. Those served by non-profits around the world deserve better.

#sunday thought week 8

Of the many hours reported, there are many different projects going on in this world.
We don’t have enough time in our lives to tell you all the stories we have read and happy tears of joy this MDY3 has brought into our lives.

We humbly thank you for doing all the hours that you have been doing and look forward to the rest of the summer as we are passed the half-way mark and heading for home base- that wonderful sunset –

Here is something to think about –

 

 

And now a word about failure.

Officially we are in the middle of summer, half-way there and half-way back.

The good intentions of June have passed thru the murky waters of July and are now staring you in the face with the heat of August…. and there is a list of things to be done by September too!

 

It isn’t what you planned in your head, when you started this year or even this summer. The truth is life happens.

 

But that doesn’t mean you failed or are a failure. You adjust and attack again or adjust and simply come away with a different viewpoint.

 

Failure doesn’t define us, it strengthens us.

 

If you haven’t gotten your Moving Difference hours done yet, take a breath. You got time and you got this…

 

Even a minute, even just one hour of Moving Difference is something to be proud of.

 

Don’t let the doubt of failure be your hallmark.

 

Have the courage on the path that you have set out for yourself. You got this!

 

 

#Sunday Thought Week Six

Sometimes I am the mouse, sometimes I am the cheese….

A jewel is just a pebble that is worth something to someone

It has not been a stellar week.

Here I sit at a bus stop in the the middle of a bad rain storm in the middle of a very long week.

Personally I have spent too much time looking for a package, waiting and worrying for calls and emails on a variety of things and everything else plus work and other life stuff.

Then I am reminded of  a phrase from an old college science professor.

“A jewel is just a pebble that is worth something to someone”

I am reminded of the small things that do the most good are how you see them. Sure, there is bad everywhere and anywhere, but there is good at the same places.

The raindrops aren’t tears from heaven, they are water leaking from cloud, right?

I am losing it – I am wet, scared, tired, unsuccessful and beyond frustrated.

The wind is making the rain dance on the puddles in a rhythm pattern. And I am so wet that I don’t think anybody can tell the difference between the rain and my tears. I am a large very wet to the bone sobbing mess and I am thinking about rocks.

A truck hits the puddles. I didn’t think I could get more wet, but I did.

There is nowhere to escape the rain, the wet, the heat or the fact that I am officially spent emotionally and it is only Wednesday.

I see the next truck coming, I know the puddles are deep. I know that I don’t have the package that I have spent all of this week looking for. I know I am waiting and worrying on many areas of life stuff. I know that it is still raining. I know the puddle is coming to me.

And it did. I wasn’t any wetter this time.

Just mad that I couldn’t do anything to change the situation – the moment of time that I was in.

Still no bus, still raining, still wet.

I decided to pick up the trash so it doesn’t go into the storm drain.

Cans, wrappers and plastic bottles and a pretty cool rock…..

I think I will keep it….

And I am walking home, can’t get any wetter and I can’t make the package appear, the emails and calls happen or the world to stop being crazy but I pick up the trash here and I can enjoy a walk in the rain in a new rock in my pocket.

 

Note: This was written yesterday, but because of storms and the internet being funky – it was finally posted today.

 

 

 

 

 

#Sunday Thought

Summer is starting to truly heat up!!!

Thank you for all the hours that you have done this far!!
(Keep sending your hours in!! -With the subject line “reporting hours”)

The quote for this delightful Sunday is:

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. –Confucius

Keeping going – keep doing – YOU ARE A MOVING DIFFERENCE!!!

#Throwback Wednesday/Thursday

Instead of a guest blogger this week, we are doing a throwback post from our very first Moving Difference year…. yup – 2012.

It seems like yesterday, but the truth is two years has flashed by and we are now here in this moment… the current moment.

If this is your first time reading this post, welcome and enjoy – if you remember it from years ago, then it is a friendly reminder to update your wishes…

 

And as always, be bold.

 

Originally posted in July 22, 2012

 

Let my life speak for itself.

Sometimes in my life, I take on the world and lose. Sometimes in my life, I take on the world and win, all of the rest of the time are a draw.

But it is my life and I live it to the fullest, all throttle and on the fringes just about everyday. There are a lot of things that many people don’t know about me, and that is fine with me. You don’t need to know me to know that I will gladly help you if I can, you just need to know that you can get help when you need it. I live my life as close to no regrets, some mercy, full justice and simple compassion as I can get.

I tell you this because none of us know the future. Card readers, horoscopes even trick knees can only paint what might happen to us each in the future. The future actually lies in us and what we do in our lives to that last moment can speak volumes about our lives themselves.

That is what I want to talk to you about – that last moment. The moment where death happens, where a shell of a body and a soul separate, where you go wherever you are to go and you are gone.

Death- a subject that something happy like the Moving Difference project probably shouldn’t talk about. Wrong! Death, like time, tide and taxes happen. It happens to each of us at some point, and it will happen, you and I can’t change that fact.

So why bring death up? Because in my life, I have known a great number of people that always put off what they should have taken care of today and I still know a few. I know people that are afraid of death, even I am. I know that the only way sometimes with something like death is to meet it head on and deal with it.

Here is the thing: This is a very personal side of me that I am going to share with you. It isn’t easy but if it helps one person out, then it was worth it.

I know that death will happen to me, I don’t know the when and where and I am not certainly encouraging it to come pay me a visit. But I have sat down and I thought about organ donation, about donating my body and about what to do with my remains.

Now stop freaking out – this is important. This is being a moving difference way after I am gone. Taking the hour to think about this, to write down wishes and to have the forethought to face death with a positive is courageous. It is time to be bold.

For me personally, I have decided that if my organs can be used to help someone else, then please take them. I don’t need them at that point and if they help someone else, great! After that, please ship my body to medical students to learn on. Have those future brains of tomorrow poke, test and learn. I can only hope that they find the solutions to the diseases of the world. And after that, cremated me. There is no reason for my whole body to be put in a box and put in the earth. Ashes are just fine. In fact, I am going to have my ashes put in a man-made concrete reef, and then that reef goes out to one of the eroding coast lines to help stop the wave erosion. The fishes and other aquatic life forms get to feed and live in that reef as it protects the shoreline.

For me, there is no reason to be a named slab in a garden of stone. I don’t want people to visit me and put more dead things on my grave after I am gone. It would be a waste, because I am not there. At that point, I have lived my life, and you knew me or you didn’t, either way I probably will not be interested in what kind of flowers you bring. See when I am gone, I am gone, I either did my life right or not. The simple fact remains there are no reasons for me not to have my body go forward to help others – humans or animals or the world.

Let’s face it; no one wants to talk about death. Death of themselves, or a loved one or any one, it is a scary subject. It is a hard subject no matter your beliefs, but it is a subject that should be thought about and discussed. I hope you have the courage to think about it, to discuss it and write down your decisions in a timely fashion.

My decisions are written down and written above. They are extremely personal to me. They are extremely hard to make public too. I share these decisions with you not to make you fearful. I share so that you will stop and think about it. See, I don’t want to leave this life that I have, I love my life, I love many things in it but in that same moment, I know that I will face death someday, so I am going to deal with it and move on. I know that by me taking the time and making these decisions, by thinking about that unpleasant thought of death, I am staying true to myself, to my entire life’s work and even into the future. I am taking away the unknown, and making it a known. I don’t know when that last moment is coming – asleep on the couch; in a hospital; skydiving or whenever. I might be scared out of my mind or laughing, I don’t know. Yet when that last moment of my life happens, I am going to go into it knowing that I have done everything that I could to let my life speak for itself. I am going to go on giving and be a difference even after my death. There is strength and comfort in knowing that death doesn’t have any power over me. Bottom line is even death isn’t going to stop me from doing what I already do every day –  be a Moving Difference.

Be bold, my friends, live life to the fullest every day.