Volunteerism Works

I hope we can keep this thread going with other inspirational stories of volunteerism working. So many people think government is necessary. There is a better way, as intimated in the film Thrive. When we truly grow up as a society, I think we will begin to see more and more stories about people working to make their communities a better place without the formal structures that we call government.

AMBULANCE SERVICE PROVES THAT VOLUNTEERISM WORKS
2014 Apr 4 from Elaine Foster
(The following is in response to last months' Freedom Force Members Report in which I presented the case for replacing taxes with voluntary support of essential state services. You can read it here.)

G. Edward,
Your section on volunteerism particularly interested me because, as chairman of a volunteer ambulance service, Ark River EMS, in Fremont County, Colorado, I frequently get suggestions from outside our organization to become a tax district. What you said about the myth that people will not give unless forced to do so is exactly what I hear on a regular basis - yet our nonprofit, non-tax service has been in business for over 31 years. Except during a short time of bad management, we have always operated in the black.

  

It has been my experience that the people who tell me it can't be done are those who do not have the imagination to find ways to raise revenue. For example, we serve a predominately elderly population inside a poor county. Therefore, we realize we must draw money in from richer places. One method we used in the first quarter of year was to hold a world-wide raffle. Someone donated a piece of land to us, we set up a website with a PayPal button, advertised using free posts on Facebook, and the money rolled in.

Asking for donations is not the only way to raise money for a service. Offering something that people are willing to pay for is another. Some organizations hold large bingo events. If run correctly, they can't keep the people away! I've helped conduct a bingo night at a fire department where we maxed out the capacity for the hall and had to turn people away. We did not have to beg for money. The people were begging us to take theirs! A lot of money flowed in that evening and not a single arm was twisted to get it.

There's no question that getting tax money can make paying the bills easier. However, our board has chosen not to go the tax route simply by what we witness when we look at the tax districts around us. They have big problems that money can't fix. A neighboring ambulance district is almost a half million in debt - even though they receive $400,000 in tax revenue every year. Our budget is one-third of that and yet we manage on billing for services, grants, and donations.

The whole public election issue comes into play when you start taking tax money. It attracts people who want to run for an office and be paid to be in charge of something. These are not necessarily the best people to manage a service organization. They are simply the people who can win an election - often by unpleasant means.

On the other hand, a person who quietly volunteers to be on the board of a nonprofit ambulance service or fire department is more likely to have the dedication and background to manage well. They must certainly have an entrepreneurial spirit with the creativity to invent success ways of raising money. What's more, they will be much more careful as to how the money is spent than those who have $400,000 handed to them every year. Human nature.

And what happens to a service agency within a local government that goes bankrupt, which is becoming increasing more common? If the agency is dependent on tax money, it is plunged into a financial crisis. Those in charge have no skills for raising yearly revenue that matches expenses . Whereas, a nonprofit, non-tax agency that has been managed well for years could possible continue to hum along, doing what they have always done to keep the doors open and the vehicles rolling.

This is not to say that raising the money is easy; It takes a lot of time, effort, and ingenuity. But Ark River EMS is proof that it can be done. If governments continue to mismanage their tax money, I predict that our rural ambulance service is going to show itself to be on the cutting edge of things to come.

Elaine Foster
Chairman of Ark River EMS
25416 US Highway 50
Cotopaxi, CO 81223
http://arkansasvalleyambulance.com

Wendy's picture

Just as an asside, I'd like to add the example of all the religious organizations throughout the world. I know there are many here who see these organizations as old fashioned control mechanisms but atleast most of these organizations in their current structures don't threaten people with the prospect of jail for not paying their dues. Many don't even require dues as a prerequisite to membership but are entirely dependant on voluntary donations like we are here at the gathering spot. Most of these organizations manage to build and maintain a structure for their meetings. They typically do some redistribution of wealth from time to time and act as an emergency insurance back-up if/when one of their members has personal financial or other troubles. Isn't this really what we want from government? A bit of protection against the bad times? Also, many of these organizations provide education for the members children and do what they can to help the elderly. Again - isn't this what we really want and need from government?

If the US population really wanted to invade Afghanistan, there would be volunteer militias going over there but there aren't. There are a few poor young men stupid enough to volunteer for the army but I think this is because they typically come from communities in which their options for getting out of poverty are very limited. In other words, volunteerism is a wonderfully democratic way to run a government because only those projects which truly have the populations support get funded. I hope we can all start to do what we can to envision and bring about a purely voluntary society.

Any proposed society that is not voluntary but depends on rules from some kind of top down source like the Venus Project, in my opinion, is doomed to failure. Someone in any future Venus project will have to decide what science determines is the best solution and that power will invariably corrupt the entire project. Just look at all the corruption in the scientific community today and you have to know that science is corruptable. Even a government that is dependant on a written document, like the US constitution - as we have seen - is corruptable as over time the document is reinterpreted to the point of it's complete destruction.

In a voluntary society, there will always be people who make bad decisions - if they make bad decisions once or twice, I tend to think there will always be people around them who are compassionate enough to help them out. If they continually make bad decisions they will have to pay the consequences for those bad decisions or learn how to make better ones. In this way, a voluntary society promotes personal responsibility.

Noa's picture

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I went looking for a nice volunteerism story to add to this post.  Instead I found this weird legislation which was passed into law in 1982.  It actually prohibits government workers from volunteering their services to keep the government running.  That's why when funds are low, government shutdowns are mandatory.

 

An officer or employee of the United States Government or of the District of Columbia government may not accept voluntary services for either government or employ personal services exceeding that authorized by law except for emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property ...

As used in this section, the term "emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property" does not include ongoing, regular functions of government the suspension of which would not imminently threaten the safety of human life or the protection of property.

 

Another good reason to volunteer.

G

 

Noa's picture

One person can make a difference.

 

Wendy's picture

The Gathering Spot is a PEERS empowerment website
"Dedicated to the greatest good of all who share our beautiful world"