Without being too specific, I'm going for my first day in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program today. And while I'm thinking it'll turn out ok, I'm nervous on about forty levels. There's a normal, perfectly understandable fear, which is the worries about who will I get, will they like me, etc., etc. But that's being compounded by a lot of new fears: the woman who interviewed me assured me that carpooling was available for the local Oxford shifts, but the person who emailed me today seemed confused by the idea and gave me driving directions to the site (which is about 4 miles away). My volunteer packet says that before I am matched with a Little, we'd each be given the vitals of the other person so there was a chance to say if it looked like it wasn't going to work out for some reason. Since I've just been told to show up at the elementary school, I think it's safe to say that's not going to happen. I did get some information about a bus I've never heard of before, which supposedly drops off at this school five minutes after I'm supposed to be there (which is about as good as I can do unless I start walking now). My point is that there are already plenty of fears to go around when someone is starting a relationship with an organization like this, and there really shouldn't be any that are born directly from miscommunication and bureaucracy. I am a seasoned veteran of volunteerism who has gone over-the-top a dozen times, and this is scary to me, so Lord help those who jump in with no prior experience of nonprofit tomfoolery.
If anyone would like to discuss this, you can find me wandering along Rt. 73 later this afternoon.
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