Stephen Vance, Editor
What would the Municipality of Meaford look like without its volunteers? The services provided by the municipality or other levels of government are frequently and widely discussed and debated, but what about all of those unpaid hours given up by everyday citizens that help fill the gaps that are left behind after government and the private sector initiatives?
I’m not just talking about the obvious volunteers. We all know that without volunteers the annual Scarecrow Invasion, the Santa Claus Parade, or the local food bank wouldn’t happen without residents generously giving up some of their own time and energy to make them happen, but volunteers are everywhere, and sometimes they are recognized, sometimes they are appreciated, and sadly sometimes they are overlooked, or worse, mistreated.
Without our army (and indeed, Meaford does have an army) of volunteers, there would be no Midas Mart, which is run by Kiwanis Club volunteers, there would be no Net Shed, which is operated by Friends of the Meaford Public Library volunteers, there would be no Meaford International Film Festival.
In Meaford volunteers can be found tending to flower boxes in the summer months, you will find volunteers helping out with sports programs for kids, and technical education sessions for adults. Volunteers deliver meals to the homes of the sick and elderly, they hold food drives for the food bank, they help out at our schools. Heck, volunteers even put out our fires – yes, they are paid a small token of appreciation for their service, but they’re a volunteer fire department, not a professional, full time department. These men and women have full-time jobs, that they often have to leave at a moment’s notice in order to keep our homes and lives safe.
And of course, volunteers have a long history of operating our rural community halls – with the assistance and funding of course provided by the municipality – at a great savings to the municipality (and therefore taxpayers) who would otherwise need to dedicate staff time to all the tasks undertaken by volunteers.
The only way our community would still look and feel the same if the volunteer base disappeared tomorrow would be if various levels of government, including our municipal government, and perhaps even some private sector businesses, picked up the slack, and filled those gaps – but of course, that would take even more out of our own pockets in order to fund activities once taken on by our friends and neighbours.
Volunteers are everywhere in this town, often in places you might never imagine, and while volunteers are human, which is to say they aren’t perfect, either as a collective or individually, but overall, the volunteers in Meaford are a dedicated group of community-minded folk, who take pride in their community and want to contribute to that community in some way, and volunteering, whether for a specific event or an ongoing initiative, is a great way to do that.
The last thing a volunteer, or group of volunteers, needs is to be treated poorly. Nothing will drive away volunteers more than poor treatment, either by members of the community or by the organizations or events they are assisting.
The governance and specific issues of Woodford Hall aside, if I as a volunteer had been spoken to by municipal staffers the way the Woodford volunteers allege they were spoken to, I too would have quit, but not before sharing a little reciprocal disrespect of my own.
If I had given up my time and my energy to help operate a rural hall – which saves my fellow ratepayers some money as fewer paid staff are required – and if I had been doing so for three years, not hidden away in some closet, but out in the open, reporting to and communicating regularly with municipal staff, holding meetings, keeping notes, raising funds from the community, and then one day I’m told, ‘Sorry, you and your fellow volunteers have been doing it all wrong’, and we’re suddenly not allowed to meet, not allowed to keep notes of meetings, and we’re not allowed to speak with our councillors, who we elected, I would be agitated, and I might even show a little frustration. But if one of those municipal staffers looked across at me and told me, as the volunteers who quit allege they were told, that we’re “not team players”, or that I “need an attitude adjustment”, I doubt I would have held back.
Is it possible that the Woodford volunteers had been doing things the wrong way? Well, sure, but for three years under the watchful eye of municipal managers, and nothing was said for all of those three years? Where should that fault lie? Not with the volunteers, I can tell you that – if municipal managers allowed the volunteers at the hall to operate outside of what should have been the rules for three whole years, then that is poor management, it isn’t a problem of volunteers needing an attitude adjustment, and perhaps the Director of Parks, Culture, and Recreation who is responsible for the halls should be taken to task over why it was allowed to happen. Alseep at the wheel, or just not overly concerned with rural halls?
We must respect our volunteers: they are the lifeblood of our community, and they have more of a stake in and certainly more experience and seniority in the community than municipal managers who come and go, as they follow the almighty dollar to the next, and higher-paying position elsewhere.
