Matt Corker

My sister likes to call me a professional volunteer because I have an addiction to helping out others without asking for (or giving) any monetary compensation. Call it my way of being proactive in these “tough economic times” or my way of being stupid as I still have tons of debt from University to pay off. Whatever your perspective is, I still love it! Last week, in fact, I was reminded of the power of volunteering for the sake of volunteering – not for personal gain, fame, or resume enhancement.

I had the incredible opportunity last week to attend two speakers events. For the first one, hosted by Speaker’s Spotlight, I was in the audience and listened to a number of great acts including Mitch Joel and Cameron Herold. (More on them in another blog post).

The second one was the one I volunteered at. It was The Power Within at GM Place. The night before the event we had an evening training session where the fleet of 50 volunteers got their team assignments. You were either at the merchandise table, greeting at the door, or ushering guests to their seats. I was assigned to be an usher. “Woot” This role was nothing spectacular and, sadly, that is what a lot of the other volunteers thought as well. I was dissappointed, however, to hear the rumblings of “well, I didn’t get the team I wanted so I might as well not show up tomorrow” from the volunteers around me. I approached the organizer at the end of the training session and told her that I would be willing to move around the next day if they were short volunteers in any of the other areas – just an offer.

The morning came and I begrudgingly woke up at 5 am to head downtown to spend 12 hours volunteering for the sake of volunteering. I arrived and was promptly told I had been moved to a different team. I was assigned to be the one volunteer to assist the Speaker Liaison backstage – helping escort all the speakers from their cars to the Green Room, to lunch, to the stage to speak, and then back to their cars.

I had to laugh a little after seeing the lineup because people paid up to $500 to listen to these people speak, while I volunteered my time and got to shake their hands and have real conversations with them at no monetary cost! Jamie Clark gave me some training advice he was given before he climbed Mount Everest. Adrion Smith, of CFL fame, told me the joys about being a Dad to a quick-tongued 9-year-old in Markham (which is about 20 minutes away from my hometown in Ontario). And Mimi Donaldson and I had some good laughs about how life would be less stressful (and interesting) if everyone operated like you do. Remind me again why you paid to attend this event and sit passively in the audience?

You can attend the same events as those with much fatter wallets than you, and get so much more out of it, all while helping a person or organization run a successful event. So next time you are given the opportunity to volunteer for someone, doing something that may not be flashy or glamourous, do it anyway. They probably really need your help. And when you donate your time in situations like this, the hidden benefits come rising up in the most unexpected ways.

Pick of the post: Sean Fournier – Put the World on Stop (listen here)

Related posts:

1. Interest-based Volunteering: Student and Alumni Networks
2. Over promising and over delivering.
3. From Victory to Defeat: Get SHIFTED