[aklaus]

In about 6 weeks of 2006, this crazy bunch of Trekkies, Trekkers, Trek fans, and other random people who hang out here got together and put in almost 200 volunteer hours. The average worked out to about 30 hours a week, if I recall correctly--WOW!

This year, we have a lot more time. International Volunteer Day 2007 is on December 5th, or 48 weeks away. We also have more members, and the hugely increased amount of time gives more people time to get involved.

So, here's your mission, should you choose to accept it: 2,007 hours in 2007. That's almost 42 hours a week--which is quite a step up from last year, but I think we can do it. (Can I get a "HECK YEAH!!!" ?)

Also, in the interest of making this a project for everyone, not just a few people (those of you who stole the show last time are appreciated, of course; we couldn't do it without you), here's our other mission: Get 1% of the total TU membership, by December 5th, involved in those 2,007 hours. There are two ways of doing this: existing members can volunteer and tell about it here, or people you volunteer with can join. As of right now, 1% of the total membership would be 52 members, though of course that number's expected to rise over the course of the year.

"Volunteering" means any activity that you do for the good of other individuals, the environment, or society in general, for which you don't expect to receive a financial reward. It can be through an organization or on your own. If there's an activity you do for an amount of pay that's below your area's minimum wage, work out how many hours' worth of pay you get from it, and subtract that from the total amount of time you put in; the remaining "unpaid" hours count as volunteering in my book. Also, in my experience, donating blood takes about an hour per pint (not counting punch-and-cookies time afterward). That's definitely helping someone, so go ahead and count it here--one hour per pint, for simplicity's sake, since I don't want you to have to watch a clock.


UN International Volunteer Day information

Organizations to volunteer for:
United Way International
Humane Society International
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
You'll need to dig through to the national and local level; this was the furthest level up I could find, in order to make it useful for everyone.

For those who are already doing something for an organization that could use more volunteers, feel free to post a little information so that others in your area might be able to jump in.

Code for anyone who wants to add to their sig, to promote this thread:

[color=#CC33CC][size=4][url=http://www.trekunited.com/community/index.php?showtopic=13063]2,007 in 2007:[/url] International Volunteer Day, December 5th![/size][/color]

GO!!!

[sevnson_71]

I'm glad to see you keeping this up Aklaus. This is good stuff.

[Bill]

Great to see you doing this again, Aklaus. You can count me in again to help in this. It was definitely one of our more successful endeavors.

[DOSMAN]

Yea for aklaus; we're back at it again!

Whose going to start us off this time??

[aklaus]

DOSMAN, on Jan 1 2007, 11:17 PM, said:

Whose going to start us off this time??

[voiceover] And the excitement builds... [/voiceover]

[TimBrazeal]

aklaus,
This project was just brought to my attention last night.. I wanted to pop in here and say thank you very much for geting this started.. I was also told that you have had over 200 hours volunteered from our members.. Fantastic job to all involved.. Please let us know when you want to start something else up like this and we will help to promote it in a bigger way.. DOSMAN has been doing exceptional on his project as well.. These are things we can do locally or online to show our support.. Great Ideas..

Congrats to all involved..


Tim

[Vol]

Aklaus, put me down for 2 and half hours for volunteer work at my local museum today

You are doing a great job, together lets give back to our own communities to make things better for everyone

[aklaus]

And we have our first contribution...2.5 hours from my crazy Aussie Cousin! Just 2,004.5 to go.

[Trekker]

Put me down for 10 hours, over this week, Boy Scout Project after school

[TimBrazeal]

Put me down for 5 hours.. I promised to donate some time to our local Boy Scout Troop(s).. Running into Knoxville and picking things up for the various Troops. I have actually already done about 2 hours of it.

Tim

We might want to start a seperate topic for this month.. not sure.. up to you Aklaus..

[aklaus]

aklaus, on Jan 4 2007, 11:32 PM, said:

And we have our first contribution...2.5 hours from my crazy Aussie Cousin! Just 2,004.5 to go.

Trekker, on Jan 5 2007, 08:42 PM, said:

Put me down for 10 hours, over this week, Boy Scout Project after school

TimBrazeal, on Jan 5 2007, 09:15 PM, said:

Put me down for 5 hours.. I promised to donate some time to our local Boy Scout Troop(s).. Running into Knoxville and picking things up for the various Troops. I have actually already done about 2 hours of it.

2.5 + 10 + 5 =
*drumroll*
17.5 hours by 3 members, 1,989.5 to go. We're on our way!

TimBrazeal, on Jan 5 2007, 09:15 PM, said:

We might want to start a seperate topic for this month.. not sure.. up to you Aklaus..

I hadn't thought that far ahead...we probably are going to need more than one thread, before the end of the year. I guess we'll have to see how fast this one goes.

[Trekker]

TimBrazeal, on Jan 6 2007, 12:15 AM, said:

Put me down for 5 hours.. I promised to donate some time to our local Boy Scout Troop(s).. Running into Knoxville and picking things up for the various Troops. I have actually already done about 2 hours of it.

Tim

We might want to start a seperate topic for this month.. not sure.. up to you Aklaus..

Im glad you are supporting Boy Scouts Tim!

[Bill]

OK, here are my first hours for 2007, put me down for 3. .

[Erika Christine]

Thanks for starting this up again, aklaus!

Add another 2 for me.

[sevnson_71]

I'm in for 2.5 from the Planning Bd. last night, and 3 hours at the VA today

[aklaus]

Excellent...
Stay tuned, everyone, for the 2-week update. There'll be visual aids!

[sevnson_71]

Oooo!! I like pictures

[aklaus]

Middle-of-Month Update

Bill, on Jan 8 2007, 03:58 PM, said:

OK, here are my first hours for 2007, put me down for 3. .

Erika Christine, on Jan 12 2007, 03:49 PM, said:

Thanks for starting this up again, aklaus!

Add another 2 for me.

sevnson_71, on Jan 12 2007, 07:14 PM, said:

I'm in for 2.5 from the Planning Bd. last night, and 3 hours at the VA today

OK, counting all of these, we're up to 28 hours! The good news is, well, we rock!

The bad news: We're a bit behind schedule. By my calculations, to reach 2007 hours by December 5th (and that's with NO TIME TO SPARE!), we would want to have about 89 hours right now. Yes, I rounded. That means we're over 60 hours behind in just two weeks...yikes!

On this graph, the dotted line is where we should be on a given day, and the thick line is an approximation (since I wasn't always 100% sure about what day people volunteered, so a little guesstimating happened in there) of what we've actually done.

As you can see, we need to step up the pace a bit. If anyone's got hours they haven't reported yet, consider yourself pestered. And keep spreading the word!

Goal #2: 1% of total TU membership reporting volunteer hours. It's hard to say how our progress on this one is going, since we don't know exactly what TU's membership on December 5th is going to be. We do know that in nearly two years, TU has grown to almost 5,000 members, and a lot of those are from the first few weeks--so it's probably safe to assume that there won't be more than 8,000 by December, in which case we would need 80 members contributing volunteer time. With 6 members reporting volunteer hours already, we're well on our way to meeting that goal. However, we still need to recruit other TU members to contribute hours, because many members aren't regularly active and probably don't even know about this project.

Also, just for fun, since our Canadian volunteers *cough*CM*cough* seemed to totally steal the show last year, I thought it'd be fun to keep track of how this year goes. So...here's a pie chart of hours so far (Americans are blue, Canadians are red, and Australians are that sort of sandy color).

This time around, the Americans are ahead so far...but this early, it's anybody's game, so who knows? But, wherever you're from, we need you!


Thanks for your attention, and your time as a volunteer

[Vol]

aklaus, on Jan 16 2007, 03:39 PM, said:

OK, counting all of these, we're up to 28 hours! The good news is, well, we rock!

I could of told you that

Quote

Also, just for fun, since our Canadian volunteers *cough*CM*cough* seemed to totally steal the show last year, I thought it'd be fun to keep track of how this year goes. So...here's a pie chart of hours so far (Americans are blue, Canadians are red, and Australians are that sort of sandy color).

This time around, the Americans are ahead so far...but this early, it's anybody's game, so who knows? But, wherever you're from, we need you!
Thanks for your attention, and your time as a volunteer

Go me!

Though I would of had WAY more hours on there if I was actually at home

If volunteer work included stuff volunteering time here and to the SFS Magazine, I'd be a good amount of hours

When I get home, I'll be adding more hours to this

[sevnson_71]

If that were the case Vol, I could add all my time working on stuff for the store (that's about 35 thus far) and any time I spent modding. But the idea is to volunteer in real communities, not cyber communities. Conversely though, I do however think that Avrila's time doing this thread should count towards the total as her tracking our efforts towards the total is part of our encouragement to get off our collective butts and volunteer