What types of volunteerism are required/mandated?

Our company has a tradition of supporting community service, and our foundation has software for associates to log their activities. People are encouraged to participate in certain activities, such as Habitat for Humanity, literacy programs, Junior Achievement, recycling, etc. For certain activities, such as Junior Achievement, employees can take time during the week to participate, with manager approval. As a company, we provide funding to plant trees every time a member switches from paper statements to online statements.

I work for a small company in a rural community. We do get some work release people, college interns, college students free for the summer, have an active tradition of volunteering for everything from seats on zoning boards to building playground equipment.

Most local companies contribute, in some way to the community. Virtually all of it, even the bank personnel at the Rotary Club meetings in voluntary.

I would like to add, however, many companies are like the military, you had to show that you had outside interests and commitments if you wanted a promotion. So, while the acts are voluntary, the commitment may be a little coerced.

When I worked at the hospital, we had several community events that the employees were asked to help with (like blood pressure screenings and flu shot clinics for example). We always had enough people volunteer to help, so they never had to try to make people do it.

The company I worked for had a community relations dept. that supported charities and arranged for team member involvement. Their annual bonus program included a certain percentage based upon our involvement. Tier 1 was for donating money, Tier 2 was for donating time, and Tier 3 was for heading up a community project. The company used a software for tracking projects and time committed, and based upon how many points were rewarded, they could be turned in for prizes. We could also have a monetary amount to be automatically deducted from each paycheck to go to a designated charity of our choice from a list they provided.

”courts sometimes order people convicted of crimes to do community service…”

Court ordered community service isn’t really voluntary.

Volunteer = non-mandated, non-required.

TV stations have to provide community programming to keep their liscense. Although what passes for community programming anymore is garbage.

To volunteer means to act as a matter of choice and principle. Required or mandated actions are not voluntary and may require abdicating principle. Required volunteerism is nothing more than a form of slavery. My kids, when they were in school, were required to “volunteer” to do community service in order to graduate. I told them they would feel good if they helped the needy, so they did. But I did not let them hand in the required paperwork to prove their voluntary service (oxymoron). There was a brief meeting with the school administration and I pointed out the difference between a volunteer and a slave. My kids graduated, and they still do volunteer work. But it is by choice.

@josie ” But I did not let them hand in the required paperwork to prove their voluntary service (oxymoron).” good point but, about this my feelings are mixed.

I believe that we all have an obligation to out community just because we are citizens. In fact all citizens, in my opinion, are required to give up some of their time and talent for the common good. It can be in the military, a soup kitchen, red cross, anything but church missionary work. People always talk about their rights, nobody talks about the obligations of this country’s citizens.

@Ron_C Respectfully, you can believe anything you want. Some people believe that we are infected by the spirits of an alien race. Others believe in unicorns. Etc. A right is nothing more than your perogative to do what you must do in order to survive as a rational, living being. Your responsibility is to exercise that perogative. Unless, of course, you love the idea of dying. Only then would you relinquish the right to act in order to live.
What is the source of the obligation to community of which you speak? Who or what REQUIRES citizens to give up their finite life’s energy to the “common good”. By the way, what is the commom good? Who gets to define what it is? Could I I please have the power to define the common good? No? I didn’t think so. So who defines the common good. What if I can prove that they are corrupt and ammoral? Do they still get to define the common good? Does pres Obama get to define it?. Did George Bush get to define it? Why? Why not?

@josie I am not asking you to do anything. It is just my humble opinion that all citizens have an obligation to our country, just because it is our country. I define the common good locally and nationally. My national obligation was fulfilled by my 12 years in the military. My dad served during WWII, My daughters did 6 years each.

Of course other people do other things, some join the Peace Corps, some are in the Red Cross, there are all kinds of things. On the local level, I have been in the Rotary Club, taught in a high school (unpaid) and worked for political parties. Some people (who I admire, are volunteer fireman.

The common good is how you define your desire to help your community. It isn’t and shouldn’t be mandatory but it should be expected by your parents and your neighbors.

George Bush by the way is a sociopath, I expect it is hereditary. He performed no community service, he served only for his family and his class. He is not a terribly good example of a patriot.

@Ron_C Well now we know who does not get to define the common good. So since it is not W, who is it? Barack Obama? In my opinion, they are each of them losers. So who do you say is the one who defines the common good? If not them, then whom?

@josie as long as we can remain a democracy, we, you and I, decide the common good. Like I said pick your organization, or start your own. It is not important as long it helps your neighbor, state, and country.

@Ron_C So what if a democratic vote determines that the common good is served if we check IDs on the street in order to determine legal immigration status? Is that OK with you? What if the a democratic vote determines that the common good is to militarily conquer and occupy Afghanistan and imprison native Islamists? Are you OK with that? What if a democratic vote determines that in order to serve the common good, involuntary conscription is warranted? How about forcing women to take an unwanted pregnancy to term? How about taxing all working Americans in order to subsidize the lives of the lazy and/or incompetent? I can’t prove it, but I suspect that you think the common good is good as long as YOU think it is good.

@josie you are way off track. This isn’t at all what I was talking about. I had in mind something more akin to an boy scout project necessary to attain Eagle status. It has nothing to do with votes of any kind, I even said that the common good is a personal decision.

By the way, if we had the draft and a wider range of the public was involved in the occupations of foreign countries; we would be out of both Iraq and Afghanistan.