[thelist] Volunteering

Joshua Olson joshua at waetech.com
Wed Sep 11 08:50:01 CDT 2002


----- Original Message -----
From: "Dean Mah" <dmah at members.evolt.org>
Subject: [thelist] Volunteering


> 1. How workable is volunteer work for a techie, from a career perspective?

My experience with volunteer work has not been too good.  Most companies
that ask for volunteer websites fail to put a proper value on the work
involved in building the website since they got it for free and do not
really play a role in providing any initial content for a site.  I worked on
a volunteer site where the organization simply forwarded me a huge envelop
full of outdated flyers.  They expected me to go through the flyers and
somehow derive the greater purpose for their existance.  Often times, they
expect you to jump through fire to make a last minute change to a site they
make no effort to maintain otherwise.

> 2. What distinduishes the tech community at evolt.org from other
>    similar sites like say, Techsoup.org or techies.com?
>
> 3. Could you suggest a few places (message boards, IRC, sites) techies
>    can look for volunteer opportunities and others can look for techie
>    help?
>
> 4. What are the drawbacks of volunteering?

There's no pay AND no tax right-off (at least in the USA) for time spent on
the project, which may be considerable.  Only actual cost of materials is
considered a tax deduction.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Disclaimer: These statements are my experience with some volunteer projects
and may not be the norm across the gamut.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HTH,

-joshua




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