Week One

My first week of volunteering was interesting. I met Kristi Enloe, the lady who will be in charge of me during my span of volunteering. She works in the financial section of the office, and this week I helped her organize the receipts from school expenses. She is in charge of making all of the payments for the schools in the district, and there are a lot of payments to make. Trips, meals, and supplies are paid for on a regular basis for the school district. There are two other ladies in the office and all three of them are very nice. I worked mainly in this office, but there was one morning when my mother needed help setting up for a meeting. The meeting was for several of the school principals and the superintendent. The atmosphere in the office is very relaxed. One morning, though, I had a lady see me, and she was a little uncertain as to what I was doing. She went and asked my mom about me. Aside from that, things went smoothly. Next week I am going to try to ask some questions about the way the office is run and how that makes things more or less efficient.
Technically, the first week of volunteering for me was a couple of weeks. I started volunteering a little early, so that I could get in my hours. I didn’t go in during the week of the ice storm, but I found out that the central office workers still had to go into work when the schools were closed. I am not sure who decided that this office had to be open even though nearly every other business in town is closed, but whoever this person is probably wasn’t thinking too clearly when they made the decision. My mother was unaware of this policy of coming to the office when school is closed, so she was a little more than surprised when she found out. She didn’t get in trouble, though. Her boss, Mrs. Stipp, is a very nice and understanding lady. Mrs. Stipp appears to be quite involved with the people below her, which is a vital quality for someone in an authoritative position. If she did not communicate well with those below her, there could be serious tension in the workplace. Communication is important in nearly every situation you could be in, especially the workplace.
This is the first time I have put myself up for any type of “volunteer” work. It wasn’t too bad this first week, but I have to wait to see if there is much variety in the work I am instructed to do. I don’t know how much variety there can be in office work, but it would be nice to find out. I am not going to be involved with the office for very long, so I do not know how much work they will want me to do. It was slightly awkward to work in an unfamiliar place, but I suppose that is part of community service.