Untrained Leaders Report

[Stosh]

Because volunteers for the American Red Cross are interacting with people on probably the worst day of their lives, they need to be trained and trained well.  90% of their training is on-line for those that want that route and classroom or Webex for those who can fit it into their schedule.

 

Like YPT, there's no real need for most of the hands-on part of training.  One can do all the First Aid and CPR training on-line and then devote an hour to come in a prove your practical skills part of the course.

 

They REQUIRE training before they will put the volunteer in the field to work with clients.  One doesn't just walk in, say they want to volunteer and then get on a plane headed out for a disaster somewhere in the US. 

 

I have spent from 8:00 am to 10 pm for three days straight Tuesday through Thursday in training..... TWICE in the past 12 months,  That doesn't count the 97 hours of on-line training I have done sitting at home in front of the computer.

 

Yes, I'm retired, but of the thousands of ARC volunteers, I'm in the minority.

 

Oh, and by the way, all the training, hotel rooms and meals are paid for by the ARC.  They mandate training and they don't expect the volunteers to be paying for it.

 

Anyone know how to help a blind person through the buffet line?  I do, I've had training for that.  How about a lost child needing to be connected to relatives following a disaster?  I've had training for that, too.  How about what it takes to prepare and deliver meals out of the back of a truck to hundreds of people three times a day?  I've had training for that, too.  And by the way, all that training was done on-line which I took sitting in my Lazy-Boy in the evening.

 

The reason ARC can do the occasional free seminar training for the high end training is because about 90% of the other training is being done on-line at no cost to the ARC.

[TAHAWK]

In Finland the official Boy Scout knife is either a puukko ("partiopuukko") or a shortish knife with a cross guard ("Partio Veitsi").

 

I finally got around to finding out out what "partio" means in Finnish.  It means patrol.