S: Data Entry

[whitak24]

so, today i volunteered at the red cross regional headquarters in detroit. as i am currently "unassigned" at work, a bunch of us went down and spent the day volunteering there and helping them out with some stuff.
in the morning, they set me to work on combining and de-duping some access databases, as well as pulling some data from word and adding it in. not rocket science (although they seemed to think it was) and somewhat interesting (ok, i wouldn't want to do it every day, but it's not bad).
but then, after lunch, they decided that i really should do some data entry. so i got a two-inch thick stack of cards from people in the bone marrow donor registry who needed information updated. took me a couple hours to do it. major suckage. it was all in a crappy foxpro database, the computer keys were hard to push, and the chair was WAY too low and couldn't be adjusted up.
yeah yeah, i know it's important work and someone has to do it, blah blah blah, but it was still SO boring and mind-numbing. it did make me appreciate the fact that i don't have to do that all the time :)
plus, the red cross people were happy (and they were surprised at how fast i finished it -- it's not that hard, people :rolleyes: )

[OC]

Originally posted by whitak24
(and they were surprised at how fast i finished it -- it's not that hard, people :rolleyes: ) whitak24, I think you've just touched on the dirty little secret of volunteer organizations - they're mostly run by people that couldn't do much else. I mean no disrepect at all - the work these people do is truly important, worthwhile, and largely unappreciated by the general public. I only raise the point to stress how important it is for us "knows" to volunteer as well.

If every geek did only 5 hours a month, the world would change like *snaps fingers* that!

-OC

[whitak24]

Originally posted by overclocked
whitak24, I think you've just touched on the dirty little secret of volunteer organizations - they're mostly run by people that couldn't do much else. I mean no disrepect at all - the work these people do is truly important, worthwhile, and largely unappreciated by the general public. I only raise the point to stress how important it is for us "knows" to volunteer as well.

If every geek did only 5 hours a month, the world would change like *snaps fingers* that!

-OC
that's a good point, oc. and what was even more frightening was that these people i was working with were the paid, professional, full-time staff.
of course, seeing as non-profits tend to be on the low end of the pay scale, it's not too surprising that many more qualified individuals decide to work other places....