If you are going to volunteer

in an organisation do you also have a right to criticise?

Apparently our volunteer firefighters have been hit with a "gag" order. They are not being permitted to speak up or speak out about the problems within the organisation.

We need volunteer firefighters in this country. Wildfires or, as we call them, bushfires are a major issue of concern. As I write this there are people in other states risking their lives fighting these fires. There has already been a need to call in firefighters from other states and our Kiwi neighbours.

Brother Cat is a volunteer in his local unit. He is not particularly fit or physically able but the firefighting service will take anyone who can hold a hose. They must or fires won't get fought and people will lose everything.

I have friends in the hills behind me. They have plans in place. They know exactly what to put in the car and where they will go. Their bags are actually packed. Their papers are all in one place ready to pick up and walk out of the house. Even all that preparation may not save them without the efforts of the firefighters.

They also need other volunteers, people from the State Emergency Service in particular. There are also many other services which rely on volunteers in an emergency even in this country.

Preventing people from raising issues which concern them is just foolish. Many years ago there was a fire near a school the Senior Cat was in charge of and he was responsible for opening up the school to all the facilities it could provide. Nobody negotiated that, nobody said it could or could not be done.  I certainly would not have been standing in the school's home economics kitchen at three in the morning making sandwiches. We did it and the little township we lived in was, apart from some minor damage, saved. Now it would be impossible to do all that because of the "safety" rules and regulations which have been put in place.

Later there was a review of what had gone on. There was no doubt criticism as well as praise but I remember the Senior Cat coming home from the meeting and saying one of the volunteers had come up with a very good idea. This man had solved a problem of his own initiative and put it in place. Those at the top had not taken him to task for doing something differently. They had listened. 

We need to listen to volunteers and remember to thank them, really thank them. Most volunteers I know don't want money spent on parties or fancy dinners but they do like a genuine "thank you" and a helping hand when they need it. Don't stop them from speaking up but do say, "I thank you."