No compromise for volunteer

IT SEEMS that in some cases British Waterways want more than just a volunteer, it wants unpaid professional service, as a prospective Information Technology volunteer (who asked to remain anonymous) tells us:

I offered to volunteer in IT British Waterways headquarters. I was happy to spend some time doing some computer filing as a housekeeping exercise. This was not enough for them. They wanted a consultancy exercise holding meetings, writing and submitting reports for ratification, etc.

I regarded this as a consultancy commitment which I was not prepared to do for nothing, and would have been extremely time consuming. So I offered a little help as a volunteer, they wanted the earth, there was no compromise, so they got nothing.

Another organisation is happy to take whatever time I can spare on a voluntary basis, so I work with them.

If British Waterways/CART can't make use of the odd few hours people like me are able to give occasionally then it is their loss. I still do the odd springtime towpath tidy when it suits me, but cannot commit to regular and frequent input I'm afraid.