[Publib] Budget cuts - hours vs. materials

[Judith Turner]

Hi, Tina --

The initial question posed was the eternal dilemma of where to make cuts - hours (which means either reducing the number of hours everybody works or eliminating entire positions) or materials.
 
If staff is unionized, opting to cut hours and then to utilize volunteers to restore those hours  would clearly violate the contract.  It's one thing to start a library staffed only by volunteers, or to add the services of volunteers to an adequately staffed library to do jobs that employees cannot do, but the situation described is one where the volunteers would have to replace paid workers in order to maintain the same hours and levels of service.

Even if there is no union or staff association contract in place, I think you might be too optimistic about the availability of volunteers in all regions of the U.S. The demographics of available volunteers indicate the pool is composed primarily of students who are trying to get experience to help them land a job when they graduate and older women who were acculturated from childhood to the importance of service to the community once their service to husbands and children was done.  

With more and more women working for pay their entire adult lives and rarely volunteering, retirement is not likely to generate interest in opportunities to work without pay.  Much like older male volunteers already do, they will limit their involvement to volunteer opportunities that reflect the hobbies and personal interests they had little time to pursue during their working years.

Judy Turner
Whitefish Bay, WI  



--- On Fri, 8/8/08, Tina Branco <tbranco at hughes.net> wrote:





 
 







In all the discussions so far, no where have I seen mention of
engaging volunteers to expand staff availability. 




      
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