Volunteerism in Singapore, or the Lack Thereof

Last week I had a great lunch with the Nike We Run SG organizers to discuss some of the feedback I provided and they also wanted to learn about how things work in Canada. They were really open to sharing what their experiences have been and what mine was like. They really took it all in stride and acknowledge that they have many challenges and also that this event was a bit of an anomaly compared to some of their other events. I followed that with a great dinner discussion with a friend about some very similar topics.

The most important point to me about my volunteer experience was how I felt the time I gave wasn't used to it's greatest potential. Frankly, most of my time was wasted through waiting around. Their major challenge is the lack of public transport for the volunteers to get to the site early in the morning as trains and buses mostly don't run until around 6 or 7am on the weekends. Hence, they have no choice but to ask the volunteers to arrive before the last train or bus the night before. Most of the volunteers are high school kids who rely on public transport and it's safe to say that many families do not own a car. I compared that to my experiences in Vancouver where we can start driving on our own when we're 16.5 (here it's 18) and that there's lots of street parking in most places. We also live in a culture where volunteerism is almost a part of growing up, and have awesome family members who are willing to drive some of us around! Then, in Sri Lanka buses run pretty much 24 hours per day, so no issue there! Another major concern was that they were afraid they would get more no shows for a shift that starts early morning rather than going overnight. As it seemed, (at least for my group), I saw probably about a 50% no show rate!

The best solution is that if people could share taxis or carpool and have parental support to volunteer (i.e. rides to a volunteer assignment), less people would have to check in so early. The challenge here is the culture in Singapore does not promote, encourage, or value volunteering. People who volunteer mostly do it for what they get in return, materialistically. The volunteer entitlements are just as important as the runners' entitlements. The question most people ask is, "what do I get in return for my time?" My warm and fuzzy answer for recruitment in Canada (and in Sri Lanka) of "the joy of knowing you just helped some people accomplish something they never thought they could do, or achieve a goal of being the best athlete they can be" won't cut it here. Mostly, the kids (and others) do it because they have to, and the parents aren't there to tell them why it's good to do donate your time (or give them reasons to keep doing it). So for people to fork out extra money to take a taxi or carpool? Unlikely because volunteering doesn't hold very much value in this society. Heck, I feel like that anyone who gives them a more meaningful reason for volunteering other than for the material goods, just isn't heard. Yes, they would nod, but deep within their hearts, I don't think it's in them.

I crossed out "more meaningful" because I recognized that is a very Western personal and cultural expectation. In my discussions last week, what is meaningful to people here is very different from what is meaningful to many people I know. Many of us find meaning in helping others, volunteering their time, fundraising for charity, and in general, engaging with other human beings. A lot of people here find meaning in having the latest in gadgets and the feeling of having the warm and fuzzy screens of the iPads, tablets, and phones in their hands. Not that they don't think volunteering isn't meaningful, just lower on the list. I make that assumption, because that's all I ever see on the buses, trains, restaurants, malls, and streets. Yup. Everywhere. That, and in those discussions, I came to the conclusion that people here, work to buy the latest gadget, that designer purse, or the swank pair of shoes. They don't work to be a better person, attain that leadership role, go on an adventure, a vacation, or some time off. Seems wrong to the majority of us raised in the Western world, right? But what if, this is your world and this is what you know? Should we impose upon them what they should learn about outside this little protected bubble?

For the younger generation, it's all about "me". What do I get out of it? It doesn't matter that my actions might help someone else, because what do I get out of it for putting that effort in? Back home, you are recognized for being a "good" person to volunteer your time, you maybe get a meal and a t-shirt, you feel good about contributing to an event/project/charity, and you get to put it on your resume. Here, you get a meal, t-shirt, and cash. That's all that is expected. So to change the volunteer experience and to grow volunteerism, a major shift in culture is necessary so that it holds a greater value. The culture would need to recognize that volunteering is an activity that builds character, experience, and life-skills, like sport.  And guess what, sport engagement outside of high school is pretty dismal.

So, a little more food for thought. When primary schools are using parents of potential students as volunteers as a way to increase the probability their kid will be accepted into the school? They'll say that it's to help the school pick the best citizens for their school. Is it a clever scheme to get the resources you need to run school programs, or is a detriment to promoting volunteerism?

The Challenges of a Singaporean Volunteer

This past weekend I was a "crew member" for the Nike We Run SG 2012 event. I saw first hand the challenges of being an on-the-ground volunteer at arguably the most popular running event in SG and compared it to what I was used to. At the same time, I asked seasoned volunteers what they thought of the experience so I could get a sense of what was normal and what wasn't. I'm also sending an e-mail to the organizers in hope I can understand some of the rationale behind their scheduling and practices. 

We were assigned a letter and were told that we would be told our areas on the day of the event. So, checking in at 11:50 pm as requested (and me, being early I arrived 30 minutes prior to) the expectation was that we would be put to work right away. I was given my t-shirt, and was told to return at 1:45 am only when I asked. What? 2 hours later? What am I supposed to do? "Change into your t-shirt." Hmm... so I asked around later on and was told the group that manages the volunteers for a few of the major events in the city always does this. Check in really early, then hurry up and wait. I chose to sleep on the concrete floor near the Marina Bay Sands hotel. Some others starting to sing acapella, others were dancing. Many were watching movies on their iPads. Lucky the rain had stopped! 

My recommendation would be having smaller check-in groups and having staggered pick-up/start times. With all the people power that was present, shifts could have started later into the night and engaged us more. I suppose that may be difficult given that public transport is not available in the middle of the night - but a solution must exist! For example, have a smaller crew start at midnight so there's more to do for fewer of us, then bringing in additional volunteers just prior to the race. 

Once we arrived at our work site, we were told we needed to check our bags.Through the communication given to us prior to the event in an e-mail and PDF'd PowerPoint briefing, we were all under the impression we would be able to keep a small bag with us through the event. When we were told we would have to place our personal belongings into garbage bags, which would then be transported to some unknown location, many of us felt horrified being forced to leave valuables in the bag we could not carry around with us. That horror came true when some of my fellow volunteers did not receive their bags in a timely fashion at the end of the event and were essentially "lost" for quite some time. If we were told ahead of time we would need to check our bags in, many of us would have worn clothing with more pockets, or chosen to bring less with us. I got the feeling that this was not normal. 


For the length of the shift, I was engaged for very little time. After being given 2 hours to change and checking back in at 1:45am, we waited for another hour before we were finally told what we were going to do and going to our assigned places was very inefficient. So it was about 3:00 am when we finally started to get moving, and that was short lived. By 3:30am, we were finished ripping the bunches of bananas apart and were waiting for more instruction. 30 minutes later, we got the go ahead to arrange water on the tables. 30 minutes later, we were done. Then we were told we had some time to "rest". When it's the middle of the night and we're all exhausted, we don't want to be told that we're useless for some undetermined amount of time and that we have to find some place to rest. Many of us, once again, ended up on the floor. 

None for us. 

The lack of hydration for volunteers was appalling.I don't know if it was different for other groups, but for us we were only provided one juice box over the course of 11 hours. Many volunteers had brought water bottles with them, but left them in the bags that were checked. They either did not drink anything, or had to purchase it from the 7-11 at Marina Bay Sands. The little group I was with were rebels and we kept our water bottles with us. Water is a basic necessity and there should be no limits on how much we need. Please have additional water supplied for volunteers. It's a really unpleasant feeling if volunteers feel they must "sneak" the water that's in front of them or risk dehydration and perhaps worse consequences. 

Our area leader had a hard time accepting feedback. While she was telling us how to set up the table very very specifically, I felt it was not applied consistently as all the tables had different set-ups in the end. I appreciate that she probably has a lot of race experience, but so did some of the volunteers who were working that night. At the same time, she was probably struggling with the lack of instruction from higher up. I watched one group frustratingly try to explain a more logical way of setting up the canned drinks with no progress. If there was in fact a way the tables should have been set up, a visual diagram given to the area leader with the specifics, and perhaps copy at each table, would have eliminated the confusion. 

The volunteers I worked with were such troopers. When I asked what they do about situations where they feel stuck like this, they simply said "suck it up, do as your told (to cover your own butt), and hope for the best". This is where I have a personal struggle with being in an Asian culture and just complying with the instructions given. The western influence in my personality and beliefs really stick out here sometimes as I was taught to question and challenge the status quo while in the western world I think I can be perceived as quite complacent. 

During the race, things were fine - but that table set up was impractical and in the end everyone just did whatever needed to be done to get the refreshments out. Go teamwork! 

Now to the check-out process. After the race was over, we waited about an hour before we received instructions on how to receive our entitlements. Then, once we arrived we had to wait another 45 minutes. Again, a waste of time. Being tired, hungry, and dehydrated, all we wanted to do was leave, but we didn't know where our bags were. On top of that, the queue to get our entitlement was extremely long as they didn't have as many tables open as when we had the t-shirt pick-up. So going back to the bag-check in, that's a decision the organizers should make well ahead of time and provide a proper bag check with tags. Then, those bags that were "lost" in between dropping them off at our work sites and the check-in/check-out area would not have been misplaced. It was a lot of unnecessary stress and worry.

A lot of volunteers were disappointed by the non-Nike branded cotton shirts. We do cotton in Canada a lot, but judging from the people I talked to, this was a big step down from most other events they have volunteered for where they got polo or moisture wicking t-shirts. 

Where I was placed.

So while the experience could have been better for volunteers, I do think that the experience for the runners was great. However, I really believe that the experience should be great for all so that involvement in sport and volunteerism extends beyond completing requirements for school. Part of the entitlements for volunteers was $25 ... I didn't get to ask how important that was to some. This event also confirmed for me that I need to volunteer at events that have a greater cause - whether it's raising awareness or fundraising. This one was just one, large, giant, corporate marketing machine (props to you Nike, for having that following). 

Side note - going back to my post about missing the Canadian things ... I definitely noticed a lot fewer "thank yous" than back home, when athletes were handed their refreshments. Also less smiles in general. These different norms are quite interesting! 

End of summer camps... and another adventure!

So I've spent the last 2.5 months working part-time within Volunteer Services at the City of Coquitlam. I've seen some amazing work completed by our volunteers and some incredible dedication and commitment. I've been looking throughout this time for full-time work which leads me to my next adventure - Singapore! It will again be with Commonwealth Games Canada in their Capacity Support Program.

However, we had planned that I would run a resume/professional writing type workshop for the volunteers in the fall. Now that I'm leaving, I won't get a chance to do that, but I did want to share some pointers that may help young people turn their volunteer experience into a job:

1. Make sure to include your personal information and note the position you are applying for in the body of your e-mail when you attach your resume and cover letter to an e-mail. It's unlikely we will open an e-mail that only has an attachment without a subject and/or text in the body as it looks too suspicious. 
2. Use proper grammar, words, and punctuation in your communication. Using (cellphone) texting shorthand isn't going to cut it. Yup, LOL, thx, u, r, gr8 - is unprofessional! 
3. Especially when volunteering, remember your conduct and actions reflect on what your supervisors will say when you use them as a reference or if you want to apply for a job with the organization you are volunteering for. 
4. Volunteering for an organization does not mean you will get a job with them. Sometimes the personalities just don't fit or you're not what they are looking for. Instead of being offended, ask them for feedback on what you can improve upon or a different assignment that fits you more. Better yet, if your goal is to be employed by the organization in the future, ask them when you begin to volunteer what they are looking for in their staff. 
5. Network with the staff! Attend meetings even if they are optional. 
6. Be actively engaged from the interview, orientation, subsequent meetings, and further training sessions.
7. Make every effort to go above and beyond!  
8. Lastly - parents, please please have your child do their own communication with the organization from the start. If your child is not capable of communicating individually with us, we can't expect that they will be able to take on the responsibilities of volunteering. 

If you have anything to add, or if you have anything you want to dispute, please leave a comment below!