[ree-Xi]

Originally Posted by naraht

Approving other organizations can get tricky, and I hope was done in advance.

>> How is that tricky? We simply provided the pertinent information and made the motion for approval. For the most part, it didn't matter if the request was done in advance, because most of us had our own "pet" charity organizations and events that we did regardless of the potential for earning service hours for it.

I could easily see one member trying to get escorting patients to an Abortion clinic for hours and another trying to get making sandwiches for lunches for those protesting outside...

>> A. I'm not sure what you mean by "abortion clinic" - do you mean Planned Parenthood? Because that is less than 5% of what they do each year.

>> B. Escorting/driving people to medical appointments is a kind deed. Many places like nursing homes, group homes and senior citizen housing around here provide free or cheap rides to the doctor/hospital using volunteers, so I don't understand the implication that such an activity would fall into the "trying to get away with something" category.

Sometimes it isn't even that clear though.

>> What isn't clear? We had chapter and National guidelines regarding what needs to happen to gain approval, including obtaining an official, signed statement of activities, time spent, etc. Most of the personal volunteer activities were sponsored by actual charities, such as working at a walk fundraiser or volunteering at a soup kitchen.

I know APO chapters who do fundraisers for Autism Speaks and I know people who *hate* the organization...

>>I don't understand your point. Perhaps because it was rare for someone not to attend any of our chapter-sponsored events unless they had a class or other time conflict, there were no particular events that was mandatory for every member to attend. If people weren't interested, they didn't have to participate. We also usually sent 1 or 2 "representatives" to work at other campus orgs' events, for which members volunteered.

There were plenty of options to choose from, and I don't recall anyone ever having a problem finding opportunities for service hours.