Who do you think you are?

Here is another way to think about language. One of the canon's we teach volunteers is never to say 'I'm just a volunteer'. Nobody is 'just' anything, and if you catch a volunteer saying that it means the organisation is not paying attention to the contribution to its vision and values, and to its services. So why would you say, when somebody asks, "I'm just a volunteer manager"?

Susan Ellis has a long list of alternative responses at http://www.energizeinc.com/hot/2008/08jan.html. Have a look at this to see how inventive you could be next time someone asks "So what do you do?". The one I like best is "I find buried treasure" - because that is the really exciting thing about managing volunteers, watching people grow and develop, and accomplish things they never thought were in their capacity.