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I am an English Tutor for an adult student, twice per week. I signed up with my county Literacy Council. With the same organization, I am also a Teacher Assistant 2 evenings per week for an adult class learning English. I love it.
My local community college offers an English for Learners of Second languages program, and I'll get my ESOL certificate in May. I may be able to get paid employment after that; but it does not pay well. I am doing this for the enjoyment of teaching; as I found out that is my true calling. I was a professional in the pharmaceutical industry.
I enjoy teaching ESL as well. I work for a school district, Mondays through Thursdays from 8:30 to 2:30.
I teach ESL in the mornings, and citizenship preparation class in the afternoons. I am off on Fridays.
I am paid well because I have an adult learning credential.
The job is not that stable, and I am an "at will" employee. Lucky for me that I have been working part-time for 11 years.
I may retire when I am at full retirement age (66 and 4 months). I am 62 now.
I have decided to keep working because my paid job feels like I am a volunteer, even though I am paid well, don't have to work evenings or weekends, and have a small retirement pension. I figure that I might as well get paid, even though my job is easy and very rewarding.
I used to be a pharmaceutical rep for a drug company.
Many of the threads here talk about volunteering as a way to feel useful, pass time, give back (hate that term), meet new people, etc. But I am curious about what people are actually doing at their volunteer gigs. What are the tasks you do? Are you cooking, serving meals, answering phones, sitting at a hospital visitor desk?
Sometimes I think about volunteering but don't want to feel like I am going to work. So please let us know what you do. It would help to know what kind of organization you volunteer at. Thanks.
Driver safety instructor AARP, but not yet retired either.
Just for another example, I volunteer at our community center. We don't have a commercial movie theater, so the CC shows Saturday movies, kids in the afternoon, a "grownup" one at night. I run the afternoon movie, which means I stay upstairs in the projection room to start it and turn it off. In the summers I add a couple three hour shifts in our hangout room (pool table, computers, big tv and lounge) to greet visitors, answer questions, and make sure kids don't get out of control.
1) I am the assistant treasurer of a foundation that runs a philatelic (stamp collecting) foundation, museum and library. I process donations and do a good deal of the accounting and financial planning work. Depending on my mood and my schedule, I work 5-12 hours per week, usually on the lower end.
2) I review medical school applications for one of the local colleges of medicine. In addition, I interview potential medical school students and make recommendations to the admissions committee. It is probably the most significant work as I live in a rural area that is relatively underserved by the medical community.
3) I am the treasurer of a social club that brings in speakers each week on a wide variety of topics (except religion, politics and medicine) every Wednesday from September thru May. I also assist in finding the speakers and trying to fill the calendar with interesting speakers. This was not an assignment that I really wanted BUT the previous treasurer died and the president was ready ro shut down the club if he did not have volunteers.
4) Our 55+ community has a broad calendar of concerts and movies throughout the year. We volunteer at 4-6 events each year either as a ticket taker, an usher or in concessions. This one is kind of fun as we get to attend the show.
These are some of the volunteer opportunities that I passed on:
1) A local Catholic high school serving inner-city students needed volunteers, I went down, interviewed and went through all of the training, background checks and requirements of the Diocese of Tucson AT MY EXPENSE. I was approved but the school never called me back. After talking with a few people, I got the sense that they really were not looking for volunteers as much as they were looking for donors. Not happening.
2) I tried to volunteer at a local food bank. Given my background in the food service industry and working with large food distributors, I thought it would be a good fit. However, when I looked at the requirements, I would not be allowed to carry my cell phone while in their facility. I do not go ANYWHERE without my cell phone due to health emergencies. Besides, why do I want to volunteer at a place that treats me like a juvenile.
3) I have resisted the opportunity to be drafted as the HOA Treasurer. They ant me because I am the only person in the area who knows QuickBooks. While it would only take me five hours a month if I work real slow, I do not beed the aggravation. Besides, it would be like working again.
Now, back to the OP.
In retirement, it is pretty easy to volunteer for dozens of charitable organizations, schools and the like. I am sure that if you want to work 30 hours per week, you probably can. The more willing that you are in giving your time, the more demand that you will have for your time. Personally, especially in your first years of retirement, do NOT over commit. if you do find that you have some more time, there are any number of ad hoc short term assignments like ringing a bell for the Salvation Army around Christmas time that will pop up in any community. Equally important, if you commit to doing something, you have to show up and live up to your commitment as they are relying on you.
Also, some of the older volunteers (read that as age 75+), have unrealistic expectations of younger volunteers. They expect to find volunteers who will show up every Tuesday morning every week all year. That approach kind of worked 20 some years ago in THAT generation. Most of my volunteer work lasts part of the year and all the organizations realize that I travel 10+ weeks per year and when I am gone, I am not going to be there. On the other hand, if they need me for special projects while I am around, I will work some extra hours. I am very UPFRONT about that.
Finally, I do not like to do a lot of clerical work or physical labor as they are not my cup of tea. I like to have a good idea as to what I am doing before I start volunteering so that there are no understandings.
The more willing that you are in giving your time, the more demand that you will have for your time. Personally, especially in your first years of retirement, do NOT over commit. if you do find that you have some more time, there are any number of ad hoc short term assignments like ringing a bell for the Salvation Army around Christmas time that will pop up in any community. Equally important, if you commit to doing something, you have to show up and live up to your commitment as they are relying on you.
I only do one-off types of volunteer work because I don't want to be on a schedule ever again. Instead I volunteer for medical studies and donate blood when I can. I also support worthy charities with financial donations.
When people are admitted to hospice and don't have any family/friends to visit them, I will go visit with them. I try to make them comfortable, pain-free, and if possible, create a little bit of happiness. I buy them a favorite, comfort thing that they need/want, or a favorite thing to eat. And I let them tell all the stories. And then I come back and follow them until they pass.
And if someone is suddenly dying and admitted to the hospital in hospice, and family is still out of town, I will go visit them so they are not alone. I hold their hand, I play their favorite music on my iPad, I tell them their family is coming.
It makes a difference. Not everyone can handle it though.
I'll do my mother as I'm not officially retired. She's always busy. She donates most of her time to the local hospital. Originally she wanted to be the Grandma that rocked newborn babies, but a medical conditions stopped that. Then she'd contact people to go donate blood, or keep continuing education records straight or contact people to see if they had conditions that would allow for aide to pay for patient's care.
She also does stuff for the church, bakes goodies for fund-raisers and she's gotten quite a racket for people trying to get her canned goodies. She never wanted to be a chef, but likes to be able to use food as her main currency with the town.
I enjoy teaching ESL as well. I work for a school district, Mondays through Thursdays from 8:30 to 2:30.
I teach ESL in the mornings, and citizenship preparation class in the afternoons. I am off on Fridays.
I am paid well because I have an adult learning credential.
The job is not that stable, and I am an "at will" employee. Lucky for me that I have been working part-time for 11 years.
I may retire when I am at full retirement age (66 and 4 months). I am 62 now.
I have decided to keep working because my paid job feels like I am a volunteer, even though I am paid well, don't have to work evenings or weekends, and have a small retirement pension. I figure that I might as well get paid, even though my job is easy and very rewarding.
I used to be a pharmaceutical rep for a drug company.
Glad to hear that you have a decent paying ESL job.
Regarding academic credentials, I feel kind of misled, after being convinced to enroll in the program. I should have done my homework. It turns out the only type of work setting with a TESOL certificate that I am qualified to do work at is a non profit ( in my state like Catholic Charities). TESOL certificates are far more useful outside of the USA. I have an RN (BSN) and an MBA. I was told with my degree, TESOL and healthcare background I could work for a community college "ESOL for Healthcare Workers" program or similar. After enrolling in the TESOL Certificate program, I found out that you need a ESL Masters degree to teach in the program. Indeed, most teaching jobs you need a teaching credential in ESL or equivalent. And most jobs require Masters degree in ESL. I knew that I would not be able to teach K-Grade 12, and that was not my goal, I just wanted to teach adults. My classes are full of Seniors who want to get the certificate to supplement their income. Most non profit ESL jobs are part-time, no benefits, and pay around $18 an hour. A rude awakening!
Teaching is time consuming hard work. I spend so much time preparing for my lessons. As I said, I am doing this for the enjoyment of teaching but I hope I can find something related to Healthcare ESL. In the pharmaceutical industry, I was a Director of Quality and Compliance for our clinical research studies. I am 59 1/2.
I use to do Red Cross Disaster Services, before I got transferred for my job, I joined the local Red Cross when I moved, But we were not a good fit. They were more into helping the first respondents, then the disaster (Victims) Clients. The chapter was "broke" they did not follow the National Red Cross assistance charts.
On My Second Call out, I had to pull "Rank" (I'm a 2nd level Red Cross Supervisor), The "Lead" for the call was a 1st level Supervisor. They wanted to give a family who trailer was totally destroyed a "Partial" damage assistance. I would not do it.
I had a feeling something like this would happen when I went to my first meeting, and they gave the annual report, and they gave something like $1100 in aid in the last year. I had more aid in once case at my old RC chapter then they did all year.
One of the things I've found is some organizations don't value the volunteers time and effort. You show up, they have no plan, they give you busy work to do, or stand around waiting for them to figure out what they need you do.
Now I do Taxes as part of the AARP TaxAide program. Something I enjoy,
For the last few years we have had our taxes done through the AARP program. Always pleasant and easy. THANKS!
Two hours a week as a "helper" in a public school kindergarten class. I find it very interesting to be around little kids instead of grumpy grownups. Would also like to get involved in community gardens or clean-ups nearby.
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