A TBM coworker on the phone, discussing some assignment:

"Well, I'd just tell them this is when they are supposed to be there and if they can't be there, they should get someone else!" He was kind of worked up about whatever duty this member was shirking (cleaning toilets, helping someone move, giving a talk? Who knows) and then was complaining to someone else about it.

What made me laugh is that they expect the members to instantly agree to whatever VOLUNTEER deal they want to assign. When it doesn't work, they get all annoyed.

But I can't think of one off the top of my head.

:)

I have been at the top, middle, and bottom of such organizations for years. I have never, ever heard of expecting a volunteer to find their own replacement.

The only people I know of that have to do that is substitute teachers and nursery school employees. And those are all paid!

We keep insisting to the world that LDS do NOT have volunteers, they have conscripts.

It's why there are so many deaths in scouting. Good thing Primary isn't taking place in the wilderness or you would find out just how many people are phoning it in when it comes to their Primary calling.

Anagrammy

It reminds of of how "volunteers" are chosen in the military if nobody actually volunteers...

At my work, our retired Navy VP says, "If you do not volunteer, you will be voluntold."

This makes me laugh b/c I had a playdate with a woman whose children play with my child, and she has no idea I'm not a TBM anymore. The ENTIRE conversation revolved around girls' camp and her duties with the freaking first aide kit and how she only had 8 hours to put it together. MY GOD>

Something tells me that first aid kit was not up to red cross standards.

I can barely keep my own home clean, I am not going to spend my off time cleaning someone elses crap.

Eight hours to put together a first aid kit? That makes no sense. I put mine together in .08 seconds: I picked one off the shelf at Target. It has everything I could possibly need, plus a few things I'd never thought of. I later added a snakebite kit and a facial cover thingy for use in giving people mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing. I've used some of the meds (aspirin and the like) and I have to periodically replace the band-aids and such, but for the most part, it takes zero effort whatsoever to have a solid Red-Cross-endorsed first aid kit. You just buy one. No need to spend eight hours digging around the house for extra bandaids. Frankly, I'm not even sure I understand what "Putting together a first aid kit" even means. You've either got all that stuff in your medicine cabinet or you're off to the store, in which case, you can just pick up a fully-stocked kit and call it a day.

Do mormons think stuff like that through or do they just obediently do stuff that makes no friggin sense because they were told to?

There used to be a toy/game called hot potato. You'd wind up this plastic potato and then start passing it around everyone who was playing. It would tick like a time bomb. And eventually it would make an explosion noise. Whoever was holding it when it exploded was "out".

Callings are sort of like this. "I'm calling YOU to clean the toilets. Do it or get somebody else." Now that person has the hot potato and has to desperately find someone to pass it too before the big Ka-Boom!

Oh Dear, your co-worker is going to go to hell for sure.

Hell is where all the good music and cool kids will be. ;)

Mormons are desperate to keep the buildings and programs operating. All of it is dependant on volunteers who have lives.

Silly to think that scrubbing toilets in a church or preparing a little talk should be more important than children, health, or earning a living. If mormons want those things done, they need to hire it done like everyone else in the world. If no one volunteers, it might be because some of this needs to be eliminated or hired out.

I once got a calendar from the ward mission leader, with the names of the members written down on just about every day of the month, designating when they were to go on splits with the missionaries. There were instructions on it that said to take note of which day you were assigned, and if you couldn't make it on your day, to find someone else to take your place. I remember seeing my name on there, thinking, "I don't remember volunteering." I threw the calendar away.
There are people in the church that seriously think that everything has to be done by assignment. There is no such thing as volunteering.

Fits right in with the massive guilt trip the bishop attempted to lay on my old singles ward every sunday after no one showed up to clean the building the morning before. as if a twenty-something's greatest sat. morning joy is cleaning a church...