College students wishful image of college experience

College students dream of their efforts at grades resulting in a work place in the real world where they are respected, wanted, and better treated than most find their college experience to be in real life. Unfortunately, a new poll from the Society of Human Resource Management reflects the perception in the hiring market that college students are NOT ready for work in the real world!

An article from the Kansas City Star and authored by Diane Stafford shows plenty of issues in the perception of the newly graduating college students. To be blunt, the numbers are really difficult and discouraging.

From the report we find English skills are not proficient in the eyes of the hiring managers. My first thought was are they talking in some sort of text lingo? The report did not go that deep, but no student should ever demonstrate their language skills in text talk around any business people who later may be in a position to network on their behalf.

“Forty-nine percent of human resource officials polled by the professional organization said this year’s college graduates lack basic English skills in grammar and spelling. Eighteen percent said the grads come up short in math and computation. Thirteen percent faulted the grads’ spoken English, and 10 percent cited a lack of reading comprehension.”

If that was not bad enough, the survey found that hiring professionals also expressed that their “biggest complaint by hirers was that the graduates lacked “professionalism” or “work ethic,” a deficiency listed by half of those surveyed. Nearly half detected a lack of “business acumen.” as well.

High School image of college experience

Further reading on the poll showed that 20% of hiring professionals see graduates as “under-qualified” for their job openings. This is really hard core real world data that should smack every college student and high school student thinking of college up the side of their heads!

College student on bike with backpack

College students often think they deal with real world reality when they hit campuses every year. The cost of a car may be too much, so a bike may be used to save on gas, if they even have a car for instance! Sitting on the grass singing camp fire songs is something that is rare too on real world campuses. College is competitive and it is a business, from both ends of the experience, the school end and the student end.

Students study in the library

Where is the average college student going to get the skills that the Society of Human Resource Management members see many of them lacking? Well, one place could be as an empowered volunteer if the student has positioned him or herself for that opportunity.

A student could conceivably pull off a spontaneous empowered volunteer crusade, particularly if their results were worthy and verifiable in their past. Usually this would require a past history of success. Hopefully your volunteer track record supports your requests for the opportunity!

The social skills needed to deliver on demand a set number of qualified candidates is something worthy of a resume note, particularly when accompanied with the data support for the effort and the return on investment you produced by taking on the project lead the new members were required for in the first place and seeing that project to a successful conclusion, all with proper data documentation.

The potential to take the summer (if you have it off from classes) to volunteer between your income supporting job requirements and perhaps run a committee with a special project that delivers measurable results would also be a great resume addition. For this kind of opportunity to work, most likely you would have to be already a member of the group and have previously proven to be able to lead the effort, as justified by past successes.

This means that being seen in volunteer circles as a person who can get things done is well worth cultivating. You can’t start too early in this regard, since emotional intelligence or social intelligence are characteristics which are very hard to demonstrate numerically.

Poll showed graduates are more likely to be “tech savvy” over older applicants.

From college applications to resumes, everything goes better with data on it. Data can be demonstrated in many ways, but failure to gather data is one potential deal killing detail that in the business world is unforgivable. Never fail to gather meaningful and pertinent data at every potential chance, you can always condense and edit the data later. Once the data is lost, it is usually not recoverable.

If you can show a trend in growth for building memberships, finishing projects, leading small groups or teams to completion of a special project, or take on a task that no one else wanted and succeed, then you can be one of the graduates who can demonstrate that you have business sense that they are looking according in this poll.

The key is to document things properly and to do so consistently early on in your student life. You can’t have too much data to draw on, and depending on how many different resumes you will have to produce, different data might be needed on different targeted resumes.

College student in lighter moment

A real life example of something the hiring managers might consider worthy would be taking your church group’s initiative to start a new youth camp at a new facility which previously had not existed, with no ready source of funding identified. You conceived the idea and sold the it to the church leaders, successfully promoted and funded it through your social capital sources built over your high school time as well as business sponsors you successfully pitched, and then implemented the structure for the camp to continue into the future, all on a budget. That is a very worthy project if your numbers reflect your story properly!

Business leaders positively favor those who can bring in a project on time which they had to seek donations to fund and then kept to a budget as well.

Make no mistake, leading volunteers is challenging for anyone, but for college students the challenges of leading others who are likely to be older than you are even greater. The social skills needed to stroke the right emotions on each and every member in order to get the desired results are vital to your success and they are very easily transferable to the real world when you interview with a hiring manager who wants demonstrated successes. They will want to know how you got your team motivated and how you kept them on track for an entire summer when most people have other things they would rather be doing.

Be ready to illustrate your success with good answers that reflect team building words, keeping the “I’s” to a minimum.

College student in suit on steps looking for a job

The same poll found that currently hiring managers described as “very difficult” jobs to fill were engineers, computer technicians, programmers, scientists, and skilled trades which are often more on the job training or technical school sourcing rather than requiring college.

STEM Majors 

If you are in a major which is not a STEM type (science, technology, engineering, or math) such as political science, humanities, languages, or perhaps philosophy and you find your resume short on business supporting data points reflected in this poll, consider using the empowered volunteer strategy for some resume muscle building.

Finding jobs today is better conducted when you have an active network that can support you. People who have already worked with you and found your work ethic worthy are much more likely to support your effort to find the underground network of unadvertised jobs too. Way too many of those who go into STEM majors find themselves without the ability to demonstrate their soft skill sets, their social intelligence, or their emotional intelligence data points too.

Everyone needs to improve their soft skills while properly recording and documenting their achievements which demonstrate these skills in abundance for the competitive job market graduates are finding themselves in today.

Empowered volunteers in college can be the cream that rises to the top if they plan accordingly for success by becoming an empowered volunteer, making themselves more ready for the real world.

Share on Tumblr

Red sky in morning, sailors take warning! Real world views of nature in contrast!

What is the “real world” for the empowered volunteer? I have personally been in a few groups where the idea of emerging into the real world was viewed as many things, exciting, growth oriented, scary and to be avoided, or simply as another stage of development.

Students, both high school and college face this phrase in their emerging from the student atmosphere and entering the next stage of their life. I don’t know how many times I heard while going to college that we were not living in the real world.

Dr. Phil McGraw in his powerful book on real world living, Life Code, The New Rules For Winning in the Real World writes on what he calls BAITERS, which stands for backstabbers, abusers, imposters, takers, exploiters, and reckless members of the individuals you encounter. This list really helps organize the people you can encounter who do not wish you to succeed.

I will have to say, in my experience Dr. Phil’s book on these “real world” people is dead on correct and I really wish I had been able to read his book way back when I was in college! Because you can and often do encounter all of these people types in your college experience and in my case I encountered many more of them in my graduate college experience too. I would encourage everyone who plans on interacting with people to read and digest his book so they can minimize the negative impact these people have on your life and career.

The college experience can prepare you for the real world is my point here, at least in how to effectively deal with people who do NOT have your best interests in mind. 

Another group which uses the “real world” us versus them mentality is the military. Somehow it is felt that those in the military don’t live in the real world. That is of course nonsense, but it is a mentality which is often felt and even promoted by some people, many of who I would label BAITERS from Dr. Phil’s book!

I repeatedly found in my military career examples of BAITERS who not only not have my best interests in mind but they did not have the team’s (ship, command, or whatever) best interests in mind either. How to deal with them once you are their latest target would have been incredibly helpful if this book had been available.

Another place where the “real world” is supposed to not be interwoven with is volunteer groups, NGO groups, activists groups, and other special interest groups. 

I don’t think that the volunteers in the Peace Corps or volunteers in the Rotary helping to vaccinate against infectious diseases are somehow disengaged from the real world. They are simply working on a focused part of the real world, where they trade back and forth between specialties and then widen their focus when they are not doing a specific world task.

Some people have claimed that those who live in academia after tenure no longer participate in the real world.

They put it even more impolitely, saying, “Those who can, do, those who can’t teach”. Wow, is that a really harsh way of labeling teachers and those in the profession of education? We heard this and related themes of distorted reality in the last presidential election from the party that is even today really pressuring students to carry a much higher percentage of the cost of higher education than those in the past have done. Many say this is to further erode the opportunities of the middle class, but that is yet to be shown in the data results. Personally I like data to sort the truth from the emotional responses, but that is just me.

Politics is another lofty area where the term real world applies in different meanings depending on your party affiliation. Real world Tea Party doesn’t equal real world GOP or real world Democrats unfortunately. Sorting these conflicting issues for the political volunteers or even the citizen voter is demanding and also important for America’s future.

In my next post I will explore more of the real world from the volunteers perspective and how to minimize or dampen the negative impact some BAITERS would provide for the new empowered volunteers who are trying to make the world a better place.

Share on Tumblr

Every citizen neighbor of every country is constantly doing calculations of risk versus rewards for a stream of decisions every day of their lives. That is the nature of living here on earth.

High Risk

The empowered volunteer also faces the risk versus reward scenario’s, but for the most part they are not life or death when it comes to inviting a prospect to join a neighborhood charity volunteer group. The risks are less of a threat, but the rewards can often be much more far reaching and in some scenario’s much more dramatic.

If the risk for the empowered volunteer is low then, what is the potential reward? Glad you asked! The reward for gaining the skills and knowledge in how to get people to join a group for their own benefit as well as the groups benefit is huge and can be applied to the local community where you live as an example.

Communities survive and thrive on risk management transferred through individual levels of reciprocity between members. It’s just that simple.

If the local community members are known to each other and have previously established a level of trust then in situations of outside stress they can rely on each other and support each other. This was the basis of the American community for our early years.

In cities or in the rural areas neighbors helped neighbors all over the world 50 years ago. Today, in many areas neighbors don’t know each other more than to wave when they are outside shoveling snow or cutting the grass. They more often than not are unaware of the other’s name. Even in the cities where being from the “neighborhood” meant something years ago, today it is much less meaningful in many places, unfortunately.

If the empowered volunteer finds him or herself learning their neighbors names and other associated information they are in a much better position to engage in reciprocity and networking.

This is social capital in action, as reported on in the book, Bowling Alone, by Robert Putnam, a Harvard scientist. He identified the issue that initially generated my convictions on helping solve the membership decline in American volunteer groups. But the issue extended to neighborhoods too. So my solution to this should extend to neighborhoods as well, in my mind at least.

When you help someone, even if it is only to show an interest in them and establish a bond or some level of trust, you help both parties involved. See previous posts on the many health and other benefits gained by both parties in these type of events.

They don’t have to join to become a bit more interested in the neighborhood, they could simply take an interest in another neighbor and being more friendly to someone else, extending the idea in a domino effect.

American farmer stories abound with someone getting hurt and his neighbor drives the tractor over, plows the field or plants it or even harvests it, and never even stops to say much. They do the work, and return to do their own. In my youth they may have shouted out on the CB radio a hi or bye, but that’s about it. Everyone stood by each other, without fan fare or any fuss.

Neighborhoods in the city often operate in similar fashion. Believe it or not, this is not an American institution, it can be observed in many countries. People locally are much more likely to help their neighbor than someone they don’t know in these cases.

Neighborhood risk management is fundamental to American citizenship and to the American lifestyle.

We are constantly pulled towards big government for some things and to local government for other things. This can make for a stressful political atmosphere, where one candidate can claim that 47% of the other group is not worthy of his votes even.  This kind of division is really sad.

For the empowered volunteer anything and everything that can happen will impact the local community. Thus, if you are to hedge your bets on how to react to any one event or even a large event such as a power grid-down scenario you are much better off if you have already established yourself in your community as a worthy person who is known and respected.

There is no need for politics here, indeed I would counsel against it. Politics divide and in this type of thinking you want inclusiveness rather than division. You want to know each and every person within walking distance at the very least if you can. Know them by name if possible, but know them by face at the very least.

It is empowering to just be one of the people who knows everyone in the neighborhood by name, or even a first name basis!

In my youth block parties were common. They are still used in some parts of the country but I think they are used less and less. This is a shame.

For any disaster that you can think of, citizens are impacted and react according to how well they know their neighbors. For economic stresses, neighbors that care are better than strangers. For major natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, wild firers, or even mudslides knowing your neighbors as you are standing behind the police tape is better than suddenly introducing yourselves to each other.

People that know others and can ask for help with a better than average likelihood of success are valuable, but to be in that position you must be known and have a network already created.

The empowered volunteer is in a unique position for influencing the risks of his or her neighborhood. They will find success helping their group over time and that learning process will be one that can transfer to other team building groups forever. All groups, churches, volunteer groups that are less organized than the formal ones I have mentioned before, perhaps a start up group to construct local neighborhood needs, any sort of needs can be better met with a group of like minded citizens.

I would encourage all empowered volunteers to actively solicit in their neighborhood for their group, if appropriate. This is a great excuse to exercise your techniques, meet the neighbors and embrace them wither or not they join the group, to fully extend your network beyond your work or charity related associates, raise awareness for your cause or charity and ensure a positive messages is transmitted in your immediate area, and to learn how to make friends and influence people of all kinds. These skills may just come in handy some day if you ever have a situation where you face a risk versus reward that is wide spread in nature.

The risks for meeting your neighbors is small and the rewards may just be life saving some day. Embrace your neighbors, you will be better off for it.

Share on Tumblr

When we see a book or even a person, we automatically evaluate many things from what data we have, mostly visual. This is natural and fine. But the cover can be a poor representation of the person or the book, depending on many factors.

The empowered volunteer must always approach someone who could be a candidate for their group with an open mind.

The person before you could be very wealthy and just not displaying their high status at the time you meet them, if they ever display such status. In your SWOT analysis you should have addressed this subject so you already know what to do.

If favors are what you need, ask for it directly but politely. If you are looking for positive actions, make sure you are specific. Remember, wealthy people are very passionate people already. They made their wealth through that passion if they are self-made, so show yours for your cause and they will more than likely respect that part of your presentation. Stay optimistic even if they are multitasking as you are making your presentation. Keep the faith in knowing that what you offer can help them every bit as much as a lower status person. Rich or poor, everyone sees health benefits from volunteering.

Treat every person as important and worthy no matter how they speak, look, or act. Obviously don’t solicit memberships from locked up criminals or other parts of society where the person may have challenges that prevent them from participating fully in your group. But otherwise, be open minded to everyone.

Consider in the caption above the leather bound book of poems from 1721. For a book in the hands of one who doesn’t own fancy books in glass cases and special atmospheres, this may look out of place in a normal home. Most people who are not wealthy don’t own such old books.

However, the cover is the best part of this old book. Once you open it, a page is torn, writing from when it was transferred between owners is reflected in the inside cover, in short it is not worthy of a collector’s attention even if it is old. It has no collector value at all. It is neat to hold a book that was printed before Ben Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence but neat is pretty much the value of this book, beyond family memories or other intrinsic values it could have.

Bill Walton, of Wal-Mart fame was well known for driving an old pickup long after he became very wealthy.  If you did not know it, his dress and car did not give away his status or wealth on many occasions if you met him on a weekend somewhere.

Never prejudge a person by any outward appearances. They may be rich or they may be drowning in debt while looking and driving really fancy cars and owning a great home in a high status neighborhood. You don’t know and if they are willing and capable of volunteering, you really don’t care. Either way your offer helps them in many ways, so be proud and offer them the opportunity to volunteer.

You should also understand that to a high degree, those that are wealthy are also involved in raising funds for charity.

In his fascinating book in 2000 The Millionaire Mind, Thomas J. Stanley, PH. D. noted, “that nearly 2/3 of the millionaires (64%) engaged in this activity in the past twelve months, and there was a very positive correlation between their activity and net worth”. The take away is, as an empowered volunteer you may be setting yourself up with many who have had or are on their way towards real monetary success. Successful people are drawn to noble pursuits in many cases.

Dr. Stanley further writes, “Financially successful people and the next generation of economically productive people volunteer”.

He expounds on the notion that most of those who attain high wealth were volunteering long before they attained their status or wealth. Bill Clinton, former President of the United States wrote a book written in 2007, Giving, How Each of US Can Change the World, which told of his life long history of volunteering. I doubt you will run into Bill Clinton in your empowered volunteer prospecting, but a young up and coming person could be sitting at the next place you stop!

To drive this point home just a bit further we will dip into Thomas J. Stanley’s 2004 next book, The Millionaire Women Next Door which details the difference between men and women of high wealth and status. He writes, “Women are more likely, however, to be involved in community or civic volunteer work (77 percent versus 67 percent). Overall, within the same age groups and income cohorts, businesswomen are less likely than their male counterparts to demonstrate patronage habits that advertise their status”.

The Rifleman’s Rifle 1982

Now consider the above caption, a book leather bound, pulled from next to a series of Time Life books on The Old West, with covers that resemble this book when casually handled. This book might fool you in its worth, it is fairly rare and is valued, depending on who is publishing the review at over two thousand dollars! Yet it doesn’t look to be much more than the Time Life books of the same size! The topic is narrow and for many people not particularly interesting.

Never judge a book by its cover, just as you should not judge a person!

Why does this matter? Everyone is the same when it comes to volunteering from the empowered volunteer point of view, right? Wrong on all fronts is that line of thinking. Wealthy people can be of huge help to your cause if you are open minded, with their high social capital and robust networks. Remember in earlier posts the rule to always ask for referrals? Wealthy people usually have networks as worthy as their status. Now think about that. If their status is high, they often can provide insight for you to people who are open to your message even if they are not.

People who can also engage their networks effectively are a unique brand and they are also unique for your offering! Taylor your offer accordingly. Ask for their help if their time can’t be given.

I am not saying target wealthy people. I am saying that they operate on different wavelengths and as an empowered volunteer you need to adjust your message for them. If they can’t help by directly being involved perhaps they can make some calls to suggest referrals who are up and coming as they once were?

These referrals are often as valuable as gold because the wealthy often know who can and will do things. They tend not to waste time on wild goose chases so they provide solid referrals. Treasure these if you manage to get some from a high status person.

Share on Tumblr

I would ask you to consider the following quotes about human interactions and networking, called civic engagement and social capital by educators. We will then evaluate these concepts and how they apply to volunteering and the health of those who participate.

Joining and participating in one group cuts your odds of dying over the next year in half. Joining two groups cuts it by three quarters.

We’re not experiencing a Springtime of volunteering, but an Indian Summer, propped up by our nation’s seniors — who have been more civic throughout their lives.

Each 10 minutes of additional commuting time cuts all forms of social capital by 10 percent–10 percent less church-going, 10 percent fewer club meetings, 10 percent fewer evenings with friends, etc.

Civic engagement and volunteering is the new hybrid health club for the 21st century that’s free to join and miraculously improves both your health and the community’s through the work performed and the social ties built.

These factoids are quoted from The Saguaro Seminar, Civic Engagement in America, Harvard/Kennedy School.

http://www.hks.harvard.edu/saguaro/socialcapitalprimer.htm

Social Capital is what is gained when people exercise their human network or as we used to call it, use “hook ups” to get either others to help with a project or locate something of value needed for an objective. Many military individuals were sent out to locate a “hook up” to get a much needed part, promising to return the favor in the future if he could, thus allowing a machine repair when the needed part was located through the network when the proper military channels were either inadequate or money was not available. Social capital is not confined to reciprocation of mutual aid or favors, but this is certainly one area where it thrives.

For historical perspective, this situation mentioned above happened way too often when we were building a 600 ship Navy during the cold war. Mechanics and electricians were frequently forced into “out of the box” part recovery efforts when money and parts were unavailable, yet the command structure wanted to get underway, no matter what. Without hook ups, many Navy ships would not have set sail on time in the 1980′s. Barter was common, with the most valuable trade good being a 5 pound can of coffee for many parts or services which were otherwise unsupported by the regular supply system.

Elaborate  systems and networks were formed which often spanned entire careers as enlisted sailors were promoted and transferred. The term social capital was not universal back then, but it was in use all the same. Connections with people who could provide services or parts were a necessary part of being a senior enlisted worker on both surface ships and submarines in my experience. Social connections could produce effects which the regular system could not or would not.

The person who could get the hook up through his network would now be considered to have high social capital and a raised status among his peers and his superiors. Their status raised as they were able to help their group function in an often defective world where money was not available and hook ups were the only commodity in use.

To be clear, social capital has been around for eons but the term social capital as it apples to civic engagement studies is relatively new. It took more than just showing up with coffee to get things in many cases, you had to know someone. You needed a network. Social capital is easier to evaluate in the civilian community today but it has had many uses in all of aspects of society, where ever their was a need.

Social Capital as it applied to civic engagement and volunteer groups was a central premise of the book, “Bowling Alone”, by Robert D. Putnam, a Harvard Professor. He showed through data analysis that many volunteer groups which had thrived after the WWII years were in sharp decline in members, which resulted in declines for the help and aid given to the charities that relied on the volunteer groups for so much support. Groups like the Freemasons, Elks, Moose, Lions, and many others were part of his over all studies in declining memberships.

The secondary value of this concept of networking and social capital with regard to volunteering on an individual basis is not only the ability to get things done but also the health benefits to those involved. The bottom line is that many studies have verified that their is strong evidence for the positive health benefits for those individuals who exercise passion in their networks and their volunteering. Even expanding your social network has beneficial health benefits some studies have shown.

Another positive aspect of social capital is the ability of social scientists to measure it. The Saguaro Seminar has bench marked survey results from 2000 and again from 2006 on the same communities, with demonstrated changes and trends shown in the final evaluation. This kind of data analysis demonstrates the impact that social capital and civic engagement can have on individuals and communities.

Volunteering produces many health benefits for the individual but also produces, when practiced by a passionate volunteer a much larger effect than most people would believe. This win-win benefit between the individual and the group seeing the volunteering can’t be ignored.

This is the ideal of the empowered volunteer. When an empowered volunteer embraces the passion for the group and shares the news with the world, many from that previously uninformed world will want to participate. Thus all involved benefit and everybody wins.

Share on Tumblr

People living in higher socioeconomic areas are likely to see a wider diversity of bird species in their parks, according to Paige S. Warren, who holds a joint appointment as a research scientist in the Department of Biology at Virginia Tech and the Center for Environmental Studies at Arizona State University. Their work is part of the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research Project.

While this is interesting, it is not in itself a reason to volunteer or seek volunteer opportunities just to potentially raise your status, but a result of higher status individuals preferences in the way they maintain their surrounding environment outside their dwelling.

Another example of health related social economic status inequality is found in a study by The National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids, May 27, 2004. Meg Gallogly reports that tobacco is the leading cause of death in the United States, killing more than 400,000 Americans every year.  Another 8 million Americans suffer from a smoking-caused disease, disability, and other serious health problems.

From this same study Gallogly continues, “thanks to the tobacco industry’s targeted marketing efforts, lower-income and less educated populations are particularly burdened by tobacco use – low-income people smoke more, suffer more, spend more, and die more from tobacco use. Smoking is directly correlated with income level and years of education. Since the release of the first Surgeon General’s Report on smoking in 1964, smoking has become ever more concentrated among populations with lower incomes and fewer years of education. Whereas the highest income Americans once smoked at levels even greater than the poorest, they now smoke at barely half the rate of those of lowest income.”

These studies suggests that for the highly motivated lower SES persons (often thought of as poor) who want to climb the social status ladder through education, the potential for liberation is possible. Higher education is one method to increasing one’s status, and therefore increasing one’s potential health.

In another study we find the Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health  reporting “a growing body of evidence indicates that socioeconomic status (SES) is a strong predictor of health.  Better health is associated with having more income, more years of education, and a more prestigious job, as well as living in neighborhoods where a higher percentage of residents have higher incomes and more education.”

The mission of the Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health is to enhance the understanding of the mechanisms by which socioeconomic factors affect the health of individuals and their communities. Furthermore, the Network reported “With a few exceptions, disease is more prevalent and life expectancy shorter the lower one is in the SES hierarchy.”

In another example of social capital in action, the State of Utah has enacted The Social Capital Formation Act of 1996 as part of welfare reform. The purpose of the Social Capital Formation Act is to promote the availability of social capital in Utah. The act defines social capital as “the value provided to the state by civic organizations.” This means volunteers of America or at least in Utah are targeted for support! This program is promoting volunteering in civic groups as a solution, which is something that the empowered volunteer will hopefully take country wide.

According to the Utah statute, “using social capital, clients of and applicants for services . . . may receive a wide array of services and supports that cannot be provided by state government alone.” The act encourages government efforts to strengthen civic agencies and establishes a process whereby DWS will assess individual applicant’s needs and may refer them to civic agencies. In the act, however, the Legislature also “recognizes the constitutional limits of state government to sustain civic institutions that provide social capital.”

Furthermore, the Utah report stated that, “President George W. Bush’s recent initiative on faith based and community organizations appears to have many similarities to Utah’s social capital law. The federal government may become more involved in this area, but the federal program is not yet well developed.”

A significant source of vital information on social capital can be found on the  Saguaro Web site at http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/saguaro. The Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America is an ongoing initiative of Professor Robert D. Putnam at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. “The project focuses on expanding what we know about our levels of trust, social connectedness, and community engagement and focuses on strategies to increase this engagement.”

Furthermore, this study has quantified many aspects of social capital. It is a study of fraternal and civic groups in Indiana, along with other social capital achieving groups. This study would be beneficial to all empowered volunteers who wish to understand more about this field and the implications involved. I highly recommend this information be included in any SWOT analysis for groups, which can find correlations with which to work with.

Lastly, one of the many ways someone can on an individual basis attempt to improve their status and their social capital is through joining groups which help to improve their members as well as creating platforms for their mutual benefit. An example, one of many that could be listed is the group Toastmasters International. This group promotes the individual experience of public speaking, something which is usually not taught in America’s high schools to any extent. This group not only promotes public speaking, they have a highly structured system that teaches the subject, with many opportunities for practicing the art!

Share on Tumblr

Ben Franklin with Will Rogers book in background, both were Masons

Groups, where only the dues fees are paid and no interactions are required have very little benefit as far as social capital goes for the individual. Freemasons just to attain membership must do much more than pay their dues fees. They must memorize passages from the Old Testament relating to the group. This level of commitment is rare for most groups.

The photo above shows a statue of Ben Franklin, a man from a very large family who had to make his own way in the world. He used fraternal groups for introductions to prominent members of Philadelphia and through connections he managed to expand his printing business.

The book on the far right is of Will Rogers, an interesting character who used rope tricks from the cowboy rodeo shows to engage and entertain crowds. He was also known for humor, with many quotes still attributed to him.

The last thing this photo shows is Langhorne’s Plutarch series of books,1826. This set of books could often be found in the few books that traveled west in America’s expansion during the early 1800′s with the explorers and settlers. The reason may be found in the in depth contrast and comparison Plutarch conducted between high status people in the ancient world.

The study of such people’s lives was still considered important centuries later and for the settlers this book set for many, along with Bibles owned by nearly every family would find its way on the frontier. Books were considered important and worth the weight to bring along. Status and accomplishments go hand in hand. History records high status individuals more often than those less known. You may not be recorded into the history books, but you can make an important contribution towards your favorite group if you take the empowered volunteer route.

One premise of this site is that an individual in a group can make an impact on the growth of that group. A few sales techniques and some old fashion pressing the flesh as well as just plain spreading the word will help most groups over a period of time bring in new members. The use of the approach and techniques in this set of posts will take the empowered volunteer far beyond mere chance, allowing for some aspect of control over the time spent prospecting verses the results expected.

Keeping members engaged and happy once they do join will take more than just asking them to join and then forgetting about them. Some groups today exhibit serious issues concerning membership retention, which place them out of touch with today’s potential members. These issues will require leadership and remedies if retaining members recently brought in is desirable. Perhaps any issues impacting retention should be addressed before sending out an empowered volunteer?

This site will address several issues facing a recruiter and some facing individual groups. A business methodology will be presented to provide a format for analysis of the issues involved in an organization at the local level. Techniques from sales will be evaluated for use by the recruiters. Examples from researched success stories will be presented to demonstrate how effective membership building can be conducted in even the least agreeable situations.

Concrete ideas for building memberships and overcoming tough issues will be dealt with using real life examples. Finally, a listing of organizations will be presented along with their respective issues. Many of these groups will reflect a drastic population drop over the last few years.

This site is not intended to be the universal instant answer book on membership building. It is intended to provide the empowered volunteer with the tools and methods to start the ball rolling. If a group of individuals should decide to take on the task of building membership, so much the better as long as cooperation among members is maintained.

The individual or group will have to complete their own analysis of the issues at their level and then focus on the potential solutions within their scope of authority. This will truly be a situation where what you put into the effort is what potentially you will get out of it. Put another way, garbage in from a half hearted or lazy analysis will almost always yield garbage out in the form of diminished or inadequate results.

This site will review many fraternal, civic, and Veterans groups. It is suggested that the group use the SWOT analysis, an example of which is provided as a guide only and not as a definitive work which is ready to implement for every case. Very few outsiders not currently located within the local group can assess the group’s issues as well as one of their own should be able to do.

Michael Marmot is a professor of epidemiology and public health at University College London, where he is also the director of International Center for health and Society. He also serves as an advisor to the World Health Organization. His premise concerning our topic from his book, The Social Status Syndrome: How Social Standing Affects Our Health and Longevity  is that someone who has higher status will be statistically more likely to live longer, feel less stress, find themselves more in control of their life than another individual with less social status. This information is the result of nearly 30 years of research he has conducted.

The key to improving the status of an individual is the amount of control one has over one’s life and the ability for an individual to fully participate in society.

Furthermore Marmot writes “Americans are divided in their sports affiliations along class lines—the smaller the ball, the higher the social rank: golf, baseball, football, and basketball”.

An individual who has a lack of control over their life or job function, like those of low rank in the US Military reflect low social status. Playing golf, simply because it is associated with high social status is not enough by itself to automatically pull an individual out of the low status social position if, for example they still live on board the ship rather than off base in a house, possess only a bicycle for transportation rather than a decent vehicle, all while living from pay check to pay check. In short, status is determined by the total package of the individual’s life, not simply one aspect of an individual in isolation.

Another example of social status lies within the military. A person might be of low social status seemingly due to low rank, perhaps enlisted rank 3 (E-3). This is the third step in rank for enlisted members and it is often granted to individuals who sign up for a long training school, without any further criteria. On the other hand, a person who is from the fleet and has “earned” this rank of E-3 before attending school will carry much more status over the instant E-3 if both individuals compete for a position head to head.

In order to further to convey the aspect of status imagine another fleet E-3 has the coveted “SEAL” insignia on his breast, his status is now beyond the reach of the instant E-3 or the fleet E-3, all other circumstances being equal. I can imagine only irregular circumstances where this status comparison would not be true. If the fleet E-3 without the SEAL insignia was perhaps a former E-6 who is near retirement and was for some reason reduced in rank, perhaps his cumulative knowledge and social capital might balance the status of the SEAL.

This is a very rare situation, one I have heard of occurring in the Army once in a while when an officer is allowed to stay in the service but due to manning levels has been reduced in rank (riffed, it is called). I personally have only seen this happen once in my Navy career, to an officer with the rank of Lieutenant who was reduced to an E-6. She was a high status women recruiter division officer who was passed over for promotion and then opted to finish her career of 20 years rather than throw away the last two or three years needed to obtain a pension.

Methods for raising one’s social status vary, but a few include education, relative position of rank or placement in employment hierarchy, monetary compensation for employment, status perception of employment (professor verses teacher, electrician verses electrical engineer), and to some extent perceived esteem between neighbors and friends.

In an analogy on status and inequality one military member of the Navy, an enlisted person with the rank of Petty Officer First Class (E-6) bought a house in a subdivision where his surrounding neighbors were all junior officers or senior enlisted or retired military. He was treated by his neighbors in a “hands off” manor due to his low rank and corresponding lower status as perceived by the neighboring officers and their wives. The neighboring wives ostracized his wife due to her husbands enlisted rank. He had neither the social capital nor the status to contend or balance out the neighbor’s perceptions of inequality.

Status is relative though, from this persons piers he was viewed as high status due to where he lived since they didn’t know of the social stigma associated with being and enlisted man in an officer dominated housing area. In this case, bringing in his high status network companions from volunteer activities to functions at his house eventually neutralized the negative status as viewed by his neighbors, though this happened over considerable time. This is a true story.

To continue our military analogy, perhaps the E-3 obtains a college degree in a soft major, such as psychology. His or her status is certainly raised when compared to other E-3’s without a college diploma. However, when compared to an E-6 of 7 years who is contending for an officer position and has a high GPA in a hard major, say in electrical engineering the comparison reflects the E-3 as lacking comparable social status due to both time in rank and perceived prestige of each one’s respective education.

Even if the two were of equal rank and time in service, the prestige of a hard major usually supercedes the perception and prestige of a soft major. If furthermore the person with the hard major was adapt at social capital and networking, this person would be more statistically likely to live longer and face the other positive health benefits associated with higher status relative to the lower status individual.

Two military officers meet, it is normal for the senior one to receive a salute if they are in uniform. Then it is customary to notice if one or both have one of the military academy rings. If both have one, this ring “knocking” is said to cement a bond between the two that is worth while, more so than if one or both were not members. This action can occur between members of other colleges as well when they meet.

The individual implications here for the status disparity that is noted are far more than simply to take up golf to get ahead. If someone wishes to position themselves in a potentially higher status  position, they would be well served to broaden their social capital by increasing the opportunity of their networking accomplishments, with an emphasis of quality network members. The time spent increasing the quality of a members network has been shown to yield tremendous results. Many famous individuals have experienced this networking perspective, quality beats quantity in nearly every instance.

The prolific business book author, syndicated newspaper columnist, and multimillion dollar business owner Harvey Mackay in his book Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty: The Only Networking Book You’ll Ever Need says in chapter 19 on volunteering, “Lesson? You don’t need a Harvard MBA—sometimes referred to as a yuppie union card—to find a network that gives you access to important people in your community. The nominating committee of almost any civic organization is an open season to your community’s leadership.” If you have access to important community leaders in your network (high quality contacts), your climb in status (high quality yield) is sure to follow.

The empowered volunteer must understand that the people he or she helps will increase their social capital and thus increases the likelihood of the many health benefits the studies show are usually associated with joining  and participating in groups. Status and social capital are closely intertwined and often very difficult to separate. They are however, something the empowered volunteer must keep in mind when they are positioning themselves to help their group. This is a great selling point if the empowered volunteer can convey the concept sincerely to their potential new members.

Share on Tumblr

The knights of chess

The mental process for empowered volunteers and the use of sales techniques for proper presentations to reflect the correct atmosphere for a new member is critical. Consider some of the perspectives as a new member would if you want to be successful. Some people consider such things a high mental challenge, similar to playing chess. While chess is not nearly that hard, the value of this information is that if you try you will have a higher degree of success than if you were unprepared and did not try.

First off, you must be totally convinced in the value your offer presents for a prospective new member and that their social capital generated by your offer will help them not only individually but socially as well. If you don’t fully believe this, stop and figure out what is wrong. Don’t ever attempt to present opportunities to someone unless your fully believe in the product or the concept. Particularly when it comes to really helping people become a volunteer!

Social capital is not new, only the conception of the phrase is new. Roman citizens of all classes met in baths, where a noble might be in a room next to a retired legionnaire. Roman Senators might be bathing next to a merchant or an ambitious son of a prominent family. These chance meetings might result in introductions that might be made by someone who is familiar with both parties at the bath.

Alliances could be formed, deals could be explored, or maybe old friendships rekindled. Romans practiced social capital theory without ever knowing the phrase. The modern empowered volunteer can also practice social capital without reading all of the studies supporting the theory.

However the studies are ready to support the empowered volunteer presentation to the candidate with all the facts and figures if they are needed for their decision making process. Remember, facts and figures help a prospect move towards a decision, but only an emotional tie to the product will net the sale of the member actually joining.

Data persuades, but emotions are always at the heart of every buying decision.

A strong belief in the value and righteousness of your crusade to recruit new volunteers must be reflected in your actions, not just your words. You will need total commitment from a support staff and the group as a whole. This means you need to sell your idea to the group and obtain their full support for your effort. This can not be stressed enough. If possible get the commitment in writing. If not, get tangible actions in place so that the commitment is seen by other members as real.

You need to be convinced that building membership in your group will significantly benefit the individual if they participate in the activities. You must be totally convinced that once they participate they will also be helping the group and society as a whole. This belief must not be just academic; it must be a firmly held gut level knowledge, which you are absolutely certain of. All sales people need to believe in their product, and I mean completely believe with all of their being if they want to succeed. This firm belief is true of the empowered volunteer as well.

Review the reports on the health benefits associated with social capital currently available before taking on the volunteer role. Can you see how the benefits involved are good for the individual? How about social capital as it relates to the group? Can you visualize several new members still experiencing the same benefits? This vision is important for your long-term approach to building membership. Membership building is a long-range philosophy, which needs to be practiced over time.

Social capital is available in many forms, but for our purposes volunteering in America is the focus. It could be a new member mentioning to the others in his new group about a book, which is interesting and presents solutions to problems some have experienced. Perhaps a new member has experience in something, which leads to a house visit to repair a computer. This could result in the repaired computer owner being grateful and suggesting the new member call his personal accountant for an issue they conversed about. Social capital can be seen in one aspect as the breaking down of social barriers between individuals and promoting compassionate recommendations, which potentially help the recipient.

Passion is what separates the people who can persuade others to their cause and those who can’t get others to agree or buy the product. Keep in mind that you are in a great position here, you are presenting an opportunity to help them in several ways, none of which are in any way negative. This is a super position to be in. They will be better off no matter what if they just take your offer of participating. The more they participate, the better the chances of their prospering! Just like chess as a matter of fact, practice makes perfect.

Share on Tumblr

Social network world wide

Michael Marmot, in his book “The Status Syndrome, How Social Standing Affects Our Health and Longevity” makes the case through massive data gleaned from many sources over 30 years that health can be determined by social status, with the level of integration of a society as a predictor of the health of that society.

This idea was first predicted by pioneering Sociologist Durkheim and while now called Social Capital many studies find the connection valid as a predictor of social health as well as potential aid for the individual participant to learn from and apply for their own lives.

In other words, the better connected a society is the better the level of trust and the better the health of the society as a whole would be expected. This does not always mean the rich are expected to have better health on the macro level or whole society level. Many other things enter into this line of thinking. How close an individual is to others in society for instance plays a huge role in their life expectancy.

Life expectancy can also be extended as a society during wars as demonstrated by Amartya Sen who found that in Britain during the war years an increase in life expectancy existed and was thought to be from the positive effects on societies’ social integration which directly reflected mortality rates.  War brought folks together in a way that focused their efforts and their common cause, resulting in longer life for society as a whole despite the deaths from the war.

Durkheim, a father of Sociology studied social integration from religious, domestic, and political points of view with regards to suicide rates. His findings supported his conclusions that the more integrated a society was the less the rate of suicide would be. Specifically in 19^th century Europe he found that Protestant countries in Europe were often found to have higher rates of suicide than countries where the population was mostly Catholic.

In general the rates of suicide were even lower for Jewish populations. His conclusions from these studies were that the strong and unified society for the Jewish population and also for the Catholic population supported people and resulted in lower suicide rates than the Protestant populations where a more individualist approach to life was observed.

Please note this does not endorse one religion over another, it cites how populations in specific countries implemented their respective religions and how that part of their lives impacted their health.

Durkheim went on to study the effects of marriage on populations and the effects of war on total population suicide rates as well. He concluded that social integration was one of the biggest factors in not only the health of a population but in the individuals as well. Now called social capital and studied for the last 30 years or so before Marmot’s book in 2004, social integration can be applied by the individual confidently for both status raising health impact as well as strategies for health improvement through social connections.

The bottom line is that individuals can do things to increase their social status. They can do things to increase their social capital.

They can also significantly raise their health expectations by positively driving these aspects of their lives!

If you take the proper actions, you can improve your chances of not only extending your life but having a better quality of life. Many people would expect that the rich would as a society outlive the poorer societies. Money is not the single best predictor of longer life however when it comes to societies.

Ichiro Kawaichi from Harvard University was a researcher who took on this question on the relationship between the differences in social capital and the good or low health expectations. His team used surveys to quantify the level of trust in groups and then looked for the expected results of health levels. Societies that can be viewed as high in social cohesion like Japan who is rich, Kerala which is poor, or in the middle like Costa Rica have better health than others with equal wealth but less social cohesion, concludes Marmot in his book, The Status Syndrome. So the amount of money of a society is less a predictor of health than many people would think.

Another aspect to health is the impact on individuals who have low control over their lives, or at least a perception of that low control.

Marmot writes, “Furthermore, the greater the degree of inequality of material deprivation and of income, the worse the health”. Low control was the link in this issue between health and living poor. Generally speaking, the poor view their lives as having less control and the well-off view their lives as having more control over their individual decisions.

This concept of health and income inequality with regards to an aging population is something we in the United States will confront in greater degrees in our future as our economies seem to be driving a greater economic wedge between the poor and the rich. Can government policy changes help overcome the health disparities predicted or perhaps resulting from the poor who have low control over their lives and yet will be entering the government health care system at greater rates in the next few years?

This post is right now concerned with the individual and how that member of society can positively impact their potential future health by making changes in their lives. These changes need to be cost effective and also not barred by social status. They need to be within the reach of the normal American. I believe the studies cited in this post reflect that potential for the normal American to positively impact their lives. These studies and many others show an individual’s health impact positively improving by increasing social connections. This is one reason for someone to join a group!

The empowered volunteer’s mission is to help people understand the benefits of joining their respective group.

In short, the stage is set for the Empowered Volunteer to take charge of their lives and reap the potential impact on their health and mental wellbeing while helping others find their way towards these same benefits. This is truly a win-win situation.

Share on Tumblr