Congratulations to Pine Country Winner, Fran Vogt

Last month, I offered three free copies of RV Traveling Tales to the first three people who submitted stories about their volunteer experiences. Surprisingly no one responded. I mentioned it again in the latest edition of our newsletter on Tuesday. Fran Vogt responded this time. Congratulations. Your free copy will be arriving shortly. JJ Dippel will receive the second copy. I still have a third one left for anyone who wants to send their experiences to me at youshoulda @ aol.com.

Here is Fran's volunteer experience:

"I had both positive and negative feelings about my job, but am still thankful for the experience. My husband and I trained to be workampers at a large RV resort. The person responsible for the training had been there for years.

In addition to the training, she had us "volunteering" to do things like straighten up the product inventory shelves, sand and paint benches, and do other work that we didn't consider training. There were several people who needed training. Communication was not the best and information that was given to one group didn't always get to the next. We worked in shifts on different days.

Nevertheless, we did pass muster and were given an assignment at a related resort in a nearby state. We were fortunate to work with excellent managers at the new park, enjoyed all of the sights in the area, and made many good friends.

But, as had happened in our training, we were required to "volunteer" additional hours that did not count as part of the time we had agreed to do. We felt we were doing jobs that should have been done by paid staff. I look back on our training and and two months of workamping experiences and I'm glad we tried it. But we haven't accepted any other assignment since then. We love hearing from our fellow trainees and the friends we met at that time and look forward to seeing them again." Fran Vogt

From Alice again: I have worked with Communication skills in some way all my adult life, and Fran's experience is not unusual. People who train you for a job (whether paid or volunteer) must be clear about what the job entails. Congratulations to Fran and her husband for rising above their frustrations and making this a positive experience.

Have any of you had similar experiences?

Safe travels,

Alice Zyetz