Volunteering

[Matt2584]

Hi folks,

As some of you know, I volunteer for my local Headway by making the drinks for the rest of the group.

I like to think I am very good at what I do and I have had good feedback from people as well.

So my work station consists of a table with a kettle full of water, tea urn, pot of coffee and sugar and 20-30 cups and one cup filled with spoons.

I have a system. I keep one of those spoons dry so I can continuously pour coffee/sugar into cups and then putting the spoon back in one of the pots and then use another spoon to stir the drink. So I have a dry spoon and a wet spoon. That way you won’t be working through many spoons and I don’t like seeing a spoon that is coated in coffee/tea granules because it has also been used for stirring.

Well, sometimes that has been the case.

I am a service user for Headway as well as a volunteer (a service user mentor is my official title). So I do get to join in with the rest of the group and do any other activities (if we have any, we can be pretty scarce these days).

So if I am in the middle of an activity then another volunteer will take over my job and make the drinks.

If this volunteer is newish then they would most likely mess up my system entirely and use one spoon to make the whole group of 20-30 people their drinks.

Or even the lady who normally runs the groups might come over and make herself a drink, again, using the same spoon which messes up my system. It’s as if they think they are at home making themselves a drink where you would typically use one spoon but for a group of people you need to have at least one dry spoon and one wet spoon.

Thankfully the other volunteers I work with have been around for a couple of years now and they know of my wet/dry system but the lady who runs the groups, I will say is a bit of a dolt, she will mess up my system and pee me off.

One time she came over to make herself a drink while I was stood there and I was observing her making her drink.

She poured the tea in her cup and then she grabbed the dry spoon from the pot of sugar and was going to stir her drink and then I quickly butt in and said “Not with that spoon”.

And she was all confused and I said that I keep one dry and one wet otherwise we would be going through tons of spoons and creating more and more washing up.

Where my balance is crap I am not going to be walking into the kitchen to wash up spoons as I have a more important job to do and the other volunteers aren’t going to do it because they help me transfer the drinks.

So why not use a wet and a dry spoon and save yourself having to wash more spoons. It makes so much more sense.

[cat3]

A whole new & maybe unintentional slant on 'The Spoon Theory' Matt. You should buy one of the T shirts saying 'I don't have enough spoons for this sh*t' or 'Fresh out of spoons'..... xx

[Matt2584 in reply to cat3]

Haha, shirts like that would make people think twice about touching my spoons :).

[Lynd]

Hmm very irritating when people don't follow the system.

Not sure what you can do to change people though Matt.

I like cat's idea. X

[Matt2584 in reply to Lynd]

Not sure what to do to change people like that, well I usually have a go at them but in a pleasant way :).

[Plenty]

I know a chap, who had done 22 years in the army, and he always brings his own spoon. He claims he always did it in the army as well.

Some cafes have the sugar bowls that need no spoon, saving somebody putting a wet spoon back in the bowl.

And now a lot of places use those disposable stirring sticks, save people using them for sugar or coffee.

On a plus side - if you draw a nice picture, add Cats quote and then get it out on a t-shirt. I will buy one.

👍🏻

[RogerCMerriman]

Generally the volunteers or we do that, I have to say I think that’s people being people! Than anything to due with brain injuries.

Few years back when I was more wobbly and less aware, I’d just joined Headway and the young Volunteer gave me a cup of coffee which I promptly managed to spill, and the next and so on! As the cups handle was angled which just threw out vestibular systems which I didn’t know or realise at the time, she must of had the patience of a sant!

[Matt2584 in reply to RogerCMerriman]

When I am making the drinks for the rest of the group, nobody is really supposed to interfere otherwise it buggers me up and it slows things down. I like to have my own space.

But one of the members is, as he says, grumpy and he prefers to make his own drink. I let him get on with it, it doesn’t really bother me.

I can understand why a brain injured person might use a dry spoon to stir his drink as well but when a volunteer does it or a member of staff does it then it winds me up because they should know better.

As I said in the post, thankfully the volunteers understand my system and don’t usually mess me up.

But the member of staff always messes me up if she interferes. Like I said, she is a dolt.

It may well be people being people but these people need to use a bit more common sense.

When we are at the group, we are not at home and there are many people to make drinks for. You can’t just expect to use one spoon for everything because then you are going to the coffee mixed in with the sugar.

[sue-66]

Your system definitely makes sense 😊

[Matt2584 in reply to sue-66]

Thank you sue :).

I’m glad somebody agrees.

[sealiphone]

I think it's very depressing to hear about Headway staff not realising that we can have many things that have to be accommodated and in your particular 'issue' it's not something that should cause anybody not to respect it.

And It sounds like you're respected by other users.