NicoMoon
10-23-2005, 12:21 PM
I can only speak for myself here and I hope our other team members jump in and add their own thoughts and experiences.
This group formed spontaneously. I'm not even 100% clear on how it all happened, but what I remember is jumping up from in front of the TV after having watched New Orleans flood, people being rescued from roofs, pets being left behind on and on. It suddenly all sank in, and I had to do something but I had no idea what. I remembered that we had this message board just sitting there under development, so I just jumped on and started creating threads.
Trust me, I'm not a sappy person, but tears were flowing when a neighbor called a few minutes into my work and I told her what I was doing. She thought I was nuts to think I could do something of significance, but she mentioned the NOLA boards, so I went there and started posting, asking people to crosspost their messages onto our more static board, and asking for volunteers to jump in and help. Help with what, I wasn't quite sure, but I figured we'd come up with something if a group of us put our heads together.
What I was feeling, and how I summed that up, was by my use of the phrase "Let's Roll". I don't think there is an American for whom that phrase doesn't resonate the true essence of heroic response in the face of urgent and immediate need. I wasn't looking to feel like a hero, or to offer up an opportunity for people to pat ourselves on each other's backs, I was looking for that part in each of us that is heroic, that can and will respond with full force, with clarity and purity to the need of the moment, and I just believed in it that night.
Within an hour or so, I had one passionate volunteer and evangelist, in Kim "Monkeyphat". Don't ask me what she did or what I said to her, all I remember is both of us recognizing that we were on the same page, so no need to discuss it. By the next morning, literally thousands of people were hitting this site an hour, and that went on all day and into the night.
Still having no clear focus, other than that there was so much to do, so many ways to offer needed assistance, we just kept plowing on, and one by one, others stood up and offered to assist, and our early team began to evolve.
There was so much going on that I know I totally lost the plot. Each of us was doing something, whatever we could, be it getting the word out, responding to posters who requested assistance, posting information, researching, anything and everything. Most of us were putting in ten and twelve hours a day, and even more. It was just an obsession. None of us hardly knew each other, other than through the frantic emails that were passing back and forth.
At one point, I became aware of a few significant facts. The first was that somehow there was no controversy brewing on our site, unlike just about every other message board that we were visiting when crossposting our call for volunteers, resources and information. The second one was that two of our team members, Debby, "vervilledeb1" and Kim "Monkeyphat" were in the process of getting an entire stranded neighborhood rescued. It happened so fast, and it was so dramatic, that it took awhile for me to digest it. It's a great story and the details are posted here in this thread.
Suddenly, as more stories of housing needs being met, animals being rescued, resources being made available, volunteers heading down to the disaster zone, I realized that we were in fact Rolling!
From there, our team went through some changes, people coming and going, the usual shifts that would be expected, but our core began to emerge, we found the time to get to know each other better, learned how to work together, how to make decisions, be effective, efficient, our strengths and weaknesses, but above and beyond all, we recognized our shared committment and passion for our team work.
Each of us who have volunteered on any level throughout these past weeks have expressed the same sense of exhilaration, excitment, gratification, joy and pleasure in knowing that we are getting the job done. We haven't even always been quite clear on what the job actually was, but we've watched things move, goods and cash donated, rescue workers and relief organizations supported, volunteers heading down to do the hard work, projects identified, started, and completed.
No one was ever asked to contribute anything more than what they could or wanted to. No one has ever been pressured or criticized, no one made more special or important than anyone else. Donald Trump and Martha Stewart could hire on this team tomorrow and spare themselves the 18 week interview process. This is a winning team, without question!!
Really, all we need are a few more like us. The more of us there are, the more we can do.
Let's Roll is the Heart of the Livewire.fm community. It will always beat strong and be ready to respond to the urgent and immediate needs of the moment.
We are volunteers supporting other volunteers, no more no less, but that's quite enough!
Our volunteer team is the Soul of the Livewire.fm community.
The Livewire.fm community is inspired by Benjamin Franklin, one of the most accomplished human beings to have ever lived, and based on his Junto Society, a group he formed "of most of my ingenious acquaintance into a club of mutual improvement". History tells a bigger story, the Junto's mutual improvements grew into the improvement of the world through it's evolution into the United States Constitution, still today the most admired and emulated formula for human dignity and freedom known to humankind.
We too seek ingenious acquaintences to join our Let's Roll team. Who knows what we can evolve into, but we do have a map to the stars and beyond, and the strong heart and soaring soul to take the trip.
This is a great job opportunity. You get to define your own position, make your own hours, and the pay and benefits package cannot be matched. It's delivered straight to your heart, and beings immediately to enrich your soul.
So, please consider joining us!
We're right here, just give a holler!!
Nico
NicoMoon@livewire.fm
This group formed spontaneously. I'm not even 100% clear on how it all happened, but what I remember is jumping up from in front of the TV after having watched New Orleans flood, people being rescued from roofs, pets being left behind on and on. It suddenly all sank in, and I had to do something but I had no idea what. I remembered that we had this message board just sitting there under development, so I just jumped on and started creating threads.
Trust me, I'm not a sappy person, but tears were flowing when a neighbor called a few minutes into my work and I told her what I was doing. She thought I was nuts to think I could do something of significance, but she mentioned the NOLA boards, so I went there and started posting, asking people to crosspost their messages onto our more static board, and asking for volunteers to jump in and help. Help with what, I wasn't quite sure, but I figured we'd come up with something if a group of us put our heads together.
What I was feeling, and how I summed that up, was by my use of the phrase "Let's Roll". I don't think there is an American for whom that phrase doesn't resonate the true essence of heroic response in the face of urgent and immediate need. I wasn't looking to feel like a hero, or to offer up an opportunity for people to pat ourselves on each other's backs, I was looking for that part in each of us that is heroic, that can and will respond with full force, with clarity and purity to the need of the moment, and I just believed in it that night.
Within an hour or so, I had one passionate volunteer and evangelist, in Kim "Monkeyphat". Don't ask me what she did or what I said to her, all I remember is both of us recognizing that we were on the same page, so no need to discuss it. By the next morning, literally thousands of people were hitting this site an hour, and that went on all day and into the night.
Still having no clear focus, other than that there was so much to do, so many ways to offer needed assistance, we just kept plowing on, and one by one, others stood up and offered to assist, and our early team began to evolve.
There was so much going on that I know I totally lost the plot. Each of us was doing something, whatever we could, be it getting the word out, responding to posters who requested assistance, posting information, researching, anything and everything. Most of us were putting in ten and twelve hours a day, and even more. It was just an obsession. None of us hardly knew each other, other than through the frantic emails that were passing back and forth.
At one point, I became aware of a few significant facts. The first was that somehow there was no controversy brewing on our site, unlike just about every other message board that we were visiting when crossposting our call for volunteers, resources and information. The second one was that two of our team members, Debby, "vervilledeb1" and Kim "Monkeyphat" were in the process of getting an entire stranded neighborhood rescued. It happened so fast, and it was so dramatic, that it took awhile for me to digest it. It's a great story and the details are posted here in this thread.
Suddenly, as more stories of housing needs being met, animals being rescued, resources being made available, volunteers heading down to the disaster zone, I realized that we were in fact Rolling!
From there, our team went through some changes, people coming and going, the usual shifts that would be expected, but our core began to emerge, we found the time to get to know each other better, learned how to work together, how to make decisions, be effective, efficient, our strengths and weaknesses, but above and beyond all, we recognized our shared committment and passion for our team work.
Each of us who have volunteered on any level throughout these past weeks have expressed the same sense of exhilaration, excitment, gratification, joy and pleasure in knowing that we are getting the job done. We haven't even always been quite clear on what the job actually was, but we've watched things move, goods and cash donated, rescue workers and relief organizations supported, volunteers heading down to do the hard work, projects identified, started, and completed.
No one was ever asked to contribute anything more than what they could or wanted to. No one has ever been pressured or criticized, no one made more special or important than anyone else. Donald Trump and Martha Stewart could hire on this team tomorrow and spare themselves the 18 week interview process. This is a winning team, without question!!
Really, all we need are a few more like us. The more of us there are, the more we can do.
Let's Roll is the Heart of the Livewire.fm community. It will always beat strong and be ready to respond to the urgent and immediate needs of the moment.
We are volunteers supporting other volunteers, no more no less, but that's quite enough!
Our volunteer team is the Soul of the Livewire.fm community.
The Livewire.fm community is inspired by Benjamin Franklin, one of the most accomplished human beings to have ever lived, and based on his Junto Society, a group he formed "of most of my ingenious acquaintance into a club of mutual improvement". History tells a bigger story, the Junto's mutual improvements grew into the improvement of the world through it's evolution into the United States Constitution, still today the most admired and emulated formula for human dignity and freedom known to humankind.
We too seek ingenious acquaintences to join our Let's Roll team. Who knows what we can evolve into, but we do have a map to the stars and beyond, and the strong heart and soaring soul to take the trip.
This is a great job opportunity. You get to define your own position, make your own hours, and the pay and benefits package cannot be matched. It's delivered straight to your heart, and beings immediately to enrich your soul.
So, please consider joining us!
We're right here, just give a holler!!
Nico
NicoMoon@livewire.fm