Wow ... the comforting news is that you're not alone ;( . This happens way more than it should. The other comfort is that its likely "not you." Part of why this continues to happen is simply that people aren't trained in vol management. Plus she sounds way overwhelmed. It would we interesting to ask her which of the three questions is the most accurate to ask.

Others?

I was hoping you had a post about this because I have just had an experience that was the total opposite of this and was about to blog about it--now I can just leave it as a comment here instead ;)

I have never formally volunteered for anything, but last week--admittedly inspired by your unsession at Great Ideas and the volunteerism meme that I blogged about--I contacted the exec director of a local nonprofit and told her I was interested in volunteering if she needed help. She was VERY responsive and positive--thanked me and invited me to come in to talk to her. This is an organization whose leadership is comprised of basically this one woman working with student volunteers to promote positive opportunites and experiences for kids and teens in the local community. The reason I was drawn to it was because of an anti-bullying campaign they had at my daughter's middle school.

I went and met with her for an hour Friday afternoon and it seemed to go really well. She told me how they are just about out of money, and are about to lose the small office they have. The main reason their funding situation is so bad is that they really haven't done anything to even let the community know of their existence--it is a very small community and even I had never heard of it until very recently. Their one source of funding was a generous check from ONE local real estate developer, and that was quickly spent and the only fundraising plans they seemed to have on the docket were car washes and a raffle at an upcoming town meeting.

I was offering to work with her and the students in whatever way they needed, but mainly to help raise awareness of the organization and its mission using social media. I already had several examples of concrete, easy things they could be doing, and she seemed very excited at the prospect of having me work with them.

She was supposed to have sent me a follow-up email with the contact name for the student who set up their Facebook page so I could work directly with her, or at least set up a meeting at the office for anyone interested in learning/helping. As of yesterday I hadn't heard from her so started thinking maybe I wa supposed to have contacted her. I emailed her thanking her for meeting me and asking if she could send me the student's email address as we'd discussed.

Last night she sent me what seemed like a very reluctant email, saying she'd forwarded my email to the student and "if you both decide you'd like to meet and work together the office is available." Am I being overly-sensitive or is she basically giving me the equivalent of the "don't call us, we'll call you" treatment?

I feel like a job candidate who didn't get the job--wondering if I said or did something that made them decide I wasn't worthy or they didn't want my help for some specific reason. I don't get it--when I met with the exec director she told me how grateful they always were when someone wants to help in any way, and they love volunteers and so appreciate them, etc. So why is it that I'm basically being given the brush off? Did she somehow decide over the weekend that they'd rather continue to fold rather than accept my offer to help promote them in the community? Or is this simply a case of this one staff person being totally overwhelmed and not being able to deal with bringing on a new person?

Sorry for all the questions but I have to say I'm really kind of upset about this and wondered if you or any of your readers might have some explanation other than she just didn't like me.