Thankful for the Volunteers on Squidoo

AJ is Musing about the people who give so much time to help run the Community of Squidoo and make it such a great place to publish and network

I had planned a post about the new Squidoo Angels who took to the Squidoo skies at the beginning of April and I still plan an article about them, but today I have decided to pay tribute to all the Squidoo “volunteers”.

When I joined Squidoo in July 2008, I think there were about 750,000 lenses. This has gone up to around 1.3 million!! I don’t have a clue how many Lensmasters are registered….

When you look at those numbers and the number of people actually on the paid HQ Team, (is it eight?) then it’s obvious the only way the site can run is with the help of volunteers. During my time on Squidoo there’s been Squidoo Angels, Mentors, Citizens, Greeters and Giant Squid Challenge Teamleaders (who could ever forget Joan’s Cheerleader Avatar!) plus a whole host of Lensmasters without a title, but who have also given their time to help people find their way on Squidoo. They critique lenses, they answer calls for help, they organise networks and support groups and they share Squidoo tips and ideas. They do it without a badge or a title because they are community minded.

Every one of these people, the Volunteers with and without titles, is a Lensmaster like you and me. They have their own lenses to manage and nurture and I know from my own personal experience that often your own lenses suffer while you are helping others with theirs.

But not only are these volunteers Lensmasters like you and me, they are human too. They have their own view of the world about what appeals to them in other people’s lenses, what they think is OK and what is not. Everyone is different and their view may be different to your’s.

The Volunteers who have been selected by HQ to fulfill specific roles have been chosen because HQ believes that, whichever way they decide to do their job, they will do it with honesty and integrity. And I would say that 99% of the time, this is exactly what happens.

Now I am not here to speculate or discuss what happens 1% of the time, because I want us to stop and think about the 99% and pay tribute to what the volunteers do, for the benefit of everyone who cares about the Community of Squidoo.

It is so easy, particularly when we have no responsibility, to start questioning how others with responsibility conduct themselves and to start shouting “foul”, the minute we believe they have got something wrong. It also seems to be human nature to find it easier to complain when we think something is wrong but forget to smile and say “great work”, when it goes right.

So, all I want to say here is thank you to all these Squidoo Volunteers and can the rest of us please redress the balance?

Whenever you want to raise a concern or suggest something is not going right, can you also  mention something you like or something that IS going right? Because to be honest I think that there is more going right on Squidoo than is not going right and we all need to stop and remember that sometimes.