Last night, OYFP executive board members had its first of what I hope will be an annual potluck. According to Wikipedia, the word potluck is of English in origin, and means roughly, "'whatever food one is lucky enough to find in the pot,' i.e. whatever food happens to be available, especially when offered to a guest." This puts a somewhat negative spin on it - "you're not special enough for me to make something tasty, but here, enjoy what i'm eating.. which happens to be Ramen."
Quite the opposite is true now, however. I specifically went to the store, purchased groceries, and made meatballs just for OYFP. I certainly did not just happen to have meatballs in a pot in my car. I'm sure the same went for everyone else who attended as well.
However. Let's go back to the original potluck theme, which can be more broadly interpreted as,
"whatever is available in a particular circumstance or at a particular time" [Wikipedia]. That sounds a lot like OYFP's MOA.
Yes, we're trying to change the world by getting more young people to volunteer. But in order to do that, we use whatever resources we have at hand. We do approach new vendors when hosting an event, but we have yet to really reach out and wholeheartedly pursue (or "go to the store") other resources, whether it be a non-profit consultant for the board, applying for grants, getting ourselves corporate sponsors, etc. The list goes on. It's hard when you're completely volunteer run, but I've had enough of that excuse.
We're doing great as a potluck organization, but we could be fantastic if we started to "pursue" new resources. What resources should you be pursuing?
I had honestly wondered what the origin of the term potluck was. Thank you for the very enlightening post. And thanks for sharing the luck of your pot with me...
ReplyDeleteThis was a really insightful post, and I'm not saying that because I'm part of OYFP--really!
ReplyDeleteI feel like many people are raised with the idea that they need to do something charitable, but it's a challenge to identify and commit what and how you'd like to support Cause XYZ. It's kind of like identifying what you want to do in life.