Volunteerin' Fool

I got a wild hair this year, and decided to apply for some boards & commissions in my little suburb. My selections were the Zoning Board of Adjustment and the Planning and Zoning Commission. These make the most sense, based on my real estate background. Or more sense, at least, than the Animal Services Appeals Board.

I had my ZBA interview last night with two city councilmen and a city staff member. I think they were impressed by my subject matter knowledge. It helps that I talk about zoning and zoning adjustments in my real estate classes, so I already have a spiel about them. It adds a nice "knows what he's doing" flavor to the proceedings.

I got some spiel from the councilmen as well. The first one, which I appreciated, was the "we have a lot more applicants than we do positions to fill, so if you're not picked, it's not a negative reflection on you." They also noted that there's "alternate" spots as well as regular ones, so don't feel bad if you get picked as an alternate. This is reasonable, and something I understand.

The spiel I didn't appreciate was "if you don't get picked, there's still plenty of ways to serve your community." Because I've been spending years and years not being on a board or commission, and I've not been aware of any other way to serve the community. It's bad form to call them on their bullshit in the middle of an interview, but what do they have in mind? Sitting through hearings that I'm not part of? Tending to a portion of the community garden? Joining the Lions Club? No, no, and no.

The P&Z interview is tomorrow night. I feel like I have less of a shot at getting on that one, because there's fewer vacancies and more people tend to apply to it. That suits me fine, because P&Z tends to involve more hours & work. I may take the opportunity tomorrow to call the interviewer on the "there's plenty of ways to serve your community" line. I'm vacillating between "Really? Name one." and "Really? I haven't found that to be the case." or the slightly more friendly "For example..." I bet their first example would be "Well, you could volunteer for a city board or commission oh wait..."

Or maybe they'll be smart and not go through that particular spiel again. We'll see.

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