Forced Volunteerism

Ben received an interesting email yesterday, that I felt compelled to share. Evidently, certain individuals have forgotten what both the concept and definition of volunteering and service really are. Below is the message he received:

"Brethren,
I'm sure you already received the other email we sent out regarding Stake Conference. Don't worry, this one is not a duplicate. This particular email is going out to those elders in the quorum who, according to our records, have yet to fill any sort of service assignment in the quorum (sealings, canning, moving, etc.) since the ward was created about a year ago. We realize that most, if not all of you have church callings which undoubtedly take up a good amount of your time, so time is limited. Thank you for fulfilling those callings that you already have. However, YOU are on our "hit" list now. We are going to be approaching you to help fill quorum assignments, until we've given everyone the opportunity to serve, at which point we'll rotate back through the list of all Elders in the quorum (approximately 90 in all).

Our next assignment is Sunday for Stake Conference. The Stake has tasked our ward with providing two brethren to assist with ushering parking, AFTER the general session. If you would like to volunteer, and avoid the possibility of being "assigned" this, or any subsequent duties, please let us know, and we can remove your name from further, similar emails. We will advise this same group of any up-and-coming assignments.

Thank You brethren for your faithfulness.
Elders Quorum Presidency"

Now, I'm completely aware that Ben is not a big fan of volunteering to help for things - mainly because he doesn't like to do things that take him away from his wife and kids (because we really do struggle to all be together for any length of time as is). However, Ben is always one of the first people to offer to help someone he knows do anything from manual labor, to finding a job, to watching their kids. So, to basically be told that he will be receiving constant emails and is now on a "hit list" until he volunteers, is completely backwards. As the adage goes: "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar," and it's completely true. Because now, with this forced volunteerism in effect; someone who really would have helped under other circumstances, has now told me that he WILL volunteer, but volunteer to be taken OFF their list.