Reflections On My First AGM

On Thursday evening I attended my first AGM for a charity I've been building a website for as a volunteer. I had no idea what to expect other than free tea and coffee. This is provided by the charity too for staff, volunteers and service users so the difference was posh cups and saucers instead of hearty mugs. Something did strike me as something to write a post about.

The outgoing Chair Helen Munro mentioned about some people who have used ASC (Addictions Support & Counselling) services to help themselves or their loved ones find themselves staying on or coming back to help in some capacity. This can be sitting on the board and offering suggestions or knowledge of an area to offering counselling or support to current service users.

In my case, I came to ASC as a work placement, not a service user and spotted that they didn't have a modern website, which is something I can do for them. I know what it's like to break an addiction. I'd been a smoker since the age of 16, until I finally managed to give up at 35. I tried almost everything going in all sorts of combinations and would only manage the odd day here, or week there, sometimes a month or two, but invariably I'd be smoking again. The final part of the key eventually jogged into place for me and I was able to stop very easily, but that was after a LOT of false starts.

I saw what ASC does for people, I see the value they give, I see how the staff treat service users who need help. Through the placement I saw that everyone involved with ASC care. I wanted to do what I could to give them a proper web presence and hopefully extend their ability to help, to more people. I wanted to give them a way to reach out to get more funding to enable them to help more people. I wanted to hopefully put the ASC site in front of someone's eyes when they feel they've looked for help and found nothing, that there is in fact someone who can help them.

The idea of using some free service, then contributing back to it is the FOSS ideal too. Of course not everyone who uses FOSS software will give something back, and nor should they be forced to. But plenty will in their own way. I use Drupal and Linux Mint enough that I want to give something back to those projects. I see value in what both projects are doing and want to help them somehow. Does this mean I code? No. But coding is only one way to give something back. I help out new users in the Linux Mint IRC channel, I am planning to do instruction and demonstration screencasts for both Linux Mint and Drupal. I evangelise and blog about both.

It comes down to something that offers something you care enough about to help out. It's one thing to be there when you need to be, it's something else to be there when you don't need to be.