Suppose you become a leader in an organization. It's very likely that you'll want to have volunteers to help 

with the organization's activities. To do so, it should help to understand why people undertake volunteer work and

what keeps their interest in the work.

       Let's begin with the question of why people volunteer. Researchers have identified several factors that 

motivate people to get involved. For example, people volunteer to express personal values related to unselfishness, 

to expand their range of experiences, and to strengthen social relationships. If volunteer positions do not meet these 

needs, people may not wish to participate. To select volunteers, you may need to understand the motivations of the 

people you wish to attract.

         People also volunteer because they are required to do so. To increase levels of community service, some 

schools have launched compulsory volunteer programs. Unfortunately, these programs can shift people's wish of

participation from an internal factor (e.g., “I volunteer because it's important to me”) to an external factor (e.g., “I

volunteer because I'm required to do so”). When that happens, people become less likely to volunteer in the future.

People must be sensitive to this possibility when they make volunteer activities a must.

          Once people begin to volunteer, what leads them to remain in their positions over time? To answer this 

question, researchers have conducted follow-up studies in which they track volunteers over time. For instance, one 

study followed 238 volunteers in Florida over a year. One of the most important factors that influenced their 

satisfaction as volunteers was the amount of suffering they experienced in their volunteer positions. Although this

result may not surprise you, it leads to important practical advice. The researchers note that attention should be 

given to “training methods that would prepare volunteers for troublesome situations or provide them with 

strategies for coping with the problem they do experience”.

         Another study of 302 volunteers at hospitals in Chicago focused on individual differences in the degree to 

which people view “volunteer” as an important social role. It was assumed that those people for whom the role of 

volunteer was most part of their personal identity would also be most likely to continue volunteer work. 

Participants indicated the degree to which the social role mattered by responding to statements such as 

“Volunteering in Hospital is an important part of who I am.” Consistent with the researchers' expectations, they

found a positive correlation (正相关) between the strength of role identity and the length of time people continued 

to volunteer. These results, once again, lead to concrete advice: “Once an individual begins volunteering, 

continued efforts might focus on developing a volunteer role identity.... Items like T-shirts that allow volunteers to 

be recognized publicly for their contributions can help strengthen role identity”.

    Skillswise Delivery Services

    Christmas Job Opportunities

    Aged between 16 and 65 years? Need some money for Christmas?

    Are you available to work at short notice?

    Can you work early in the morning or late at night? We are looking for careful and patient people to help to sort and deliver parcels in the Reading area from late November until the end of December.

    Pay for weekdays, including Saturdays and Sundays, will be

Ages 16 to 17—-£4.80 per hour.

Age 18 and over—- £ 6.10 per hour.

    So if you have good communication skills and are able to work as part of a team, we would like to hear from you.

    To get an application form, please write to:

    Elaine Grey, Personnel Officer, Skillswise Delivery Services, Windsor Road.

    Reading, RGS 4BR

    Tel:0118 932 814 (24 hr. answer phone)

    Closing date: 10th November

    When my sister Mertie told me she had put out tomato plants last summer, I was quite impressed.

    Since she was a garden-beginner, Mertie researched exactly how far apart to space her tomato plants; what kind of fertilizer to use; how to keep away the bugs, etc. Once they were planted, she took care of them daily, anxiously awaiting the juicy tomatoes to appear. But, day after day, her plants were tomato-less while all of her neighbors who had also put out tomato plants were already enjoying the fruit of their labor.

    Frustrated, Mertie gave in and went to the market to search fresh tomatoes. While paying, Mertie told the farmer her troubles. The farmer paused to think for a moment and then asked, "Well, what kind of tomatoes did you plant?"

    "I think they were called Big Boy," Mertie remembered.

    "Well there's your problem," the farmer explained. "Big Boy and Better Boy tomatoes have a 95-day growing period whereas regular tomato plants produce fruit in as few as 70 days…you just have to wait a little longer for the Big Boys."

    With that new knowledge, Mertie went home with excitement, knowing they would be worth the wait.

    Thinking about my sister's gardening experience, I had to smile. She just didn't know that Big Boy tomatoes took longer--neither did I — but once she discovered that information, she was no longer discouraged and upset about the lack of tomatoes on her plants. Instead, she was encouraged and excited to see them a few weeks later.

    It makes me wonder how many of us have "Big Boy" dreams in our hearts, yet we just don't realize that they are of the "Big Boy" variety so we are discouraged and worn out with the waiting process. Instead of waiting with excitement, we give up on our dreams and figure we must have done something wrong to stop them from coming to pass. Frustrated, we see other people's dreams coming true, and we wonder why ours haven't yet been achieved.

    Downloading music over the Internet is pretty common among high school and college students. However, when students download and share copyrighted music without permission, they are against the law.

    A survey of young people's music ownership has found that teenagers and college students have an average of more than 800 illegally copied songs each on their digital music players. Half of those surveyed share all the music on their hard drive (硬盘), enabling others to copy hundreds of songs at any one time. Some students were found to have randomly linked their personal blogs to music sites, so as to allow free trial listening of copyrighted songs for blog visitors, or adopted some of the songs as the background music for their blogs. Such practices may be easy and free, but there are consequences.

    Sandra Dowd, a student of Central Michigan University, was fined US $7,500 for downloading 501 files from Lime Wire, a peer-to-peer file sharing program. Sandra claimed that she was unaware that her downloads were illegal until she was contacted by authorities. Similarly, Mike Lewinski paid US $4,000 to settle a lawsuit（起诉）against him for copyright violation (违反). Mike expressed shock and couldn't believe that this was happening to him. “I just wanted to save some money and I always thought the threat was just a scare tactic(战术).” “You know, everyone does it,” added Mike.

    The RIAA （Recording Industry Association of America）, the organization that files lawsuits against illegal downloaders, states that suing (控告) students was by no means their first choice. Unfortunately, without the threat of consequences, students are just not changing their behavior. Education alone is not enough to stop the extraordinary growth of the illegal downloading practice.

    The idea of progress started to flower in the 17th century. At that time, many wise thinkers believed that man liberated（解放） by reason would rise to greater heights of achievement. The many expressions of human nature would be the engines of progress: language, business, science, and moral sensibility （道德感）. Unfortunately, most of those engines have failed to bring the desired human progress.

    The modern age has belonged to material progress and its main source has been science. Science gives people huge power to change the world. But can people be trusted to use it always for good? Think of biotechnology and information technology. And it is not just that scientific progress does not deliver the emotional good. People also fear that mankind is failing to manage science properly. The forests are disappearing; the ice is melting; privacy is leaking; life is becoming a depressing march in an ugly world.

    The point is not that science is harmful, but that scientific progress needs to be mapped tidily onto human progress. That relies on moral sensibility in its widest sense. This liberal force offers hope for a better future. The very idea of moral sensibility probably sounds out-of-date. Bur researchers find that people desire a sense of moral purpose which would give life dignity （尊严）. People want to determine how the world works, not always to be determined by it. Moral sensibility is why people will suffer from their beliefs, and why acts of noble self﹣sacrifice are so powerful.

    It is admitted that our moral ideals will never be realized completely. But sometimes, however imperfectly, we can make progress. Human dignity requires the love of ideals for their own sake, but nothing requires that the love be returned.

Human progress is neither guaranteed nor hopeless. Instead, it is up to us.

    What is the number one favorite pet in the UK? If you think the answer is dogs, you are wrong. There are 8.6 million cats and 8.3 million dogs in Britain according to recent figures. But experts predict that there will be more dogs than cats next year as dogs become more and more popular.

    Dogs as decorations

    We like to spend time with our pets. The Queen is famous for her affection for dogs and is often photographed with them. Nowadays some dog owners are more extreme — a few TV celebrities even take their dogs shopping or to restaurants. Chihuahuas are especially popular as "handbag dogs" because they are so tiny.

    Dog holidays

    People are also giving their pets holidays. Many UK hotels and holiday parks now welcome dogs as guests. What about owners who go abroad? They can leave their pets at a dog hotel or dog spa while they are away. Some even provide their dog guests with a TV.

    Dogs are for life

    The British charity, Dogs Trust, finds homes for thousands of lost and abandoned dogs every year. Their famous slogan "A dog is for life and not just for Christmas" was created in the 1970s to teach people about the responsibility of owning a dog. Dogs Trust told British people not to give dogs as gifts or treat them like toys.

    Dogs on TV

    Victoria Sitwell is the host of the popular TV programme called "It's me or the dog". In the show Victoria helps dog owners with their pets' bad behaviour. She tries to find solutions to problems such as a Dalmatian who thinks he owns the house and won't let the family sit on the sofa, dogs that will only eat ice cream and biscuits and even a bulldog who uses the owner's bed as a toilet.

    Fashion for dogs

    You can shop online or on the high street for the latest in dog clothes and accessories. Specialist shops sell items such as dog boots, dog fancy dress costumes, dog coats, dog dresses and dog pants.