Ed Sipples

Volunteers are critical to making a small town like KW function properly. All the Boards, Commissions, Committees and groups are like spokes in a wheel. Without all the spokes, the wheel becomes distorted and wobbles. KW would wobble without the help of volunteerism!

The first thing the Executive Branch of our town government (BOS) should do is to set the example by LISTENING and RESPECTING the recommendations that are brought forth by our current volunteers serving on Committees. These volunteers are giving of their precious time to research and develop recommendations and the BOS should always receive them with open minds.

Last winter, the Boards of Selectmen (I'm a member) and Finance approved a town expenditure that was intended to be a "Volunteer Appreciation Night". EVERY town volunteer (at least as being defined as "sworn in" by the Town) and a guest were invited to attend this Town sponsored gathering. The purpose of the evening was to RECOGNIZE their importance and to allow town leaders to say Thank You. At this recent dinner, many who have freely given of their precious time and helped serve the Town's best interests, received long overdue recognition.

The BOS depends heavily upon the two major parties (KDTC and KRTC) to search for and recommend people to fill most vacancies. The Democratic and Republican Town Committees are at the grass roots of finding volunteers. The current selection process for both groups is to constantly look for someone who pops up on the Town radar screen by showing their interest in some sort of Town issue or business. Next they identify the persons' skill sets and match that person to the appropriate Committee. Finally they have to persuade the person to step up to the plate and volunteer for it.

Is there a problem finding people to volunteer? You betcha! We live in a fast paced society where many times both Mom and Dad are working and there is little or no "spare time" available. If we currently try to "hook" any resident who appears on the radar screen, the only way to improve upon this is to find people who don't pop up. I don't know how one does this, so I don't really have a good answer to this question.

The last alternative has to be to pay volunteers for their service. The monetary impact upon our taxes would be gigantic and of course we would want to avoid this option.

I'm all ears to any ideas about how this problem could be tackled! But, at the risk of repeating myself, I do think acknowledging the tireless work of our volunteers, and respecting their efforts is job one if we are to recruit more.