Volunteer work sucks ass

Hey kids. Never volunteer to do design work! It always ends up in a mess and is rarely worth your time! I have done it a couple of times and have regretted it every single time! It will quite possibly ruin your life!

But you may ask, "Deker, how the hell am I supposed to build my portfolio without doing sites for free? No one will pay me because I don't have a portfolio, but I can't get a portfolio because no one will pay me!"

And I may answer, "Charge anyway. Even if it is only $100. Even less. You have to charge something. This isn't because you want to get rich. It most likely will hardly be worth your time, still. The point is, if your 'client' is spending money on something, then they will be much more likely to get it over with. If you are doing something for free, then they are very very lazy about getting any info to you, communicating with you, etc. But then, when it comes to the time when they wanted their 'free site' done, they expect you to work like they're paying you $20,000 and have it done! Even though you have more important, actual paying jobs going on."

My current situation is... I went to church last year in december I think. It was my first time at that particular church, and because I was starting a new design firm and needed something for my portfolio, I volunteered to do their site. They got back to me a couple of weeks later, and asked me to do the site. I said ok. Then we had a meeting to see what they wanted on the site. They said they wanted the site done and launched the first of this year. I said great, no problem. As long as you get me all of the info you want on the site, I can get it done by then.

Well, along comes the first of the year, and I still haven't received any info. I've already finished the design of the site. It is ready. But no content. So I put up a coming soon page on their site instead.

A couple more months pass and I don't hear from them. By now, I have real clients that are paying me significant amounts of money to design their sites.

Now along comes the churche again... 3 months after the site was supposed to be done.

"We're ready to work on the site again. We'd like to launch it in 2 weeks."

Hm.... You see.... Here is my predicament. I'm in the middle of about 3 other paying projects right now.... Then along comes the freebie church job saying they want what is basically a rush job. And I'm not even getting anything out of the deal! I no longer need them for my portfolio. Because I have real clients that I've already gotten in the mean time. But I don't want to just drop the project either, because I told them I would do it. Also, there are some other computer company owners that go to that church, and they have passed me some work before. So if I bale out of the church project, then I have a bad rep with them.


Anyway... the moral of this lengthy story is...

I think if I had charged the church even $100. They would have been more eager to get me the info in a timely manner, so that I could have finished the site when I, the volunteer, had the time.

Since I did it for free, they have no incentive to move things along. Then they figure three months later, I'm still free and willing to do the site.

Charge a little money for every project!!!!!!!!!!!

That's one very morale story Deker, sorry to hear of your crisis.

What i think you should do is tell the chucrh about your situation, how you work for money, how your reputation really means everything. Then simply ask them for $100...It's only a local church, they're not gonna get John Paul after you.

And no, it's not even breaking the commandments. Your problem is that you're too nice ;)

The problem isn't money. I don't need to be paid for it. The point is it should have been done 3 months ago, and I could have stopped worrying about it. Now, since they messed around for three months, their request comes at a very inopportune time.

I would just explain the situation. When my church came to me several months ago, with a group of people wanting to work on the site, I offered my help. They put it off and put it off, and came back to me a couple of months ago, and I told them at the time I offered my help, I had the time, but now I just didn't. Granted I've known all these people for years and years, so they understood.

In the last couple of weeks, our pastor kind of pushed my mom's back against the wall, because he was sick of the site being so outdated and "unpleasing" visually, I offered to go ahead and just do it myself, to make him happy, and get my mom out of a jam.

They ended up paying me for my time, which I didn't even ask for.

That's called getting the hell out of hand...

hehe, do ya get it...getting hell...ahh forget it.

No but on a serious note, that's really not good for a church to be doing. And besides, who the hell (hehe) is gonna visit a church website?

depends on your church. i'm in the middle of doing a site for ours and we expect it to be fairly high-traffic. course, we're also building a 4000 seat building...

chris

I hear you dek. With me they just don't return my emails.

True. Ours is expected to be high traffic, now that it's been redone finally, and it gets advertised more than it did. We only currently have an 1100 seat sanctuary, but we've had to extend to 3+ Sunday services, to accommodate the growth, each service full. Not to mention the 8 mil, 73K square foot Fellowship Center that's fixing to start being built.

I cant wait for that! I live right behind the church, and it's going to have 2 full basketball courts, weight room and pool tables.

I'll never be home. :D

Woops....I drifted off-topic.

and a fridge for the beer??

what would jesus do?