Andy Kennedy
The official number for PNWS Volunteer hours in the year 2021 is 1511. This includes volunteered time by PNWS Board members and their directed projects, like Calls to Artists. The number is considerably greater than the two previous years which were both at around 1000 hours. The pandemic is a big reason for this. Specific events like International Sculpture day and Art in the Pearl did not take place in 2020 but did take a lot of PNWS Volunteer effort to create in 2021. The new PNWSculptors.org website, including our first online show, also demanded extra time from Volunteers in 2021. (See below Volunteers of Note)
Another reason for the change from 1000 to 1500 yearly Volunteer hours, could be that process for recording Volunteer hours has been changed. The format has been simplified into one, Board member accessible spreadsheet for the first time, likely effecting what kinds of numbers get recorded.
Volunteers of note
Several of us are consistently doing a lot for PNWS. President Chas Martin is an example of someone putting in time, getting results and deserving the credit that many of us give him. There are a few folks that need to be given more attention here because they are less visible. Chayo Wilson, Alisa Looney, Dave Frei, and George Heath all deserve more credit for their contributions in 2021. George in particular should also be given a lifetime achievement award for his decades of involvement with PNWS. And Dave Frei gets the distinction the “one month high”, with a total of 71 hours in January alone (related to website work mentioned above) and the highest per month average hours spent in 2021. Chayo Wilson gets the “For the Kids” award related to her International Sculpture day project with at-risk-youth, developing a public sculpture for the Oregon Society of Artists plinth, which has also become the center piece for a Memorial garden at Helensview High School. Alisa Looney is on this list for taking on a Regional Arts and Culture Commission grant which will lead to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training for PNWS Members. Alisa got the “Volunteer of the Year” award last year and I was seriously thinking of doing that again, but for the other stand outs mentioned here.
Other Board members must be mentioned: Wade Womack, Terri Elioff, Bill Leigh, Rocky Jaeger and myself, we all gave our free time to PNWS Board of directors projects and policies work, along with the Calls to Artists contributors: Sandra Visse, Nancy Bocek, Robert Gigliotti and Terry Cook. We’ve had a good team this year and it’s important to give extra attention to behind the scenes contributions.
Looking ahead
Different factors have lead to some of the PNWS leadership to resign from their roles this past year and looking forward we can expect others to step away from the Board. Recruitment and Networking will be my duo pre-occupations for PNWS in 2022.
My job with PNWS is to notice how people are committing time and attention to the group as a whole. This runs between specifics like logging of Volunteer hours and broader concerns like, “Are PNWS Members getting what they want from their involvement?” Our group blends different people and expectations, so the philosophical questions are ongoing.