My buddy Alex and I provide a volunteer service for Glasgow Life (aka the community libraries) delivering books weekly to the elderly homebound in Govan. We go out in twos and we are cleared through the Criminal Records Office - fair dos, we're dealing with vulnerable adults here.
For years, the service was run from the Mitchell Library by a small team of people who did the training, organised the SCRO checks and provided back-up if things went wrong. At the end of March this year, the team leader and her colleague were given early retirement - just two out of 13 of the 16 senior librarians pensioned off to save money.
At the moment, Alex is off having medical treatment. So what's the back-up? Well, there is none. The library assistant we work with at Elder Park Library has phoned round the southside libraries and managed to find someone trained and checked to help out but he can't start till 5 July. So for the past month, it's been a shambles. If anybody has the staff to help out, it's the Mitchell. Last Thursday, the library assistant organised 12 sets of books to be delivered and the Mitchell promised to send out a van and driver to do the deliveries. Nothing happened.
This is what volunteers resent: our service is taken for granted and expectations are raised among clients but when there's a problem it's not reckoned they or we are important enough for anyone to support.
Btw, we do our deliveries in my car in return for 12.6p per mile - or it was 12.6p per mile till the finance department of Glasgow Life started demanding receipts and wanted a step-by-step description of our journeys - on top of the return we make weekly saying when we left the library, when we returned, which clients we saw and how long we stayed for. So now I don't bother claiming. I don't work for Glasgow Life and I reckon I'm doing enough for them in return for no pay.
All I really want now is to know who to complain to!
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