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In most volunteer groups the 80/20 or 90/10 rule applies and I am not worried about the "not so active" active members.
It appears that the overall society is in a mode of "spmebody help me" rather than doing it themselves. Witness the summit in Philadelphia : lots of paid people, tee shirts, executive directors of project xyz discussing how to spend more money on their project. An organization cannot join the United Way
without paid, full time, career staff.
Pennsylvania has one of the largest collections of volunteer fire and SAR people in the country (the EMS folks are shifting to career due to training and the ability to bill for services rendered).
I do not see a shortage of volunteers as long as the volunteering does not interfere with income, but I do see a tendency to make what used to be volunteer jobs for the good of the community career jobs for the benefit of the administrators.
If you want to get paid to do SAR join the Coast Guard, but you also have to chase druggies and illegal fishermen and inspect dirty rotten ships, its part of the job. They now have
paid full time dog handlers in Tampa FD whose only job is dog handler. When I volunteered for the fire company nobody said anything about hanging with my dog while everybody else worked
at the fire.
Irv
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not one specific group but an overall feeling 
professional attitude
(irv lichtenstein)
Hmmm...
(Andy Hiltz)
no threat perceived
, 1997, May 05
PLEASE
by clmankin@p3.net, 1997, May 18
