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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1686 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 18, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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At least until there's a volunteer manpower shortage and they either pay someone to comply with the onerous amount of boring administration or they wind the requirements back.

As discussed in the thread, in the specific case of volunteer fire departments this is a long way off. Most volunteer departments use their market power to insist that the volunteer firefighters spend a lot of time fundraising when they signed up to fight fires - given the bullshit nature of most fundraising activity, I suspect filling in safety paperwork may be more socially valuable.

The place where safetyist paperwork requirements have driven out the volunteers is youth activities. Lots of adults want to coach youth sports/lead Scout troops. Not that many want to fill out forms to prove they are not a paedophile.

The place where safetyist paperwork requirements have driven out the volunteers is youth activities. Lots of adults want to coach youth sports/lead Scout troops. Not that many want to fill out forms to prove they are not a paedophile.

Can confirm this. Though here it's more like a race to the safetyist bottom where everyone tries to be slightly more safetyist than everyone else on the logic that, if an injury happens (even if it the clearly was the kid's own damn fault, and it wasn't even that young), they can avoid blame by pointing to the fact that they've done everything they could. It's not helped by the fact that there have been some really silly lawsuit settlements the last few years.

Interesting. Most of the volunteer fire departments I’m familiar with get some funding from the local city, town, or township, which is supplemented by one or two major fundraisers per year.

The place where safetyist paperwork requirements have driven out the volunteers is youth activities.

I don’t think the paperwork has much to do with it. I used to spend a lot of time volunteering to help lead youth activities when I was younger. I’d still love to do it now, but if I were to do so as a childless man, I know some parents would assume I had suspect motives. In today’s environment, no amount of paperwork is going to eliminate those concerns, so I abstain.

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