Concrete small tasks recruit first-time volunteers better than appeals to duty

Evidence

The way to get a volunteer is to ask, ‘‘Who has a drill bit and can drill eight holes in this board next Saturday?’’ Someone will come who maybe never volunteered before, and then maybe they’ll come again. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 188

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Civic volunteers deflect principled proposals by responding only to trivial practical details — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 344; Volunteers deliberately shrink concerns into unpolitical tasks to sustain a message of hope — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 191; Volunteers lavish detailed attention on subjects within their narrowly defined scope — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 252 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Civic volunteers deflect principled proposals by responding only to trivial practical details #corroborates (0.82) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 344
• Moral rescuers act on human duty despite having nothing to gain #contradicts (0.82)
• Volunteers deliberately shrink concerns into unpolitical tasks to sustain a message of hope #corroborates (0.78) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 191
• Volunteers lavish detailed attention on subjects within their narrowly defined scope #exemplifies (0.75) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 252