Piper Bulletin February 2010

Ubuntu, the Zulu word meaning "I am, because we are," is also the name of the leadership volunteer project of the city of Mesa Arts and Cultural Department. Through the program, three leadership volunteers called "Ability Experts" have taken on projects such as improving websites and evaluating programs and sharpening marketing plans for the city museums: The Arizona Museum for Youth, the Mesa Arts Center and the Arizona Museum of Natural History. They provided services that the city would be unable to otherwise afford during a time of severe budget contraction.

Volunteering in living color again

As both an industrial engineer and a finance expert for Boeing, Vicki Bundy was always looking for ways to solve problems quickly for less money. Because the aerospace company encouraged its employees to volunteer, she was often on boards or just generally helping organizations. A stint as a volunteer for a children's theater group, Childsplay, awakened her to other types of work environments.

"In children's play, there's excitement, there's ideas flying all over the place––different than the kinds of ideas flying around in corporate life. So there's this color and it excited me."

She feels the same way about the Arizona Museum for Youth in Mesa where she is designing a website scheduled to be launched this month.

"Boeing was black and white. There were moments of color, moments of flowers, but this is like being in a field of daisies all the time because it is so much fun. It is the spirit of the thing. You can't be at a children's museum without feeling a little kid-like."

She has a name-plated cubicle next to paid staff members.

When she's stuck on a problem, she takes a break and wanders around the museum. She is trying to make the website creative, and it inspires her to watch kids at play.

As to website design: "Staying on the front edge of new technology is fun and interesting," she said.

She has made friends of people she normally wouldn't have met, and she likes that. She and Karen Sherman, who has been evaluating arts and cultural programs and is also an "Ability Expert" in the Ubuntu Project, compare notes about their projects, and talk about what it will take to interest more Baby Boomers like themselves in volunteering.

"Too often, people define themselves by their jobs," Bundy said. "When that job is gone there is nothing left to define themselves. Finding an organization to be part of, building some sort of new network, can be what keeps you going."

"Because of the quantity of work we have, we wouldn't have been able to do this without Vicki's expertise," Smith said.