Building an enduring system

The kinds of volunteer work I had been involved so far can be classified as medium-term, long-term, and short-term (ad-hoc of a day or two).

There's no difficulty at all in ad-hoc events. Only challenge for me is to blend in with all the other volunteers. Not so easy for me since I tend to be a proud and relatively introverted depending on which brother of the Gemini is at work in me.
Medium-term would be like YEP, requiring intense effort over a few months, managing team dynamics and creating learning opportunities. It is still not considered difficult since one just do his/her best at each shot with whatever life experiences one can avail to provide more insight and with tact.
It's everyone's guess that long-term works are the most testing. Long-term means the work is over years and activities are probably weekly.

Two such programme I'm involved in is Mentoring and Kidsread. They are actually the only 2 programme I'm involved in currently. What's testing is putting an enduring system into place. Somehow, and I don't know how, I'm most of the time put in a leadership position through the different phases of my life. As such it is my personal interest to study the job, duty, and desirable characteristics of a good leader. The subject today is placed under 'jobs of a leader'.

I remembered LKY mentioning one of his major duty for the rest of his time in office. That is to help put in place a system in the government that as long as right and capable people are placed in it, the administration will be able to continue serving the country no matter which political party comes to power- as long as the system is kept.

I understood what he meant. And I think only the most outstanding leader can achieve that. It is not as simple as having a CEO who can boost bottom line and make strategic investments for future earnings. No. This CEO will have to build a running system in the management that will ensure self-renewal of capable players and continual steady performances by the team. I don't know a person who could and had done that yet. Heroes soar high in their time. The successor is seldom heard of, the successors... no, successors are not relevant, because the empire had fallen.

Back to the 2 programmes. Mentoring and Kidsread, like all voluntary programmes, faces the uphill task of getting good and sufficient volunteers. In mentoring, more than half the mentors will be joining the workforce or gong to NS, a gaping void will be left. Who am I going to find to fill?If no one comes, how are we going to perform the manpower management stunt?
And for Kidsread, how am I going to ensure a continual stream of volunteers year after year? And how am I going to encourage volunteers to stay?

As long as a good system is not in place, both programmes will run the yearly risk of zero volunteer intake and with veteran volunteers having to leave sooner or later, the programme itself is in danger of stopping.

Unfortunately, no feasible solution has struck me yet. I'll continually think about this...

Nevertheless,

SmileUp!