How can I be most helpful?

Since my time-intensive long-term volunteer activity of camping in downtown Portland was over, it was time to find a new volunteer task to help the cause. I decided to sign up for a four hour shift at the information booth. I figured that I could help answer questions & e-mails or something.

"Where can I drop off donations?"

"What happened at the GA last night?"

"What are you asking for anyway?"

"Is this legal?"

It was really fun, fast-paced, hectic and challenging. I enjoyed it. I organized donations, directed people, responded to e-mails, handed out supplies and talked to people.

After working for most of the day, I realized that there was a small piece missing from the puzzle--a volunteer program. Not to hate on anarchical systems of organization, but it is very challenging to reach out to lots of people without a framework to plug them all into. I started asking questions about their systems of communication, systems of outreach. Out of the chaos I was looking for order...

...and that's when I met Jimmy.