6. ANALYSIS OF SOCIALISATION IN ORGANISATIONS
6.1 Volunteers in FDF
6.1.2 External volunteers
Sub-conclusion on internal volunteers
FDF is very important for the internal volunteers’ identity and personality. They develop values and competences that become the foundation for how to behave generally.
Almost their entire life has been influenced by FDF and they have slowly learnt how to behave in FDF by observing the older volunteers and learning by doing.
6.1.2 External volunteers
The respondent highlights what he has gained from being in FDF:
“I have gotten to know a lot of cool people. I have had many successful experi-ences. At the end of the season the children almost booed that they didn’t get to have me as a leader next season. It’s a crazy experience that someone likes you that much. It boosts your confidence.”
“I think FDF contributes with a feeling of community. Last year I was at VM (national FDF event) and it was one of the coolest experiences that I’ve ever had. There were FDF’ers from the entire country, it was fantastic.”
“You get to know an organisation, you learn a little bit of economy, you learn to organise activities, and you make things happen. You learn how to write agen-das and make meeting summaries. All these little things you learn slowly. I can use them in my job as a social worker – there you have to be able to take some decent notes.”
He has developed values as community, enforced his self-confidence and gained practical competences. When asked what he as a volunteer can pass on to children in FDF he answers:
”I feel pretty sure that I can give them… well I think I can give them something different than many others, because that’s the cool thing about our unit, there are so many different types… … and my approach is as said before that I can do theatre, I can be silly with the children.”
When asked about the Christian aspects the respondents says:
“The Christian message is cool, it doesn’t have be a lot, just that you sometimes at summer camps talk about God.”
“I don’t think Christianity is important, I realise if the aim is that we meet chil-dren and young people with the Christian message, we lose some identity with that, but I really don’t think the basis is about that. It’s about all sorts of diffe-rent things.”
Finally he is asked about his identity as an FDF’er in the future:
”I am sure I will feel like an FDF’er always, it only took me a short while before I felt like an FDF’er.”
Respondent 5
The respondent was 18 when he became a member of FDF in 2006. He is active in the local unit and has earlier been an instructor at a national course. He has had a different beginning in FDF than the other external volunteers, as he was a senior (age 16-19) the first 18 months. He became a volunteer after this period. According to him, the most difficult thing as new in FDF was, as he recalls:
“All of the traditions in FDF, well that’s at least how I remember it… I actually still have the feeling… I really really have to fight you know.“
“I think it was difficult with the responsibility for these children. I had to be ’on’
and get the meeting to proceed after a strict plan… at the time there was an extremely high standard and I didn’t quite have the feeling that I could live up to it. You had to fight for it…”
He describes how he perceived FDF and how he developed as a volunteer:
”FDF was, much related to the leaders who I had, very technically oriented, which was a balance between pioneering (rafter), orienteering and so on and how can you teach it in different ways according to pedagogical tools. So I thought it was extremely useful and really fun.”
“I looked at my own leaders and how they did it… what worked and what didn’t.
And then I used the consequence pedagogy that I had learnt – how to say things to the children; »you really have to stop cutting like crazy with this scissor out in the air when people are playing in front of you«”
In the following he tries to sum up what he has gained from being in FDF:
“I have learnt so much but it’s just difficult to put words on what it is. It’s a mixture of being with other people, planning activities and manage everything from logistics and immaterial things to people and how to move a thousand logs from one place to another.”
The respondent has developed both social and practical skills and developed a sense of responsibility. When asked what he can contribute with as a volunteer, he answers:
“Well, what do the children get out of FDF? They get some fun out of it, obvi-ously it seems like they are getting something positive out of it and what it is exactly, I can’t really say, Typically, when new children start at FDF, you get an email after a month from some parents saying, »it’s so fantastic, my little boy is just so happy when he gets home from FDF and you are just doing such a great job « then you think okay what is it really we do so well. It just works; I just can’t really put words on it.”
The respondent mentions the Christian values as a tradition in FDF and says:
“Many agree that Christianity is a part of our common point of departure, not because people are super Christian or religious but this set of values is the ba-sis we all share. I believe Christianity is pretty important, but I still don’t quite understand why.”
When the respondent is asked if he would like his future children to become active in FDF he answers:
“Yes I would. I remember an episode at my folk high school where we, in class, had to discuss which activities we wanted our children to go to, and I looked at my friend and asked: » Are your children going to be FDF’ers too?« »You bet!«
she replied. I don’t think I have met anyone who didn’t want their children to be in FDF.”
Respondent 6
The respondent was 18 in 2009, where he entered and is now an active volunteer in the unit. He recalls how it was to become a volunteer:
“It was a radical change for me, I hadn’t tried taking care of children before at all and I didn’t know what a knot was but I had to learn it all – and I actually had to teach it at the same time. That’s a little funny when you haven’t tried it.”
When describing how he developed competencies as a volunteer, he answers:
“I just improvise, and then I probably do something wrong, but I am used to that in FDF.”
“I really feel that I have caught up on everything, because I have really thrown myself into it, when I started…”
He emphasises what he has learnt from being in FDF:
“I have learnt very much; what you learn at courses (national courses) and the way of thinking you have as an FDF’er, »okay we have this project, we have to do something, we just have to succeed«… it is very creative and you rely more on yourself… You try many new things as an FDF’er and even though you ha-ven’t got any experience within the field you are pushed to do it and then next time, no matter what, you can easily do it because you have tried a lot of silly things, you thought you couldn’t handle, but then you actually do it anyway.”
”You get some confidence and you also show confidence by being in FDF, becau-se you have to be a grown-up in front of the little ones as a leader and that is an exciting role to try.”
The respondent has gained values such as creativity, self-confidence, and organising activities. When he is asked about Christianity in FDF and he says:
“I was shocked when you had to say prayer before you eat. I still think the Christian aspects are weird, but I like the tradition. Christianity is not im-portant to me, but I realise how visible it is and how it has influenced FDF.”
“In our unit, Christianity is not dominant; we don’t live much up to the aim. Ge-nerally in FDF there is a lot of Christianity, but in our unit sometimes you listen to a priest, but it’s not too dominant.”
“-So, in general, what do you think of the aim in FDF?”
“Is it really our main aim – that thing?”
“-Yes, our aim is to meet children and young people with the gospel of Jesus Christ…”
“Okay, I don’t think I live up to that!”
“-Does it match your experience of FDF?”
“No.”
When the respondent is asked if he would like his children to become active in FDF he answers:
“Yes, I would like scouts-kids!”
Respondent 7
This respondent is the one who has most recently become a volunteer. He started in a local unit in autumn 2012, when he was 23 years old. Where most volunteers in FDF call themselves FDF’ers, he is not quite there yet:
“-Do you feel like an FDF’er now?”
“No, not really…”
“-What would you describe yourself as?”
“I would probably say voluntary leader in FDF“
“-If you had to describe an FDF’er, what would that be?”
“A true FDF’er is someone who runs around in Fjälræven-pants, Arcteryx jacket and ‘wu hoo’ and climb and put up a tent and sleep in the nature, that’s if you really think FDF, I think…”
He describes his first meeting in FDF:
“I was just told that I was on the multi media team and then I was quickly bri-efed on what to do and then I was sort of thrown into it. Luckily it was with an older leader who had been there for many years, he was good at saying – why don’t you do this and go help them film that. In the beginning you had to be activated.”
Becoming a volunteer in FDF has made him develop personally:
“I have changed my self. Instead of being a quiet, reserved one, I have become more open, that has also helped me a lot in school, because then you get a bet-ter community instead of just sitting in classes alone at breaks, then I am out having a good time with the others. I am very happy about that.”
“I’m not the most motivating I would say. I have learnt that now.”
”I’ve got to know myself better, how to communicate with adults and children and I have got to know my personal limit.”
What he has gained is rooted in his personal development – social skills, confidence and extroversion. When asked what he believes he contributes with as a volunteer he answers:
“I hope I can give them a free space, where they can come and be themselves instead of at home, where they may be pigeonholed, so to speak. They can come to FDF and unwind and do what they want to e.g. if they want to draw one day or if they want to go outdoors and play wildly or something… I hope I can help them as good as possible…”
The respondent considers himself an atheist and when he is asked about his thoughts about the Christian values, he answers:
“I didn’t really consider the Christian values, I really don’t mind it, people are free to believe what they want. As long as you don’t preach it to others and I think they are good at not doing that, they keep it low-key and relaxed.”
“Christianity is not visible at every meeting, but it is visible in the unit.“
Sub-conclusion on external volunteers
The external volunteers all describe how overwhelming it was becoming a volunteer in FDF due to many traditions and certain ways of doing things, but they do not express any frustrations, they just try to adapt. They learn how to act in FDF by observing the other volunteers and they develop necessary competencies and adopt certain attitudes towards FDF, but sometimes they have difficulties explaining them, when asked further about it.