by Jared Paul, Founder, A Good Idea

NCVS “Volunteering is…” Cause Mob
June 30th, 2010
New York City
53rd Street between 6th & 7th
Gather at 12:50p.m.
Flash Mob at 1:00 – 1:20 p.m.

My name is Jared Paul and I’m the founder of a San Francisco nonprofit called A Good Idea (AGI).

For the past two years, AGI has served as a vehicle for positive social change ideas that connect people in need with people who want to help in our community.

Many of the ways that we connect people is through creative service events that empower and inspire individuals to get involved in a way that matters to them.

With service and volunteerism being at the very core of AGI, I believe a conference such as the 2010 National Conference on Volunteering & Service, where volunteers and nonprofits alike come together to learn about effective best practices in social service and to connect with one another is a wonderful and much needed event for our sector.

Upon hearing about the conference, I started thinking about creative “Goods Ideas” that AGI could host that would shake things up a bit in NYC.

I reached out to my friend and co-founder of Open Action, John Brennan, to gauge his interest in putting together a flash mob, or more appropriately for this conference, a cause mob.

If you aren’t familiar with a flash mob, it is when a large group of people assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, and then quickly disperse.

They’ve been done in , on the , and then there’s the .

While flash mobs are usually “pointless”, cause mobs are exactly the opposite.

A cause mob still provides the space for people to come together for an unusual event, but unlike the flash mob, these events have a point and as the name suggests, usually support a cause.

Having hosted successful similar events in San Francisco such as our Intentional Acts of Kindness event, where volunteers come together to simply do nice things for random strangers, I believe NYC and this conference are a perfect setting for a cause mob.

So after doing some brainstorming with John and members of our respective teams, we’ve decided to host our own cause mob/freeze out at the official end of the conference on Wednesday, June 30^th.

On Tuesday and Wednesday during the conference, you will see a few folks wearing white t-shirts with “Volunteering is ______” written on the shirts.

Next to the word “is” will be a list of adjectives that represent our feelings about volunteering.

To me, volunteering is “sexy”, “smart”, and “fun”…but what does volunteering mean to you?

Well, you’ll have a chance to tell the world as we’ll be handing out sheets of paper with the “Volunteering is ______” written on it and each participant will fill in the blank with their own adjective.

Then, from 1:00 – 1:20p.m. on Wednesday, June 30th, we’ll all come together and freeze, holding up our signs for people to read.

We hope everyone joins us for what should be a fun, unique event in the name of volunteerism!

Click on the map below to enlarge it and see where we’ll be.