transitions in the south waikato labour market: an ethnographic study

Unsurprisingly, he notes that few people get involved to this degree, especially inlarge ventures like this.Well unfortunately the busy people are the sort that do this sort of thing Ifind. … The trouble is that not a lot of people come forward to do it andsomeone has to do it. But this was something that I was personallyinterested in and so that made it a lot easier. But there was a huge workloadfor three years ago and it was pretty difficult. …It started at a publicmeeting in town because there was a demand for a heated swimming poolin Tokoroa and I just went along to the public meeting and the committeewas formed from that. …[my son] was a very good school boy triathletethen and …he could only swim in the summer … and I used to do a lot ofswimming myself too so it was in my plans to have a complex like thathere. …[So] we built a heated swimming complex. …Yeah, it was a realchallenge. It is the closest that I ever wanted to be into politics though.…A lot of politics over it all and we ended up raising a lot of the moneyfrom the community and that was really the challenge from the districtcouncil here to put our money where our mouths were and we actuallynearly $300,00 from the community. … we are quite proud of that. …I wasthe chairman and I was the fundraising leader as well only because I wasthe chairman. …[I’m still involved] in a advisory capacity. The councilnow run the thing and so I’m just part of the community group. …I am thechairman of [another group] too and we got a committee of about 12 peopleon that. Once again it is a very board spectrum committee where people onit have all sorts of jobs. …Its sports orientated. It is a contest and their are10 events and we’ve got it running now over one weekend starting Fridaynight. … The whole idea is it is a fund-raiser to help athletes in the districtto compete internationally.This followed periods when, through his children, he had helped out with, and raisedmoney for, the local school, as well as being a trustee.Besides people having to manage voluntary work with other commitments, anotherimportant intersection between unpaid and paid work was when the former lead to thelatter. Already mentioned is the school teacher who tested the water by teachingvoluntarily for a term before deciding to return to the profession. He had been selfemployedfor a time prior to this but had closed the business in order to move districts.Then, when his marriage broke up and he became a single parent receiving the DPB,he immediately considered a return to the classroom. However, he needed to be surethat this would be a wise move and so working voluntarily seemed an ideal way todetermine this.I went back to the school here two days a week on a voluntary basis to seehow it worked and to see if I wanted to get back into teaching after I hadbeen away for that 10 years or whatever. And on the strength of that andknowing the staff, they said there is a long term relieving job if you want.And I said yep and so I done two days a week for a term and I think I knowhow the place works so I got a long term relieving job in ‘97.For a former policeman who was forced from the service by ill health, doing somevoluntary youth work, after taking time out to recuperate, was one way to also see ifthis was what he wanted to do and to assess whether he felt able to cope with returningto work. With a background in youth and community work within the Police, he waswell equipped to work in this area. As a result of his trial period as a volunteer, heconcluded that this was indeed what he wanted to do and that he could manage it30