Meet a volunteer: Jean McKenzie

Jean McKenzie is one of 20 of our in-house volunteers here at Volunteer Victoria (not including our board members). She kindly agreed to be interviewed for this blog post.

I am pleased to present you, Jean McKenzie.

Jean McKenzie: Administrative Volunteer

Jean has been volunteering with us for 19 years now (wow!). She moved to Victoria from Winnipeg in 1990 and sought out a volunteer position because she wanted to get to know, and get involved in her new community. While that was the reason for her first step into Volunteer Victoria, she’s come back week after week for nearly two decades because it keeps her mind active, gets her out of her home, and because she just really enjoys the people here.

I asked Jean what exactly she does when she comes in on Wednesday mornings. She supports us by processing and tracking payments, banking, inputting statistics and anything else that might come up. This usually takes about 4 hours a week of Jean’s time, though depending on the time of month or year this may fluctuate. Flexibility is key, Jean tells me.

I was curious to know how Jean’s volunteer position has changed in the past 19 years. The first notable change was the transfer from reception volunteers to reception staff, where Jean then took up the administrative volunteer responsibilities. The change in technology has also certainly made a difference to volunteer work, and to the organization on the whole – for example, before our database was online, it was maintained on paper – in binders. A pretty big change, if you ask me!

Finally, I wanted to know what Jean does for fun. She is an active woman who likes being outdoors. She walks with a walking group, golfs in the summer and curls in the winter.  Jean also likes to travel, though she’s happy to dabble in her garden, play bridge with friends,  and attend symphony concerts whenever she can.

A big thank-you to Jean for her work, time, effort and commitment over the past 19 years! And a big thanks to her for sharing her time for this interview.

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