8.0.9 Reasonable Service

Version 1.0 March 2013                                    (Previous Version)

Many people are motivated for a variety of reasons to be involved in their community, as volunteers or for some reward as paid employees in the caring professions.  Our values support this involvement.  We can be inspired by the good works delivered by religions and secular organisations (such as Doctors without Borders and Amnesty International). 

●          These often do offer desirable benefits to the needy or society in general.  But basing the action on these natural, rational beliefs, rather than supernatural or unreasonable beliefs, the action taken may be more realistic and more helpful.  Rather than offering our prayers we can offer more direct comfort. 

●          Doing good works in the name of an organisation has the effect of promoting the ‘brand’ – showing a wider audience that our core values include compassion. 

●          Doing good works together fosters a collegiate atmosphere, in which the participants implicitly share their motivations for actions, so the activity can be more rewarding in itself to the participants, and allows them to get to know other like minded people.

How we go about this can be explored further in the future.

·         Our focus should be education, advocacy and fostering a community, so that our message remains focussed, avoiding the inevitable compromises involved in party political activities, or the business decisions involved in large scale service delivery.

·         This can involve research into current social problems, publication and promotion of relevant material, critiquing social analyses and policies at global and national levels.