To have sent this e mail to volunteer manager

[Threetofour]

I have been volunteering to lead a group for over 60s for the last 4 years, I do this for the local branch of a large charity. I hardly ever hear from the charity themselves I just pay the money from the group in & send in my registers monthly to the head office. I have been frustrated by lack of support to advertise the group etc and end up doing a lot of extra work myself

A month ago the volunteer manager e mailed & asked me if I would be teaching today as she wanted to visit. The person that usually looks after my little ones was away so I rearranged childcare

I also made sure that as many of the group would be there as possible so some people had cancelled other engagements to come along

End of the class comes and the volunteer manager has not arrived, no contact as to why I sent a message saying "just checking you're not coming as I have to leave now" apparently one of her dcs had an appoint my she had to go to

I sent a message back basically saying it would have been nice to let me know as the group were expecting a visit today & I have rearranged my childcare, this was 4 hours ago and no response now I'm wondering if I should have just left it, I'm not confrontational and now I'm worrying about it

Sorry appointment

I don't think you were confrontational, merely pointing out that you were expecting a visit. You did nothing wrong, relax.

No, she was rude not to let you know she wasn't coming. You weren't rude though.

Thankyou!! That's all I needed to hear.... The silence on the e mail front is deafening plus dcs both napping so I have nothing to distract me!

Her lack of a reply is because she knows she's clearly in the wrong.

It was rude of her not to let you know she wasn't coming but she probably didn't realise you'd had to go to so much trouble to get the group together that week. I think most volunteers would just cancel if they had childcare issues and lots of their attendees had other appointments anyway.

That's not the point though, unless it was an emergency she should have let you know she wasn't coming as soon as possible.

And some of these organisations wonder why hard-working volunteers get hacked off and pack it in, then they have to start all over again recruiting someone new.

Very poor of the volunteer manager.

She was very rude not to let you know.

However, I don't think it's unreasonable of her to take more than 4 hours to reply to your e-mail. She might not even be in the office today.

I would say she's embarrassed and trying to think of a defence for her rudeness.

Very rude of her - your email was fine.

Have you tried speaking to your volunteer groups co-ordinator at your charities head office about the lack of engagement? I bet they'd be very upset to hear about how disengaged you are as a result of no support over the years. You might be surprised at how helpful they could be.

You weren't confrontational, you were assertive.

Thanks all for your thoughts, I know she's working today as she instantly replied to my first message and then ignored my response
I understand people have emergencies but I would a always let someone know if I couldn't make an arranged meeting
I do think its a good idea to talk to someone at the charity though I will do that