Why Volunteer?

We asked ProactivePaul

Yes ProactivePaul, why volunteer? How did you end up involved in Barcamps and Hackathons?

That’s a long story which can be distilled into ten simple bullet points.

   A screenshot of Lotus123 for DOS

● Sort of by accident, not by choice, ProactivePaul became an accountant.
● In 1988 at Coopers & Lybrand (now PWC) the office gained it’s first computer, equipped with little more than Lotus123 for DOS.
● Suddenly, Paul became the office computer expert, allegedly knowing everything and anything you can possibly know about computers.
● Not wanting to “die as an accountant” Paul retrained as a teacher of ICT.
● Dozens and dozens of 14 and 15 year olds persuaded him that he didn’t really want to be a teacher any more.
● Paul returned to the world of accounting and worked at the British Medical Association.
● The BMA had him do some ad hoc lecturing at CPD courses.
● Paul left the BMA to set up his own business, Proactive.
● In a pub in 2008, chatting with some bloke at the PHP London MeetUp, Paul heard about Barcamp which combines Tech and Education.
● Not only did that cover his personal passion (technology) and his personal ethos (to teach) it also helped him gain some new customers for his new business! Big win!

Nowadays you can find ProactivePaul at all sorts of tech community events, as an attendee, a speaker, a team member, an organiser and/or as a sponsor. This year #BCLH24 is underwritten financially by Proactive.

Outside work ProactivePaul lives up to his name. He likes travel, he speaks five foreign languages badly, and he runs 10km races. Sometimes half marathons, and rarely a full marathon. He’s currently preparing for the Loch Ness Marathon on 29 Sep 2024.

At Hackference 2018 in Birmingham (in the space of a single weekend) he combined doing a hack, with being a sponsor, and being a judge, and taking the Sunday morning off to run the Birmingham Half Marathon. He literally finished the race, quickly showered, immediately presented his hack to the judges, and then disqualified himself from winning anything because he was also on the judging panel. Keep taking the tablets Paul!

Anyway, as an accountant ProactivePaul is the first to admit that he is not the accountants’ best accountant. He’s different. He doesn’t do numbers for the sake of doing numbers. He’s doing it because his customers want something. They want a decent standard of living and complete peace of mind.

Paul’s greatest strength is that he is communicative, and he speaks your language. He speaks Tech!

Is your accountant Proactive?

Why Volunteer?

So to answer the question “why volunteer” it’s about a sense of service. It’s about giving something back to society. It’s something ProactivePaul wanted to do as a teacher, and he just felt that the odds had been stacked against him. Now he does it via the Tech community.

Hence the theme of #BCLH24 is “go out and do some good in the world”.

What can you do to make a difference?