Continuity in Change

By Felicia Goeken

Volunteer Identification Program Coordinator

I recently announced that as of December 1, 1998, I would be making a change.
The Volunteer Identification Program's assistant coordinator of 14 years, Anne Hermann, and I are doing a role reversal. I will be working part time, she will be the full-time VIP coordinator. Rest assured, the VIP office will be there, every bit as ready to help. There are a number of reasons for the change.

In the first week of July, I did battle with a slab of concrete. I broke my right arm and shoulder. Having lost the battle, our plans for the transition sped up. Anne immediately became my workable right hand.

I was fortunate that there was someone there with experience, a willing heart, and helping hand. I was fortunate that I didn't have to search for my replacement.

She has been with me ever since her nine months' residency in my womb. I just had to set the example and give her the opportunity to learn.

Anne is my daughter, a second-generation right to lifer. With her mind, her heart, and her hands, she has identified herself as a devoted champion of unborn children.

Identifying pro-lifers has been the mission of the VIP since its beginning. Pro-lifers are there throughout this great nation. If you call them, they will come.

Never doubt that there are countless numbers of people who passionately agree with you that abortion on demand is not, cannot, and will not remain acceptable public policy.

This may come as a surprise to you but there are many, many others in your state, your neighborhood, your circle of friends, and your family who are waiting to be identified people who will help the unborn. The VIP is the easiest and quickest way to find them, a marvelous tool for the pro-life movement.

You may even be one yourself. Has anyone ever told you about the great need for volunteers? Do you know all of the relatively painless ways you can help restore the legal protection needed to save a life? Do you know that dialing telephone numbers from a list provided to you and asking a few short questions from a written script can provide invaluable assistance to the right to life movement locally, statewide, and nationally?

Or, if you are already working hard, have you considered recruiting others to lend you a helping hand? Who knows, maybe someday you will need that same right hand that I so depended on. Wouldn't you like to participate in the program that will provide those helping hands so necessary for a right to life victory?

Since 1977, the National Right to Life Committee has continued to build and develop this volunteer-based program to serve the needs of our Movement at the local, state, and national level. We can give you all the help you need - - the winning program, and any advice you may need to do a marvelous job on behalf of the children.

VIP volunteers are the hands who get the job done. Can we have yours?

NRLC's Volunteer Identification Program (VIP) is a telephone survey conducted in all 50 states with the cooperation of NRLC's state affiliates.

The survey is done either from home or from phone banks. VIP volunteers are the primary strength of the project. Identified pro-life people are then enlisted at the local and state levels to strengthen right to life organizational efforts.