Don't tell Roger Carlson you don't have time to volunteer or that it's too inconvenient — it won't fly.
Mr. Carlson, a senior vice president in Chicago with mssb.htm" title="http://topics.investmentnews.com/companies-and-associations/morgan-stanley-smith-barney-mssb.htm">Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC, has been involved for 20 years with Working in the Schools, a literacy organization that serves low-income and minority students in Chicago public schools.
His first initiative was to charter buses to pick up volunteers downtown and take them to the schools to tutor children.
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Then, 16 years ago, he decided to make it even easier for volunteers and began using the buses to transport the children to the offices. Thus was born Workplace Mentoring, a program that takes kids for after-school tutoring once a week.
About 730 advisers from 17 financial services firms participate; other industries also are involved.
Another of Mr. Carlson's time-efficient initiatives is the Early Childhood Learning program, which takes tutors to various preschools for weekly one-on-one reading sessions.
A tireless and driven volunteer, he has also raised more than $1 million for the organization since 1992.
“In this world, we're so busy with careers and family that we don't always have time to think about people in need, but we need to take time to have compassion,” Mr. Carlson said.
