If you want to volunteer in your community there are many ways to do so. So why choose to volunteer in a way that conflicts with the responsibilities you have under your professional association?

Mandy Gould and the other two-hatters are thumbing their noses at the International Firefighters Association (IFFA). Yet that organization provides them with job security, negotiated salaries and benefits, legal representation and the other perks arising from collective bargaining.

Mandy won't volunteer at a Caledon women's shelter. She won't hand out meals at a soup kitchen. She and her fellow two-hatters insist on volunteering in a way that violates the rules of the association they belong to. Apparently for no other reason than that rules rub them the wrong way.

The public should be aware. Not everyone who volunteers for community work does so out of selfless reasons.