Evaluations, Feedback and Intern Appreciation
Evaluations
Interns will be formally evaluated 3 times during the semester: after the intern has completed training, during midterms, and during the last week of classes. In addition to these evaluations, staff should aim to sit down with interns once a week to make sure that they are understanding everything, answer questions, and provide feedback or constructive criticism. Staff should review intern work regularly; any recurring errors should be addressed with the intern in person as soon as possible. Formal evaluations should always take place in a private location away from the intern's peers.
For all evaluations, use the fillable .pdf forms in the Internship materials folder on the P-Drive. Print a copy for the intern's paper file, and email the data as an XML attachment to yourself or the internship coordinator so that it can be imported into the internal database (for instructions, visit the Internal Database page).
The initial evaluation will take place after training is complete - in most cases, Week 2, although some interns may need a bit more time to complete their training. The mid-term evaluation should focus on persistent problems that were identified in the initial evaluation and haven't been resolved, or new problems that have cropped up. At this point, interns should be ready to "graduate" from votes and summaries to other projects. Very exceptional interns may begin working on congressional bills, blog entries, or legislative wrap-ups. Other interns may be interested in working on projects for the Research Department, as Research needs always exceed staff and intern resources. Contact the Research Director for project assignments.
The final evaluation should be primarily reflective, focusing on the intern's strengths and areas for improvement. Send an email to interns the week before the final evaluation to schedule the specific date and time of the evaluation and let them know how many hours they have left to complete. You should also reiterate the learning objectives presented at the beginning of the semester and ask interns to come prepared to talk about what they learned. In addition to qualitative information about the intern's performance, you will want to add up the number of summaries, votes, and checks that the intern has performed over the course of the semester in order to judge the intern's relative productivity. This can be done by running the programmed queries in Access (for instructions, visit the Internal Database page).
After the final evaluation is over, give each intern a feedback form to complete. These should be returned directly to the Legislative Research Director. Keep hard copies of intern evaluation forms on file, as interns will frequently ask for letters of recommendation. Such letters are much easier to write if all of the information is at hand.
Feedback
Feedback from the supervisor and project evaluation forms should be collected at the end of the semester and entered into a Word document, to be kept in the Feedback folder in the Internship Materials folder on the P-Drive. When appropriate, intern feedback should be incorporated into the Department's "best practices" document. Other relevant comments and suggestions should be shared with other staff and with the National Director. This can be accomplished at an end-of-semester all-staff meeting, during which staff can discuss the suggestions and decide whether or not any of them should be pursued.
Intern Appreciation
Since our interns work for free, it's always a good idea to hold a few events during the semester to acknowledge the work that they do and thank them for their service. These events also allow interns to get to know each other, since most of them work variable hours and might never get a chance to network with their peers. Past ideas for events include happy hours at local restaurants, bowling, pizza, or ice cream socials. Project Vote Smart can sponsor one event per semester, with a budget of $50-$75 (the Legislative Research Director must approve all expense beforehand with the National Director). Please note that Project funds should never be used to pay for alcoholic beverages. Any additional events should be "BYOB" or paid for out-of-pocket by staff members.
