Wiki source for InternTrainingTX
======Training Interns======
The first 1 to 2 weeks of the internship program are dedicated to training. Each staff member, including the Legislative Research Director, shall be assigned an equal number of interns to supervise and will be responsible for training and evaluating those interns.
Before the semester begins, staff should do all of the following:
- Make sure each intern computer is clean and functional, and that there are adequate supplies on hand for interns to use.
- Select the training bills and prepare sample summaries for interns to work with.
- Add each intern as a user in admin and give them the following permissions: user, congtrack_full, bio_basic, and full_research.
- Print a sufficient number of Policies and Procedures Manuals and sign-in sheets
- Create intern folders on Box
- Email all committed interns and ask them to send in their proposed hours.
- Assign interns to supervisors
- Create paper folders for each intern with the intern's resume and internship agreement. Evaluation forms and letters of recommendation will be kept here as well, along with any blog entries or extra projects that the intern completes.
On their first day, interns will be oriented based on their time cohort. For example, if 4 interns arrive at 8:00am, all four of them will be oriented together by a staff member. Then, interns arriving at 9:00am will be oriented together, interns arriving at 10:00am will be oriented together, etc. If there is only one intern arriving at a given time-period, he or she will be oriented by his/her assigned supervisor.
Orientations will begin at the table in the main office. The staff member presiding over the orientation will provide interns with a copy of the Policies and Procedures Manual, and with a Project Vote Smart flashlight pen (or other available item). The staff member will go over the scope of the Project and our 6 areas of research. Then, the staff member will describe in detail the daily responsibilities of the internship and what is expected of interns. The rights and responsibilities of interns and supervisors will be discussed at this time as well. Next, the staff member will go through certain relevant portions of the Policies and Procedures Manual including, but not limited to, the following: non-partisan policy, learning objectives, evaluations and academic credit, tardiness and absenteeism policy, dress code, vehicles and parking, food and snacks, and the two forms that interns must sign (Acknowledgement of Policies and Project Vote Smart Pledge).
**Note:** It is a good idea to inform interns about parking and transportation options the week BEFORE the first week of classes so that they know where to park on their first day.
After the initial orientation, the methods used to train interns during Week 1 and Week 2 may vary according to each staff member's personal preferences. However, using the following checklist as a guide will help ensure a consistent experience for all interns:
1) Office tour
2) Explain sign-in sheet
3) Collect signed PVS Pledge and Acknowledgement of Policies and Procedures
4) Make sure UT EID and password work as login credentials for the intern computers; if not, provide with OSR credentials
5) Send email with login credentials for admin and links to Box and the Wiki
6) Read [[UTInternTraining Legislative Research Department Intern Training Guide]] through the "Entering Key Votes" section
7) Enter sample vote into admin with full name next to bill number (**DO NOT release live!**)
8) Staff check sample vote, provide feedback if necessary, then __**delete from admin**__
9) Read remaining portions of the [[UTInternTraining Legislative Research Department Intern Training Guide]]
10) Write original sample summary
11) Staff check original summary and provide feedback if necessary
12) Check sample summary
13) Staff check the intern's work and provide feedback if necessary
14) Initial evaluation
After the initial evaluation, interns should be assigned states to track (if available). Have each intern read the [[TrackingPress Tracking the Press]] and [[PressFiles Creating the Press Files]] sections of the Wiki. Interns should attend vote selection meetings whenever possible, and the time and date of these meeting should be staggered to allow everyone to participate at least once. If an intern is available for a meeting and has identified any relevant bills, he or she may present them at the meeting; if not, the supervising staff member should present the intern's bills.
====Common Problems You May Encounter During Training====
**Fear of the bill text**
Some interns are intimidated by legislative language and will quickly become overwhelmed - even if the text is relatively brief. They tend to avoid writing original summaries and will instead focus on entering votes, research work, or other mindless tasks. Your job is to present summary writing in a way that minimizes this fear. One successful tactic is to walk the intern through the press file and then the bill text, identifying key points and skipping over extraneous language. Explain each provision to the intern in plain English so that he or she will get the feel of legislative language and (eventually) learn how to translate it into plain English on his own. If you take steps to mitigate this problem early on in the internship, the intern will likely overcome his fear and go on to complete the internship successfully. But, if you wait, the intern might never become self-sufficient.
**Excessive detail**
An example of this intern is one who spends weeks perfecting a single summary, and then turns in 10 pages of text for a 20-page bill. Make it clear to the intern that perfection is often unattainable, and the summary will go through a 1st, 2nd and staff check to ensure accuracy and completeness. Give them examples of provisions that must be included and provisions that can generally be omitted. For example, when summarizing a voter ID bill, the types of acceptable photo identification should be included, but internal guidelines for county elections boards and poll workers are usually superfluous. Remind the intern that "the only good summary is a done summary!" and set a deadline (for example, 3 hours) by which time the intern must have produced a rough draft of the summary for your review.
**The Minimalist**
This is the intern who never finds anything wrong during a summary check and plows his or her way through a vast number of bills in a short period of time (note: there is often overlap between this type and those who fear bill texts). When writing summaries, minimalist interns often try to pack the entire bill into one sentence. Encourage the intern to slow down and really try to fully understand each provision in the bill. It may help to give the intern examples of well-written summaries in order show her the kinds of detailed information that should usually be included in a summary. Continue to prompt the intern to include more detail - if he or she claims that he or she "cannot find anything to include," walk him or her through a bill text and identify some provisions that could be turned into highlights.
**Ignoring formatting guidelines on the Wiki**
The only way to deal with this problem is to check every single summary (or most summaries) that the intern writes and then //immediately// go over them with the intern, pointing out formatting errors as you go along. Show the intern where he or she can find relevant formatting guidelines in the PVS wiki. This is another problem that must be dealt with right away before it becomes habitual. If an intern has been writing this way for most of the semester and consistently ignoring formatting guidelines, it will be very difficult to get him to change.
**Defensiveness**
Some people don't like their writing critiqued. Explain to the intern that you're not judging him or his writing, you're just trying to make what he's written fit into our very narrow formatting guidelines - it is not a reflection on his abilities or intellectual capacity. If the problem persists, try having another staff member provide in-person feedback about the intern's work. Sometimes it helps to hear it from multiple people, or from a different person.
**Attendance Problems**
Talk to the intern in person to try and identify what's going on. If the intern is overwhelmed with homework or family problems, revisit the intern's schedule to see if rearranging her hours might help. If the problem persists, it's often best to have the student withdraw and intern with us during a later semester. If the intern is clearly not taking things seriously and believes that he or she can "blow off" the internship, then you really do have a problem - get the Legislative Research Director and (if applicable) the course supervisor involved ASAP. Sometimes providing the intern with different or more challenging assignments will engage her. Sometimes it will not. See [[InternDisciplineTX Disciplinary Policy]] for more information on how to handle this situation.
====Other Tips and Tactics====
We generally try to hire interns who we know can perform the work. However, a small percentage of interns each semester will struggle with legislative research - even though they may work hard and show enthusiasm. Rather than have these interns suffer for the entire semester (or drop out), it is better to revise the learning objectives and give them assignments that are realistic and achievable. The midterm evaluation is a good time to do this: you will have, by this time, made every effort to get the intern up to speed and will be ready to have an informed and candid conversation with the intern about his/her future.
If the student is unable to write well:
- Send the intern and his/her bill summaries to the writing center at UT for more comprehensive help
- Pair the intern with a mentor; that is, another intern who is doing well, and who is working in the office at the same time
- Assign research work or other data-entry tasks
Remember, even though we are part of the Educational Outreach mission at the Annette Strauss Institute, it is NOT our job to teach interns how to write! We can only help them improve their existing writing skills in the context of legislative research.
If the student is having trouble interpreting the bill text or understanding policy concepts:
- Provide the intern with policy concepts training
- Give the intern simpler bills to work on (i.e. an abortion bill instead of a tax bill)
- Have the intern write blog entries that are focused on a specific issue
- Assign research work or other data-entry tasks.
The first 1 to 2 weeks of the internship program are dedicated to training. Each staff member, including the Legislative Research Director, shall be assigned an equal number of interns to supervise and will be responsible for training and evaluating those interns.
Before the semester begins, staff should do all of the following:
- Make sure each intern computer is clean and functional, and that there are adequate supplies on hand for interns to use.
- Select the training bills and prepare sample summaries for interns to work with.
- Add each intern as a user in admin and give them the following permissions: user, congtrack_full, bio_basic, and full_research.
- Print a sufficient number of Policies and Procedures Manuals and sign-in sheets
- Create intern folders on Box
- Email all committed interns and ask them to send in their proposed hours.
- Assign interns to supervisors
- Create paper folders for each intern with the intern's resume and internship agreement. Evaluation forms and letters of recommendation will be kept here as well, along with any blog entries or extra projects that the intern completes.
On their first day, interns will be oriented based on their time cohort. For example, if 4 interns arrive at 8:00am, all four of them will be oriented together by a staff member. Then, interns arriving at 9:00am will be oriented together, interns arriving at 10:00am will be oriented together, etc. If there is only one intern arriving at a given time-period, he or she will be oriented by his/her assigned supervisor.
Orientations will begin at the table in the main office. The staff member presiding over the orientation will provide interns with a copy of the Policies and Procedures Manual, and with a Project Vote Smart flashlight pen (or other available item). The staff member will go over the scope of the Project and our 6 areas of research. Then, the staff member will describe in detail the daily responsibilities of the internship and what is expected of interns. The rights and responsibilities of interns and supervisors will be discussed at this time as well. Next, the staff member will go through certain relevant portions of the Policies and Procedures Manual including, but not limited to, the following: non-partisan policy, learning objectives, evaluations and academic credit, tardiness and absenteeism policy, dress code, vehicles and parking, food and snacks, and the two forms that interns must sign (Acknowledgement of Policies and Project Vote Smart Pledge).
**Note:** It is a good idea to inform interns about parking and transportation options the week BEFORE the first week of classes so that they know where to park on their first day.
After the initial orientation, the methods used to train interns during Week 1 and Week 2 may vary according to each staff member's personal preferences. However, using the following checklist as a guide will help ensure a consistent experience for all interns:
1) Office tour
2) Explain sign-in sheet
3) Collect signed PVS Pledge and Acknowledgement of Policies and Procedures
4) Make sure UT EID and password work as login credentials for the intern computers; if not, provide with OSR credentials
5) Send email with login credentials for admin and links to Box and the Wiki
6) Read [[UTInternTraining Legislative Research Department Intern Training Guide]] through the "Entering Key Votes" section
7) Enter sample vote into admin with full name next to bill number (**DO NOT release live!**)
8) Staff check sample vote, provide feedback if necessary, then __**delete from admin**__
9) Read remaining portions of the [[UTInternTraining Legislative Research Department Intern Training Guide]]
10) Write original sample summary
11) Staff check original summary and provide feedback if necessary
12) Check sample summary
13) Staff check the intern's work and provide feedback if necessary
14) Initial evaluation
After the initial evaluation, interns should be assigned states to track (if available). Have each intern read the [[TrackingPress Tracking the Press]] and [[PressFiles Creating the Press Files]] sections of the Wiki. Interns should attend vote selection meetings whenever possible, and the time and date of these meeting should be staggered to allow everyone to participate at least once. If an intern is available for a meeting and has identified any relevant bills, he or she may present them at the meeting; if not, the supervising staff member should present the intern's bills.
====Common Problems You May Encounter During Training====
**Fear of the bill text**
Some interns are intimidated by legislative language and will quickly become overwhelmed - even if the text is relatively brief. They tend to avoid writing original summaries and will instead focus on entering votes, research work, or other mindless tasks. Your job is to present summary writing in a way that minimizes this fear. One successful tactic is to walk the intern through the press file and then the bill text, identifying key points and skipping over extraneous language. Explain each provision to the intern in plain English so that he or she will get the feel of legislative language and (eventually) learn how to translate it into plain English on his own. If you take steps to mitigate this problem early on in the internship, the intern will likely overcome his fear and go on to complete the internship successfully. But, if you wait, the intern might never become self-sufficient.
**Excessive detail**
An example of this intern is one who spends weeks perfecting a single summary, and then turns in 10 pages of text for a 20-page bill. Make it clear to the intern that perfection is often unattainable, and the summary will go through a 1st, 2nd and staff check to ensure accuracy and completeness. Give them examples of provisions that must be included and provisions that can generally be omitted. For example, when summarizing a voter ID bill, the types of acceptable photo identification should be included, but internal guidelines for county elections boards and poll workers are usually superfluous. Remind the intern that "the only good summary is a done summary!" and set a deadline (for example, 3 hours) by which time the intern must have produced a rough draft of the summary for your review.
**The Minimalist**
This is the intern who never finds anything wrong during a summary check and plows his or her way through a vast number of bills in a short period of time (note: there is often overlap between this type and those who fear bill texts). When writing summaries, minimalist interns often try to pack the entire bill into one sentence. Encourage the intern to slow down and really try to fully understand each provision in the bill. It may help to give the intern examples of well-written summaries in order show her the kinds of detailed information that should usually be included in a summary. Continue to prompt the intern to include more detail - if he or she claims that he or she "cannot find anything to include," walk him or her through a bill text and identify some provisions that could be turned into highlights.
**Ignoring formatting guidelines on the Wiki**
The only way to deal with this problem is to check every single summary (or most summaries) that the intern writes and then //immediately// go over them with the intern, pointing out formatting errors as you go along. Show the intern where he or she can find relevant formatting guidelines in the PVS wiki. This is another problem that must be dealt with right away before it becomes habitual. If an intern has been writing this way for most of the semester and consistently ignoring formatting guidelines, it will be very difficult to get him to change.
**Defensiveness**
Some people don't like their writing critiqued. Explain to the intern that you're not judging him or his writing, you're just trying to make what he's written fit into our very narrow formatting guidelines - it is not a reflection on his abilities or intellectual capacity. If the problem persists, try having another staff member provide in-person feedback about the intern's work. Sometimes it helps to hear it from multiple people, or from a different person.
**Attendance Problems**
Talk to the intern in person to try and identify what's going on. If the intern is overwhelmed with homework or family problems, revisit the intern's schedule to see if rearranging her hours might help. If the problem persists, it's often best to have the student withdraw and intern with us during a later semester. If the intern is clearly not taking things seriously and believes that he or she can "blow off" the internship, then you really do have a problem - get the Legislative Research Director and (if applicable) the course supervisor involved ASAP. Sometimes providing the intern with different or more challenging assignments will engage her. Sometimes it will not. See [[InternDisciplineTX Disciplinary Policy]] for more information on how to handle this situation.
====Other Tips and Tactics====
We generally try to hire interns who we know can perform the work. However, a small percentage of interns each semester will struggle with legislative research - even though they may work hard and show enthusiasm. Rather than have these interns suffer for the entire semester (or drop out), it is better to revise the learning objectives and give them assignments that are realistic and achievable. The midterm evaluation is a good time to do this: you will have, by this time, made every effort to get the intern up to speed and will be ready to have an informed and candid conversation with the intern about his/her future.
If the student is unable to write well:
- Send the intern and his/her bill summaries to the writing center at UT for more comprehensive help
- Pair the intern with a mentor; that is, another intern who is doing well, and who is working in the office at the same time
- Assign research work or other data-entry tasks
Remember, even though we are part of the Educational Outreach mission at the Annette Strauss Institute, it is NOT our job to teach interns how to write! We can only help them improve their existing writing skills in the context of legislative research.
If the student is having trouble interpreting the bill text or understanding policy concepts:
- Provide the intern with policy concepts training
- Give the intern simpler bills to work on (i.e. an abortion bill instead of a tax bill)
- Have the intern write blog entries that are focused on a specific issue
- Assign research work or other data-entry tasks.
