Volunteer Program

Table of Contents
A volunteer program will engage the non-student population in a new way and strengthen Vote Smart’s ties to the Des Moines community. The purpose of the volunteer program is to strengthen the mission of Vote Smart through outreach, membership, and research. While volunteers should want to do research, the primary purpose of having volunteers should not be to get more research done. Vote Smart wants to strengthen ties with volunteers for better membership, ambassadorship, and support.

Roles in the volunteer program


Recruitment

Prospective volunteers can contact us for further information either by going to our material request page at http://votesmart.org/request-materials or by emailing or calling membership directly. Application can be filled out at https://votesmart.org/member-internships/application#.XbBj39s3kfI.

In the future, this program could do recruitment when talking with local groups in the Des Moines Area. Advertising through other means may also be productive, but the program needs more testing before immense advertising and recruitment is done.

Processing Applications
  1. Applications are sent to DevComm who send them to the Internship Coordinator
    • DevComm should make note of those who are and are not members
    • Communication between DevComm and the Internship Coordinator is important for the success of the volunteer program
  2. Reach out the volunteer applicant
    • About their technical expertise
    • About scheduling volunteer
    • About what they know about Vote Smart
    • About how they have helped Vote Smart in the past
    • About training they have received already
  3. Schedule volunteer
    • Intern schedule should be considered when scheduling volunteers (space, amount of research available, etc)
    • What research is available at the time should be considered
    • Consistency is important in research; programs want to see volunteers at least once a week
    • Those who are not technical experts may be able to help DevComm or with PCT letters
    • Currently Public Statements and Profiles are the only programs who have had volunteers
      • In the future City-County could be added to what volunteers do
      • DevComm could also have things for volunteers to do

Training Volunteers

Unlike interns, these individuals may have weaker technical skills. This means that training volunteers is a slower process. Most likely, these individuals have life skills that gives them the ability to ask more questions. They probably understand their learning style. In order to give volunteers a high quality experience, Research Associates should be incredibly patient and willing to be flexible. Volunteers are less likely to show up consistently because they have little incentive. Research Associates should make training fun and in-depth. Training volunteers should not be looked at as the same as intern training. The supervision and corrections are the same, but how the Research Associate goes about training and supervision is different. Directors can assist with making sure that training is happening in a productive and efficient way.

Ray Society

The first effort for the volunteer program was done through the Ray Society at Drake University. The Ray Society provides continuing learning for alum of Drake. Mostly, the individuals who attend the classes are retirees. This class happened once a week for 4 weeks during the Fall of 2019.
Attachments
File Last modified Size
Ray Society Volunteer Test Document Fall 2019.docx 2019-10-23 09:34 9Kb
Volunteer debrief Fall 2019.docx 2019-10-23 09:34 7Kb
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