Revision history for VolunteerProgram
Additions:
{{files}}
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Additions:
====Volunteer Program==== >>{{{toc}}}>>
Deletions:
No Differences
Additions:
- Positives from the class (some areas may be implemented into entire volunteer program or internship)
- People interested in our work
- Volunteers had a pleasant demeanor
- Unique dynamic within office with older people
- Discussion on Vote Smart mission good for training
- More group work; working with more than individual supervisors
- Presentation of research departments
- Challenges of the program
- Did not get to work with volunteers very long
- Time of year with the research available
- Communication on all sides
- People not showing up
- Technical challenges
- Consistency
- People interested in our work
- Volunteers had a pleasant demeanor
- Unique dynamic within office with older people
- Discussion on Vote Smart mission good for training
- More group work; working with more than individual supervisors
- Presentation of research departments
- Challenges of the program
- Did not get to work with volunteers very long
- Time of year with the research available
- Communication on all sides
- People not showing up
- Technical challenges
- Consistency
Additions:
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.
- 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.
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.
- 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.
Deletions:
Additions:
====Volunteer Program====
===Roles in the volunteer program===
===Recruitment===
==Processing Applications==
===Roles in the volunteer program===
===Recruitment===
==Processing Applications==
Deletions:
==Roles in the volunteer program==
==Recruitment==
=Processing Applications=
Additions:
===Volunteer Program===
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==
- **Internship Coordinator:**
- Process applications
- Schedule volunteers
- Make volunteers feel valuable
- **Development/Communications department:**
- Help turn members into volunteers
- Help turn volunteers into stronger members
- Make volunteers feel valuable
- **Research Associate:**
- Give volunteers research tasks
- Make volunteers feel valuable
==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]].
=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
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==
- **Internship Coordinator:**
- Process applications
- Schedule volunteers
- Make volunteers feel valuable
- **Development/Communications department:**
- Help turn members into volunteers
- Help turn volunteers into stronger members
- Make volunteers feel valuable
- **Research Associate:**
- Give volunteers research tasks
- Make volunteers feel valuable
==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]].
=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
Deletions:
Check whether the prospective volunteer is a current member. During the off season we can be more accommodating to non members, as we have room available, but during the summer months, members will be given priority. Although non-members will of course pay for their meals, and therefore will leave as members.
You may either send them an email or hard copy letter confirmation stating their arrival and departure dates and including the office and lodge numbers.
Discuss the volunteer internship with those who have not come to the ranch before. There is a Talking Points sheet available so that we can keep their information on file and give them information regarding the environment here at the ranch.
**Always advise them that they must arrive and leave on Saturdays and that they can only be collected from Missoula, apart from in exceptional circumstances.** Staff are giving up their weekends to perform this task.
Once you have their arrival and departure times, update the Googledoc titled Arrivals and Departures. Add any further information that they have i.e. flight number etc. The Lodge Manager will assign them with a room.
The Office Manager and Lodge Manager will organize pick-ups and drop-offs - once you know which staff member has volunteered, inform the volunteer of that staff member's cell phone number so that they can contact us in an emergency.
**The week prior to their arrival, send an email around to Directors with information about the prospective member's skills and areas of interest and make sure that there is an assigned project for that member to work on. ** These can change throughout the 2 week volunteership.
Make sure that the Lodge Manager has informed the new members to meet in the Front Office for an orientation. Introduce them to all staff and show them around the office and explain when lunch hour is etc.
Although some members like to pay for their food immediately, do make sure to make a note of those who have and have not paid, and collect any outstanding payments before the member leaves.
On their last day in the office, ask them what materials they would like to take home with them and provide them with a packet.
====Entering Volunteer Information Requests====
1. Create a new membership record or look up the member's record as appopriate.
2. If not a member, add the VIR flag.
3. In the contacts tab, create a new record, with the following properties:
Activity: Member Intern Request
Contact Person: Adelaide Kimball
Date Due and Date Completed: (Date that the request was submitted)
Cont/Grant Notes: VIR (This isn't strictly necessary, but it gives another way to pull these contact records. You can also include any relevant information, so long as you have VIR in there. If a membership application has been submitted, go ahead and paste that in there.)
====Generating a VIR Report====
Reports > Listings
1) Report Category: Export to File
2) Select Export Type: Contact Transactions
3) Report Options:
- Set Selction Filter...
- Build a Selection Filter
1) Select Table: Contact
2) Select Field: Activity
3) Select Condition: Equal to
4) MI
- Select Export Template: Materials Request Contact
- Set the Due Dates to the range that you would like to pull VIR requests from (by default, it's start of the year to today).
4) Click Do, and view the spreadsheet. You can find the file in DPW32.
Additions:
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]].
Deletions:
Additions:
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].
Deletions:
Additions:
Date Due and Date Completed: (Date that the request was submitted)
Cont/Grant Notes: VIR (This isn't strictly necessary, but it gives another way to pull these contact records. You can also include any relevant information, so long as you have VIR in there. If a membership application has been submitted, go ahead and paste that in there.)
Cont/Grant Notes: VIR (This isn't strictly necessary, but it gives another way to pull these contact records. You can also include any relevant information, so long as you have VIR in there. If a membership application has been submitted, go ahead and paste that in there.)
Deletions:
Date Completed: (Leave blank)
Cont/Grant Notes: VIR
Revision [15820]
Edited on 2015-05-28 14:32:18 by stephen [Included info about entering VIR & generating ]Additions:
====Entering Volunteer Information Requests====
1. Create a new membership record or look up the member's record as appopriate.
2. If not a member, add the VIR flag.
3. In the contacts tab, create a new record, with the following properties:
Activity: Member Intern Request
Contact Person: Adelaide Kimball
Date Due: (Date that the request was submitted)
Date Completed: (Leave blank)
Cont/Grant Notes: VIR
====Generating a VIR Report====
Reports > Listings
1) Report Category: Export to File
2) Select Export Type: Contact Transactions
3) Report Options:
- Set Selction Filter...
- Build a Selection Filter
1) Select Table: Contact
2) Select Field: Activity
3) Select Condition: Equal to
4) MI
- Select Export Template: Materials Request Contact
- Set the Due Dates to the range that you would like to pull VIR requests from (by default, it's start of the year to today).
4) Click Do, and view the spreadsheet. You can find the file in DPW32.
1. Create a new membership record or look up the member's record as appopriate.
2. If not a member, add the VIR flag.
3. In the contacts tab, create a new record, with the following properties:
Activity: Member Intern Request
Contact Person: Adelaide Kimball
Date Due: (Date that the request was submitted)
Date Completed: (Leave blank)
Cont/Grant Notes: VIR
====Generating a VIR Report====
Reports > Listings
1) Report Category: Export to File
2) Select Export Type: Contact Transactions
3) Report Options:
- Set Selction Filter...
- Build a Selection Filter
1) Select Table: Contact
2) Select Field: Activity
3) Select Condition: Equal to
4) MI
- Select Export Template: Materials Request Contact
- Set the Due Dates to the range that you would like to pull VIR requests from (by default, it's start of the year to today).
4) Click Do, and view the spreadsheet. You can find the file in DPW32.
Additions:
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.
Deletions:
Additions:
**The week prior to their arrival, send an email around to Directors with information about the prospective member's skills and areas of interest and make sure that there is an assigned project for that member to work on. ** These can change throughout the 2 week volunteership.
Deletions:
Additions:
You may either send them an email or hard copy letter confirmation stating their arrival and departure dates and including the office and lodge numbers.
Additions:
Once you have their arrival and departure times, update the Googledoc titled Arrivals and Departures. Add any further information that they have i.e. flight number etc. The Lodge Manager will assign them with a room.
