What's happening with YOU re: vols & tech?

Are you volunteering now with an organization, helping them with something computer or Internet-related?

Are you volunteering now with an organization, helping them as an online volunteer, but not necessarily doing an assignment that's computer or Internet-related?

Did you just finish either kind of assignment?

Are you an organization that's involving or recently involved a volunteer helping with something computer or Internet-related?

Are you an organization that's involving or recently involved online volunteers?

Are you an organization that's using the Internet or a specific tech tool to support volunteers in some way, no matter where or how they are providing service?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, let's hear about your experience here on the Volunteers & Technology forum!

For volunteers: how did you find out about this assignment? Or did you come up with the idea yourself? How did you connect with the organization you helped/are helping? What's been good about the experience? What could be improved? What advice do you have for others?

For organizations: how did you find this volunteer, or did the volunteer help you? How did you identify the assignment for the volunteer/s? What online tools do you use to work/communicate with volunteers? What's been good about the experience? What could be improved? What advice do you have for others?

As for me: I'm currently helping my local Girl Scouts of the USA council with internal and public communications, mostly as an online volunteer. I landed the gig simply by filling out the online application. I got a call the same day and was invited to the next monthly meeting at a nearby Godfather's Pizza (food is a wonderful incentive to show up). I sat and listened, and then realized how I could best help -- by getting everyone to use the YahooGroup someone else had set up but could no longer support, by helping troop leaders use GoogleDocs, and by writing and sending out press releases about public events by the local council.

I knew I wanted to help the Girl Scouts, but I wasn't sure how; I knew I didn't want to be a troop leader. So by attending that first meeting, I got to hear about what might be needed, and choose a volunteering role myself (ofcourse, the GS had to approve me before I could get started). Email has been essential in keeping up-to-date. I really appreciated the quick turnaround between my application and the phone call from the GS (same day!). And I get lots of emails thanking me for every little thing I do -- makes me feel very wanted. There are a lot of misconceptions about joining an online group, so it's been a struggle to get everyone on board (still working on that). These troop leaders are younger than me, but they are not tech-savvy, for the most part, and they don't at all see the value of tech tools. I'll be doing a training in the coming months (I'll be interested to see how many of them have children on Facebook or MySpace, while they themselves aren't on such).

And, ofcourse, I volunteer to help with this TechSoup forum. I'm in it only for the free t-shirts. No, really, I love TechSoup and feel very, very appreciated for my contributions. I have no idea how I first got involved with TechSoup. I probably wrote them and complained about something on their web site and they said, okay, YOU fix it, or something like that. Which is a technique I've used frequently to recruit volunteers. And I stay year-after-year for the t-shirts and other swag. No, seriously...

Here are my other volunteering activities.

You?

how did you find out about this assignment? Or did you come up with the idea yourself? How did you connect with the organization you helped/are helping? What's been good about the experience? What could be improved? What advice do you have for others?

I found out about NonprofitCommons.org through a professor at my school who is interested in the real world applicability of Second Life. It was my idea to contact the community managers and ask if they would be willing to provide me with an internship role. I went to a few of the Friday morning meetings, and I played in other sims (simulations) inside Second Life to become more familiar in being a user. I also spoke to a few of the residents and the other volunteers.

The community had a need for someone to come in and manage the volunteers, and as I had a lot of volunteer and project management experience, they found me a great fit for the community. I think it is great to have someone bank on your talents so that you can further develop your skills.

It has been challenging adapting to managing people in a virtual environment, but it is very rewarding. I get to meet people from all over the world, and collaborate with them on projects. My role forces me to know everyone, so it has been great learning about what all of the different nonprofits do. My advice for others is for them to follow their ideas and see where they lead, and not be afraid to make big leaps.

I never thought it possible for anyone to get school credit for interacting in a virtual environment, but here I am, a multidimensional human participating in a three dimensional environment, and reaping the rewards of knowing many amazing people, and helping them propel their nonprofits to new heights.

Let's hear from others!

Hi all!  In the interest of encouraging additional discussion on this thread, I posted the question to the CyberVPM listserv, an online discussion space for volunteer resource managers.  While the goal was to direct them here to share ideas and stories, what has happened instead is a discussion amongst peers in the listserv itself.  Interested in checking out what they've had to say?  Here's the link for CyberVPM.  Thanks!