[bksvol-discuss] Re: Meeting Notes from Tues. Aug 14 2012
- From: Cindy <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2012 16:28:58 -0700 (PDT)
I think the plan for providing books to new volunteer scanners is wonderful
--- On Wed, 8/15/12, Madeleine Linares <Madeleinel@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Madeleine Linares <Madeleinel@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Meeting Notes from Tues. Aug 14 2012
To: "bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wednesday, August 15, 2012, 3:07 PM
Hi everyone,
This meeting's notes are a bit more dense than the previous, so forgive the
long post! Please find the meeting notes below.
Best,
Madeleine Linares
Volunteer Coordinator
Bookshare, a Benetech Initiative
650-644-3459
madeleinel@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Join us in celebrating our 10th Anniversary!
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Volunteer Meeting #2, Tuesday Aug. 14 2012, 9-10 am
Staff in attendance: Alisa, Madeleine, Mayrie, Annie
Volunteers in attendance: Vivian F., Ann Pa., Kellie H., Shelley, Susan L.,
Judy S., Julia K., Valerie M., Doug M., Lori C., Marilyn, Courtney, Evan,
Lissi, Kelly P.
1. Holds
a. Holds will be removed after they have been in the checkout queue for 4
weeks. This does not apply to holds that someone is working on, but ONLY the
books on hold in the checkout queue. Feel free to contact me
(madeleinel@xxxxxxxxxxxx) if you have a special situation. This rule starts
now: I will remove books in the checkout queue that still have holds on Sept. 5
and from that point on will remove holds once they've been sitting for 4 weeks.
i. Overall people seem to find this an acceptable compromise. Scanners
and proofers are encouraged to work together to release books only when the
proofer is able to proofread them so they don't linger in the checkout queue.
ii. Should a situation arise where you will not be able to grab one of
your holds in time, email me and we can discuss. In general though, please be
considerate of others and share the wealth!
iii. Someone mentioned the idea of putting "HOLD FOR NEW VOLUNTEERS" on
books that scanners want to give to new volunteers specifically. We are going
to try this out. I can tell who grabs which book, as well as when someone has
been approved to volunteer, so I'll know if a new volunteer really has picked
it up.
b. In response to concerns about proofreaders incurring the financial risk
of mailing books to new volunteer scanners, and to cultivate new volunteers,
Bookshare will now incur some expense to order and/or ship a limited number of
books to volunteers.
i. How it works: Seasoned proofreaders may select a book of their
choice that is not in the collection or from the wish list, and request it from
Bookshare staff. The book will be shipped to a new scanner (someone who has
submitted at least one good quality scan and shows promise). That scanner will
be connected with the proofreader who requested the book. Once the scan is
complete, the scanner will place it in the queue with a hold for the
partner-proofreader. Each new volunteer scanner may receive up to three books
a year through this program (as budget allows).
ii. Alternatively, we have a large inventory of previously donated
books which we will ship to any volunteer to scan. After we provide you with
the list of books, you may order them through Madeleine Linares
(madeleine@xxxxxxxxxxxx), and she will ship the book to you. Volunteers may
only scan one book at a time, and subsequent books will not be provided until
the previous scan has been approved by staff. We will carefully track and
monitor the program and report the success (or failure) of the program to the
volunteer community by the end of the year.
2. Training/Support/Mentoring Program
a. Bookshare will put together a list of people interested in mentoring new
volunteers. Please email me (madeleinel@xxxxxxxxxxxx) if you are interested. It
may be helpful to include your interests and what technology you use as some
people thought it could be nice to be able to pair people with similar
technology together.
b. We have updated the website pages (the pages that anyone can see-not
just those with volunteer accounts) to give new proofreaders and scanners the
basic info they need. Some people had trouble finding it. Here is the link:
https://www.bookshare.org/_/volunteer/overview.
c. We'll develop a volunteer greeting committee to welcome new volunteers.
This is in addition to the mentoring program. People can email me if they are
interested in this as well.
d. For both the mentoring and the greeting committee we will create a
structured check list, including timing to touch base with new volunteers and
gauge their progress. If anyone has ideas for either list, please email me.
Additionally, if newer volunteers have thoughts about what would have been
helpful to know in the beginning, I would love to hear!
e. We will add the Saturday night chat to the list of helpful links we have
on the website.
f. Bookshare will create a blog (with static pages) as a place for people
to look at who don't want to join the discussion lists and as a place to put
information (like FAQs) that will remain stable. We will be moderating the
posts and the comments. It will be an accessible Wordpress blog. Several
volunteers are especially skilled with blogs and have kindly offered to help
others who are less familiar with them.
g. As for training: a few people mentioned learning ally's volunteer
program so we will do some research and see if we could get some ideas for ways
to improve ours. Additionally, I will follow up with one volunteer who gave a
fascinating presentation about scanning to see if we could post some of that
recording program online for use by our volunteers.
h. The revised manual is still a work in progress.
3. Next steps/Follow up:
a. We will make these phone meetings a regular occurrence and will meet
again in a month. It seems like a great way for everyone to stay connected and
to build positive working relationships..
b. Please email me (madeleinel@xxxxxxxxxxxx) with any thoughts on the
following:
i. Anyone interested in mentoring new volunteers
ii. Anyone interested in greeting new volunteers
iii. Suggestions for crucial information that new volunteers should
have immediately
iv. Thoughts from new volunteers about the onboarding process
v. Other concerns, questions, thoughts, comments
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