[bksvol-discuss] On Volunteers
- From: "Kaitlyn" <kaitlyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 23:11:39 -0700
Hello Everyone,
I have been following the discussion on volunteers and some of the
frustrations many of us have. There has been some good suggestions such as
being able to give credits to other members and making the membership
process easier.
I will share some of my experiences working as a volunteer and also managing
a group of volunteers over a 12 year period for a major company.
Back in the spring of 1991 after being on AOL for three months and being a
Mac user for five months I was able to become a volunteer in the music and
sound forum as a file checker/file librarian. It entailed downloading sound
files, checking their quality and making any corrections to the file
description provided by the submitter. It was a lot of fun and the big
motivation to work sometimes 10 to 12 hours a day at it was free AOL access.
I was empowered to work hard and put my best effort forward just to have
access to the system which didn't cost AOL anything really. The free time
was what motivated me and hundreds and over the years thousands of
volunteers who built that company in the early years.
I mention this because what we are all doing on Bookshare is volunteering to
build a company that we all believe in and feel can bring a lot of good to
many visually impaired persons. As on AOL we were compensated with free time
online and on Bookshare we are compensated with credits for scanning and
validating. Personally I don't need the credits since I work at a good job
but considering the motivation factor I think after four plus years and
having many volunteers working hard now toward something they believe in
deeply Bookshare might look at the structure of how volunteers are
compensated and what motivates them. IN the next four years looking at ways
to empower and motivate the dedicated group of individuals Bookshare can be
the jewel of the digital book world. Revamping the compensation structure to
further to further motivate the volunteers in reality does not cost
Bookshare anything considering what this group can do to grow the company. A
library of 50 to 75000 books will draw more customers who will pay for the
service than the small amount saved by not looking at giving more to the
volunteers.
After four years of volunteering on AOL I was moved up to Forum leader. The
fact that I kept the spirit of putting the members first and giving them
quick turn around times on their submissions which kept them coming back.
Another big motivation for those members who submitted their sound files was
once they were on the system to be able to watch the number of times their
files were downloaded. I know this is not done now but if implemented would
do to things. Give the volunteer or member some real pride that what they
have contributed others are interested in and for the general membership
give them an idea of the popularity of a book. That is what grew my area on
AOL and I hope Bookshare will keep this dynamic in mind as they bring on the
new in-house people and continue to improve on valuing and empowering the
real people that are building this online library.
There have been lots of suggestions voiced on this list over the last year I
have been here so Bookshare management keep these in mind as we move ahead
in the months and years ahead. WE have only started to clean off and polish
up the jewel Bookshare can be:-)
Other related posts:
