New: Volunteers Hours Tracking

[MNFursStaff]

Thanks to the hard work of our web team, the site has a new feature – you can now submit and track your volunteer hours on your profile! To learn more about submission and how to join our volunteers list

[See the full post at: New: Volunteers Hours Tracking]

[Ridayah]

Would love to hear feedback on this from everyone! 🙂

[Incog]

Only had to use it once. But it is simple enough. Only concern is the approval process since it seems open to allot of human error. Given we all have fursona names, regular names, and even nick names. Which I see makng tracking people a hassel. Then, and this depends upon the event I guess, there is no physical sign in/out sheet. To physically prove we were volunteering. Then I could be wrong on all this still really new to volunteering here. Oh, and will someone please get back to me on volunteering at FM. I know everything is still being set up but, I emailed the department a while ago and no reply.

• This reply was modified 11 years ago by Incog.

I'm just a Hodgepodge.

[Amethyst]

I do think we need to establish a standard for signing in — whether is is Fursona or real name or whatever — we need to pick one and everyone much use that. As with registering for FM.

IMHO

I’m sure someone will be getting back to you within a week or so about the Volunteers

Amethyst

Help me remember that nothing is going to happen to me today that You and I together cannot handle!

[Ridayah]

The volunteer hours are linked to your account here, and up to each person to submit – that puts the power in their hand. If they care about their hours, they are able to submit, if not, then it’s no issue for them. And with the website here we also have the means to reach out and communicate with them, which readily solves a lot of problems the old system had.

I hope that helps answer questions!

[Amethyst]

Ridayah wrote:

The volunteer hours are linked to your account here, and up to each person to submit – that puts the power in their hand. If they care about their hours, they are able to submit, if not, then it’s no issue for them. And with the website here we also have the means to reach out and communicate with them, which readily solves a lot of problems the old system had. I hope that helps answer questions!

Thanks, I remember now you telling me that! It is a helpful remember to me and will help those who haven’t heard yet!

 

Amethyst

Help me remember that nothing is going to happen to me today that You and I together cannot handle!

[Incog]

Well, I’m more thinking about those who have to approve those hours. For if it is a large event you will not be able to recall everyone’s name or tasks done. Then we are all people who make mistakes in judgment, get fed up and quit, then there are people who will try to take advantage of our good nature. A solid paper record would be nice or if not that a event code that volunteers can submit with their hours. One code for arrival time and another for when they left allowing an approve-er who was not at the event the ability to approve those hours.

I'm just a Hodgepodge.

[Mouring]

I’d personally recommend keeping the complexity down.  Which is what MNFurs parent organization decided.  However, this doesn’t mean that the people signing off on volunteer hours shouldn’t have  way of vetting and verifying the hours.

But I’d be against trying to build one system coding system to rule them all as it has turned out to be problematic in the past (read: less volunteers as no one wants to manage the process).

 

[Drake M.]

I guess my main concern here is the approval process of this.  It’s very cool that one can submit said hours within their profile (Your Activity > MNFurs tab > Enter Hours), but who is approving and how are said community members displaying proof of volunteer efforts?  To add on from pieces of Incog’s post, anyone can really say they volunteered, submit hours, & hope to get hours…See what I mean?

That’s my argument here…

In the end, I personally like the past process of paperwork being brought to an event and individual volunteers signing off in ink…That is a solid hard copy.  Then someone higher-up can keep it on file and, if necessary, type it up and keep an electronic version on hand.

Thanks!

~ Drake M.

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[Mouring]

Drake M. wrote:

In the end, I personally like the past process of paperwork being brought to an event and individual volunteers signing off in ink…That is a solid hard copy. Then someone higher-up can keep it on file and, if necessary, type it up and keep an electronic version on hand.

And nothing stops that from still happening. This just gives a way for individuals to mark down the hours they feel they did independent of the tallie keepers. And it can/should be compared to what comes from event runners, convention staff, etc.

I’m doubting that anyone is stating that what is entered is automatically “blessed” and considered approved. It is just a tool to help in reporting. Nothing more, nothing else.

• This reply was modified 11 years ago by Mouring.

[Sauce]

I myself don’t mind volunteering to help but can’t stand having to track hours (or even that its being done, makes this seem more like a job which kills the fun). So I refuse to keep track…ever, the minute I do is the same time I quit the group.

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[Ridayah]

There is a distinct reason this is being done – the old system was proving to be too tough to manage and people were being missed because there wasn’t any contact information, the wrong information was supplied to volunteers, or people flat out did not know how to deal with hours – it was always “Someone Else’s Problem(tm)”. To give you an idea how bad it was, it took a month for three people to figure out the details and information for the last election. That’s a LOT of time and effort, and still things were missed. This is why we decided to change things.

I’ll try and answer the questions here in order:

1) Paper trail – we’ve tried this for three years now. The problem is, even when we give out the forms and clearly show how to get the hours on them, people wouldn’t fill them out, they’d be missing critical data (people putting different names/emails/etc for the same person at different times, due to changing ‘sona identities and such), and they’d rarely, if ever, get turned back in. This was happening no matter how much it was stressed. This included the board (and me), so I know it’s not just a training thing but rather the principle matter.

2) Whom is approving it – This is the same team it’s always been, those whom are part of Volunteers/Secretary team. If there’s any question on hours, they go to the event runner of the event in question, and ask them, or ask those who attended if they remember X person doing work. This method also allows for them to submit what the work was, so it’s easier to verify. Hours submitted without descriptions of the work are unlikely to get approved.

3) Why we track hours – MNFurs is a nonprofit. Volunteers are the lifeblood which help bring all our events and tasks to life. None of what we enjoy (furmeets, picnics, the convention, bowling, zoo boo, and so on) can happen without the efforts of those volunteers. We want to honor and show our appreciation to those people who take the time out of their busy lives to help us. The biggest perk right now is that 20 volunteer hours allows you to run for the board and vote in the elections. We have other perks planned too, just can’t announce them yet!

The big thing is this put the power in the hands of those for whom its important – the volunteers. They don’t have to submit if the ‘perks’ aren’t important to them (though we’d still wish they would so we could tell them how awesome we think they are!), but if it is, the power is now theirs. They don’t have to wait for some other person to do work, or forget, or misplace things. They don’t have to wait until election time to find out how many hours they’ve volunteered. They now have ALL the information at their fingertips, and the power is theirs, and yours.

Does this help clear things up for everyone, @sauce, @mouring, @drakem, @jw6?

[Amethyst]

” all you have to do is go to your profile and click on the “MNFurs” tab, or from the quick-link when logged in under “My MNFurs Membership” in the top-right corner of the page. We would love to hear your feedback about this new system and any issues you may encounter.”

OK That is easy enough — even I figured that out. giggle.

Amethyst

Help me remember that nothing is going to happen to me today that You and I together cannot handle!

[Incog]

Yes, this dose clear some things up.

I'm just a Hodgepodge.

[FlyingFire]

I like how it works now. The old system reminded me of a paper tornado. :/

When things look down, challenge them by looking up and seeing the light.

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