Hello every one, as promised find it CC the CMA list is the people from the
SIG group for Volunteer ressources. You can keep it and just do a reply to
communicate with the ones that have access to a e-mail.

Lyla,

For the information on data base,  I have been working on our data base for
the last 2 years, the tool is a great asset to our volunteer program. We
needed to program it to answer our needs of having a fully bilingual
program.  I had a team of 4 students who continued volunteering on this
project and they programmed it in Access 97. It allows me to do some
tracking which is very important since we have over 600 volunteers every
year.  We have established what our needs are and they have create form so
we can input the information and get all sorts of information out of the
data.

The Museum of Science and Tech have acquired this data base for less than
1500$.  I know that there is an American product, all in english that is
very good and many museums are using, the "Volunteer Works" software.

If you are looking for suggestions for what is important, I find that the
tracking system of who has not been in for the last 1 month, 2 month, 3
month is a great tool to keep in touch with the volunteers working behind
the scene, and to verify if the assigments still suit their needs.  It
allows me to replace them elsewhere if they are not satisfied, without them
fading and then being embarrased to call back since they were silent for
weeks!  Since I am busy and often caught up with daily functionnement, it
allows me once a month to get the picture on the volunteers and the project
they work on.
I also find it important to be able to give employees report on the
volunteer activities in their sectors.  Since we have been able to produce
such reports, it is interesting how employees are refering to us to get more
info, which in our case opens a communication channel with the various
sections utilising the volunteer services.

Unfortunatly I cannot help with the programming section, I am depending on 2
volunteers who have been involved with the design.  My suggestion is for you
to look in the community college, university or in a specialize teaching
institution.  There are alot of trainees in programming that could help on
specific programs!

I hope that these pointers are usefull, good luck and for me all the
headhaches in developping the tools are now paying off, I would not go
without a good data base!

have a nice day
> ----------
> From:         ;
> Reply To:     Museum discussion list
> Sent:         Tuesday, November 09, 1999 2:17 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Volunteer Management
>
> Hello Museum-L list - Has anyone out there ever created or worked with a
> volunteer database?  I'm in the process of creating one for our 50+
> docents, in Access '97, and would like to get input as to which
> categories have been important for database management to other people.
>
> I've covered the basics - name, address, employer info, dob, date
> started, availability, emerg. contact, hours logged, trainings
> attended.  If anyone out there has experience with this, please let me
> know - I'd also like to ask some specific programming questions, if
> anyone knows about Access.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Lyla Max
> Docent/Membership Coordinator
> San Francisco Architectural Heritage/The Haas-Lilienthal House
> [log in to unmask]
>
> =========================================================
> Important Subscriber Information:
>
> The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
> http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ museum-l.html. You may obtain
> detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line
> e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message
> should read "help" (without the quotes).
>
> If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
> [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "Signoff
> Museum-L" (without the quotes).
>

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ museum-l.html. You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
[log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "Signoff
Museum-L" (without the quotes).