I've been an intern, and in my current job, I have had a few interns work
for me, and I think a written agreement can be really useful. If the
intern/volunteer is working for college credit, it helps define the
parameters of their work, and helps them document what they've done when
they try to get credit for their work. Even if the intern/volunteer isn't
getting college credit, a written agreement can help both the volunteer and
the supervisor think about how the volunteer job should be structured, how
much responsibility the volunteer should have, and what kinds of projects
the volunteer finds most interesting. It's easy to end up burying a
volunteer with tons of filing or hours of typing rolodex cards. When
there's a written agreement, it reminds me as the supervisor to give the
volunteer good projects that will help the volunteer build skills and gain
experience.

Margaret Pezalla
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>Touchy, touchy!  If handled properly, the volunteer might actually feel
>more secure with this agreement than without one.  The agreement does
>include the volunteer's rights and protections, and can be used creditably
>as documentation for a vita.
>
>The volunteers I have supervised in the past have worked with handshake
>agreements, and this suited me just fine.  But, following an unrelated
>lawsuit, my agency's managers now insist on a formal document to protect
>the agency.  No document, no volunteers.  I don't like it any more than you
>do, and grieve over the coarsening of our society.  And is an additional
>document needed when we have so many laws to cover virtually every
>contingency?  However, I feel that providing a volunteer agreement to my
>supervisors is a more positive step than cutting off a valuable (and
>pleasant) source of labor altogether.
>
>
>Andrew K. Rindsberg                     Telephone (205) 349-2852
>Curator, Paleontological Collection     Telefax (205) 349-2861
>Geological Survey of Alabama            <[log in to unmask]>
>P.O. Box O
>Tuscaloosa, AL 35486-9780, USA
>"I never let my schooling interfere with my education."--Mark Twain.