Whether you are a conservator, a curator, a registrar or an exhibit designer, there is a good chance you will be using volunteers at some point in your career. Working with volunteers is a skill that can be learned and honed.  Northern States Conservation Center is proud to offer a course this March in the fundamentals of volunteer management:

MS 108: Fundamentals of Museum Volunteer Programs
Instructor: Karin Hostetter
Price: $475
Dates: March 7 to April 1, 2011
Location: online at www.museumclasses.org

Description:
Volunteers are essential for most non-profit institutions. But good volunteers aren't born - they are made. Even though they don't get paychecks, it takes time and money to have effective volunteers. Fundamentals of Museum Volunteer Programs teaches the basics of a strong volunteer program. Topics include recruiting, training and rewarding volunteers, as well as preparing staff. Instruction continues through firing and liabilities. Participants will end up with custom forms tailored to their institutions, an understanding of liability issues and a nine-step process to troubleshoot an existing volunteer program or create the best one for a particular institution.

Course Outline
1. Introduction
2. Laying the Foundation: preparing staff, job descriptions
3. Determining Program Structure: who's in charge
4. Recruiting Volunteers
5. Selecting Volunteers
6. Training Volunteers
7. Evaluating Volunteers
8. Saying "Thank You"
9. Keeping Records
10. Communicating Information: including handling change
11. Liability
12. Conclusion

Logistics:
Participants in Fundamentals of Museum Volunteer Programs work at their own pace through sections and interact through online chats. Instructor Karin Hostetter is available at scheduled times during the course for email support. Fundamentals of Museum Volunteer Programs includes online literature and student-teacher/group-teacher dialog. The course is limited to 20 participants.

Fundamentals of Museum Volunteer Programs runs four weeks. To reserve a spot in the course, please pay at http://www.collectioncare.org/tas/tas.html If you have trouble please contact Helen Alten at [log in to unmask]

Student Comments for MS108: Fundamentals of Museum Volunteer Programs:
I feel that this course was an excellent experience that will help start my volunteer program in the right direction, thanks.

Articles were useful. Chats were useful times where you could talk out ideas.

I definitely liked taking the class online and being able to schedule my time around it. The assignments were a good foundation for putting what I learned into action. The resources were terrific. And I really enjoyed "Hostetter-Outlaw" Commentaries as a "getting to the point" outline. I am happy that you have filled a special niche for museum personnel who are interested in learning to be the best they can be.

It made me realize that there is more to volunteer policy than just asking them to participate. The chat time was really helpful as to the direction our policy should follow. (I liked) The availability of the instructor and the prompt feedback she gave.

Everything I read and did was helpful and only hope the "people who do not like change" can be convinced sometime down the road that we need to implement some if not all these procedures. I liked the forums and quick problem solving ideas best.

The Instructor:
Karin Hostetter has over thirty years experience with museum education. Karin has worked with volunteers throughout her career, becoming the first paid volunteer coordinator at the Denver Zoo. Ms. Hostetter taught the National Association for Interpretation's two-day volunteer management course for volunteer coordinators and served on their panel about volunteer programs. She authored a series of articles for the National Association for Interpretation's Legacy magazine, providing guidelines for developing and maintaining a volunteer organization. Ms. Hostetter now consults with organizations on structuring and improving volunteer programs. Karin Hostetter is owner of Interpret This, a consulting company specializing in interpretive writing, program and curriculum development, and volunteer program management. When she is not consulting with other museums, she likes to volunteer and contract teach at them with a special love for preschool and family programs.


To unsubscribe from the MUSEUM-L list, click the following link:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=MUSEUM-L&A=1