Before you are offered an online volunteering assignment with the Virtual Volunteering Project, you must go through our online orientation process. Going through this orientation helps us determine your expectations for volunteering with us, as we work to make your volunteer experience with the VV Project enjoyable and beneficial to everyone involved.

The orientation is delivered to you via e-mail, and much of it is reproduced here in this online handbook for your reference. Reading through the orientation e-mail and following its directions are the BULK of the orientation process (and we promise that all e-mails from us are NOT this long). Even though this orientation is archived here on our web site, please save the orientation email for future reference.

You receive the orientation e-mail upon submitting our online application.

If you have not done this, please do so now before proceeding.

 
Why Have Written Policies for Volunteers?

They can seem burdensome, bureacratic, a layer of rules and regulations that get in the way of someone just wanting to do a good thing...

But our Volunteer Policies are very important to us, and we hope you will look at our having written policies as a demonstration of how seriously we take volunteers and their contributions.

There is nothing "virtual" nor casual about our need for volunteers. Written policies help to clarify responsibilities and define lines of communication and accountability.

We hope these policies help to increase our programs' effectiveness and provide you with a satisfying, productive volunteering experience. Our policies help us convey our agency's values and beliefs, and establish the directions for volunteer involvement.

Volunteers and staff are considered to be partners in implementing the mission and programs of our agency. It is essential for the proper operation of this relationship that each partner understand and respect the needs and abilities of the other. Our policies help define this relationship.

By replying to our online orientation, you are agreeing to the rules and responsibilities outlined in this handbook.

 
Who Are Our Volunteers and What Do They Do?

More than 100 online volunteers have helped the Virtual Volunteering Project via their home or work computers. The contributions of online volunteers is absolutely vital to the success of this program -- we want the involvement of the cyberspace community in this Project, just as other organizations work to involve their local communities in onsite programs. A focus on maintaining volunteer involvement in this Project is in keeping with our strong committment to collaboration.

These online volunteers range in age from 15 to 71, and are scattered around the United States (and a few are outside the U.S.!). They were recruited via the Project Web site, which most found because they were using an online search engine to find a volunteering opportunity -- on or offline -- or because of a reference on another site.

You can see a list of these volunteers and their accomplishments at:
http://www.serviceleader.org/vv/vols01.html

 
OTHER CHAPTERS IN THIS HANDBOOK

• Your Committments in volunteering with the VV Project
  What you are getting into. This is also part of an e-mail orientation you received from us upon completing the online application. It is included here for reference, and for other agencies interested in creating their own online orientations/handbooks.

• Volunteer Agreements/Code of Conduct
  BY REPLYING TO THE ORIENTATION, you agreed to the policies outlined in this chapter! These are our detailed policies regarding volunteers at our agency; MOST of these are NOT included in your online orientation. These policies cover the definition of a volunteer, confidentiality, copyright issues, when additional screening is necessary, inappropriate communications, when volunteers can represent the VV Project, online safety, ending your role as a volunteer with the Project and dismissal of a volunteer.

• Assignments
  How you get assignments, and what it's like to work with us. Again, you received this earlier as part of our e-mail orientation.

• Reporting
  Providing a weekly update on what you are doing with regard to your online volunteering assignment is critical to the VV Project. This material is also part of the e-mail orientation you have received.

• Recognition of your efforts
  There are various ways we say thanks and keep you up-to-date on our efforts.

• General tips for volunteers working on virtual assignments
  A must read whether you volunteer with us or another organization via the Internet.

• Dos and don'ts for technical assistance volunteers
  If you are advising staff or other volunteers with a particular expertise as part of your volunteer experience, this is a must read.

• Resources and Tools for Online Volunteers
  Suggestions for using web search engines, shareware, freeware, learning .HTML, finding news articles on a particular subject, creating databases, and other resources and tools to help you undertake an online assignment successfully. Most of these materials were authored or suggested by online volunteers themselves, based on their own experiences.

The Virtual Volunteering Project http://www.serviceleader.org/vv/