Online course on volunteer management

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 March 2011 in the fundamentals of volunteer
management:

MS 108: Fundamentals of Museum Volunteer Programs
Instructor: Karin Hostetter
Price: $475
March 7 - April 1, 2011
Location: online at <URL:http://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

    Introduction
    Laying the Foundation: preparing staff, job descriptions
    Determining Program Structure: who's in charge
    Recruiting Volunteers
    Selecting Volunteers
    Training Volunteers
    Evaluating Volunteers
    Saying "Thank You"
    Keeping Records
    Communicating Information: including handling change
    Liability
    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
<URL:http://www.collectioncare.org/tas/tas.html> If you have trouble
please contact Helen Alten at helen<-a t->collectioncare< . >org

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.


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 24:40
               Distributed: Wednesday, February 23, 2011
                       Message Id: cdl-24-40-011
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