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  • 1.  Facilitating Volunteer Carpools

    Posted 11-07-2017 12:54 PM

    How do you facilitate carpools for volunteers in your institutions? Traffic in our city is only getting worse right now. While our Museum is fortunately not in the heart of downtown, due to the geography of Seattle with all the water there are bridges that act as choke points which pretty much every single vehicle trying to get into the city have to pass through. Some of our volunteers carpool but many of them don't really have a good way to get connected to each other to see about creating new carpools, exacerbated by the fact that we have hundreds of volunteers spread over many departments and programs who don't know or talk to each other. With tech these days I feel there are a couple of potential solutions, and I wanted to float that question out to the brain trust here to see what you do.

     

    Thanks!

     

    Sean

     

    Sean Mobley | Docent Services Specialist
    The Museum of Flight
    9404 East Marginal Way S
    Seattle, WA 98108
    Work: +1 (206) 768-7151
    www.museumofflight.org



  • 2.  RE: Facilitating Volunteer Carpools

    Posted 11-08-2017 03:07 PM

    We created a "Volunteer Directory" which lists all volunteer alphabetically, and gives contact information, addresses, email etc.  Volunteers can connect with each other to make plans. We find that volunteers who can find others who live near them, or on the way to the Museum or other events, connect with each other and figure out ways to carpool.

     

    I can imagine the directory could also list volunteers by neighborhood or region around the area, indicating that there are several volunteers in each specific area.

     

    For events, I always ask who would be willing to drive and for them to let me know how many their car can hold. Then I try to assign participants to cars randomly, but also with a nod to personalities. And always flexibility and last minute change are tolerated and encouraged!

     

    Kristi

     

    Kristi Lucas-Hayden

    Volunteer Director

    707.284.1271

    kristi@schulzmuseum.org

     

    Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center

    2301 Hardies Lane

    Santa Rosa, CA 95403

     

     

    MPJBEmailArt

     

     



     

     

     



    ------Original Message------

    How do you facilitate carpools for volunteers in your institutions? Traffic in our city is only getting worse right now. While our Museum is fortunately not in the heart of downtown, due to the geography of Seattle with all the water there are bridges that act as choke points which pretty much every single vehicle trying to get into the city have to pass through. Some of our volunteers carpool but many of them don't really have a good way to get connected to each other to see about creating new carpools, exacerbated by the fact that we have hundreds of volunteers spread over many departments and programs who don't know or talk to each other. With tech these days I feel there are a couple of potential solutions, and I wanted to float that question out to the brain trust here to see what you do.

     

    Thanks!

     

    Sean

     

    Sean Mobley | Docent Services Specialist
    The Museum of Flight
    9404 East Marginal Way S
    Seattle, WA 98108
    Work: +1 (206) 768-7151
    www.museumofflight.org



  • 3.  RE: Facilitating Volunteer Carpools

    Posted 11-09-2017 12:14 PM
    ​Kristi,

    That's a great idea. Is this something you emailed out or made available in a central place, or was it something physical that volunteers had to check? How did you work with volunteers who had privacy concerns?

    Thanks,

    Sean

    ------------------------------
    Sean Mobley
    Docent Services Specialist
    Museum of Flight
    Seattle WA
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Facilitating Volunteer Carpools

    Posted 11-09-2017 01:04 PM
    Do you use Volgistics or a similar scheduling program?  If so, you could create a "Car Pools" Assignment and post the name and location/date/time of a person seeking to carpool. Others could monitor that page and sign up as they would to register to volunteer under your volunteering Assignments. 

    I haven't done it yet, but have considered creating a "Meetup" style Assignment on Volgistics where volunteers looking for people to socialize with can find each other. I find one of the motivators for volunteering is to meet other people with similar interests. Since most of our volunteer positions are singular, this might help fill that need.

    Perahps a similar tactic would work for carpooling.  



    ------------------------------
    Nancy Schomburg
    Manager, Volunteer Services
    Grounds for Sculpture
    Hamilton NJ
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