Successful program directors offer these tips for getting the most out of technology-based tools:

• Set expectations for members:
  • Let them know how often they'll be expected to sign on, contribute, etc.
  • Consider incorporating expectations into member contracts
• Make technology-based tools part of your everyday activities:
  • Use them regularly to share information
  • Encourage members to post photos, videos, comments, and questions
  • Use prompts to get discussions going about member-development topics or other issues
  • Use discussion boards to continue a conversation that began at a training or meeting

When choosing a networking site or discussion board software, consider these suggestions:

• Check out your options and choose the best tool for you.
  • Programs we've talked to have used Facebook, MySpace and myfamily.com
  • Be aware of any costs
• Don't be intimidated - most sites have easy, step-by-step instructions for setting up new groups and pages
  • Find out if one of your members or alumni has expertise in using these tools and ask for help
• Restrict use/viewing to "invite only"
  • Scrutinize "friend requests" from others
• Let members know they will have to sign up to access the group you establish
• Send new and potential members an invitation to join as soon as possible

Remind members that the skills they learn from using these tools will help them after service.

Go back to Supervising Members From Afar

A variety of free software tools are available online that can be used to connect members.

Social networking sites
Social networking sites are online communities of people with similar interests. "Invite-only" groups can be created to limit access to members.

• Personal: Facebook, MySpace
• Professional: LinkedIn
• Create your own: Ning

Discussion boards
Discussion boards are online forums for discussing topics that allow readers to reply. Use to share ideas, problem-solve, and discuss specific issues. Restrict access with "invite-only" setting.

• Examples: Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, Aimoo

Blogs
Blogs are regularly updated logs or journals, sometimes focused on specific topics, that allow for reply-posts.

• Examples: Wordpress, Blogger, TypePad

Online Ticket Systems
Ticket tracking systems coordinate tasks and manage requests among a community of users.

• Examples: Request Tracker (RT), Open-source Ticket Request System (OTRS)


Click play to hear how Joyce Fosdick of Keystone SMILES AmeriCorps (Knox, PA) uses an online ticket system to track issues and share solutions with members across rural Pennsylvania.

Media Tools
A few of the many tools available to edit and store media files online.

• Digital audio editor: Audacity
• Digital photo editor and manager: Picasa
• Online photo sharing: Flickr
• Online photo and video editing and storage: Photobucket

Productivity Tools
Share and edit documents and workspaces online.

• Create and edit Web pages together: Wikispaces
• Collaborate on word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations: Google Docs

Go on to Making Technology Work for You

Hopefully you've encouraged members to reflect on their service experience throughout the year in monthly, quarterly, or midyear evaluations; journals or portfolios; and training sessions. However, reflection is especially useful as the year draws to a close and members assess what it's meant to them.

Look at these resources for ideas on prompting reflection:

• Introduction to reflection
• Reflection activities
• End of year project
• Group reflection: The Council Process
• Group reflection: Group Reading
• Group reflection: Youth Resumes

Click play to hear Laura Firtel of Notre Dame AmeriCorps (Apopka, FL) discuss how reflection can impact retention and encourage members to serve another term.

For suggestions on how reflection activities build bridges from old members to new ones, check out Passing Along Wisdom.

Go back to Looking at the Individual

Stephen Harrell, program director of the Regional Service Corps (RSC) in Pasco, Washington, specifies in his sponsor-site agreements that the sites will do three performance reviews for members assigned to their locations. He spells out when those reviews should take place (basically every three months) and when the evaluations are due. An optional fourth evaluation can be scheduled, if needed.

See a sample evaluation form used by RSC, and a sample memo to host site supervisors. It helps site supervisors cover important elements like quality of work, output, and attitude. It also ensures that all members are judged on the same criteria.

A tip about scoring:

"When scoring performance, keep in mind that under typical working conditions, no more than 5 percent of employees receive scores of five (the highest rating)," says Harrell. "It is important to score candidly, and there is no harm in leaving room for growth."

Things you should remember about performance improvement plans:

• They should be specific and clear.
• They become the responsibility of both the supervisor and member, and are subject to timely review.
• They have specific dates when the action(s) will be completed.
• They have measurable results.

Go back to Performing Member Evaluations

E-mail and Web sites are great tools for day-to-day operations. But social networking sites, message boards, and other technology-based tools can help you build your program and member capacity for the long term. Below, program directors offer tips for some of these easy-to-use and often free tools.

Click on each tool for more information on how programs use them to connect their members.

Social Networking Sites

Liz Carroll of Notre Dame Mission Volunteers - AmeriCorps (Baltimore, MD) uses a Facebook group to connect with her members, who are spread across the U.S. in 16 communities. According to Liz, the page helps:

• Recruit new members
  
  Click play to hear how Liz uses Facebook to recruit new members.
  
  
• Allow potential members to chat with current members
• Connect members to the program's big picture
• Share photos, videos, and information
• Keep alumni involved and informed
• Advertise events, contests, deadlines, etc.

Discussion Boards

Marissa Mizer, AppalCORPS (Athens, OH), uses a discussion board to:

• Prompt discussion on hot topics, such as citizenship
• Poll members on subjects
• Follow-up after training
  Click play to hear how Marissa uses discussion boards to build on trainings.
  
  
• Allow members to connect and share ideas

For a list of free discussion board providers with reviews, visit Free Center.

Technology and Youth Programs

Podcasts, blogging, text messaging - these modes of communication are commonplace for most of today's teens and tweens. Click here for an in-depth look at youth and technology, and ideas for how your program can use technology to engage youth.

Go on to Tools of the Trade

A members-only section of a program Web site provides a meeting place for members and site supervisors separated by distance. There, they can share successes, problem-solve together, and connect with others.

Rural Alaska Community Action Program (RurAL CAP in Anchorage, AK) has more than 100 full- and part-time AmeriCorps and VISTA members located in communities across Alaska. Ellen Kazary, program manager, suggests these tips for creating and using the Web to connect far-flung members and supervisors:

• Get feedback on what members need
• Piggy-back on your program's existing Web site to create an Intranet (a restricted section of the site that only those with permission may enter)
• Give a purpose to each section, such as:
  • Success stories
  • Funding opportunities
  • Resources (Web sites, etc.)
  • Discussion board
  • Photos
• Use the site to share information widely rather than via e-mail
• Remember Internet access is not always reliable in remote locations
  • Don't rely exclusively on your site to communicate important information

Click play to hear Ellen Kazary describe why RurAL CAP developed its member site.

Go back to Supervising Members From Afar

Although CNCS doesn't require VISTA programs to report on monthly progress, tracking members' accomplishments every 30 days makes it easier to compile an accurate Quarterly Progress Report. Other benefits include:

• Providing data for funders
• Keeping a closer watch on members
• Helping members develop professionally
• Encouraging members to reflect on accomplishments and next steps
• Sustaining sites by providing information for future members

These two sample monthly report forms take a slightly different approach:

• Sample 1 is an easy-to-use fill-in form
• Sample 2 has open-ended reflection questions, along with a summary section

Go back to Ongoing Monitoring

For program managers who supervise multiple sites, it's important to regularly communicate with the site supervisors. Be sure to:

• Clearly outline your program's expectations
• Encourage adherence to CNCS policies and procedures
• Promote the need for member development

In the following scenario, you'll learn how an experienced program manager deals with common issues in a site supervisor meeting.

Click each topic to hear an audio clip demonstrating how the manager:

Sets the tone of the meeting

Deals with a question about learning opportunities for members

Clarifies the AmeriCorps member's role in a school tutoring program

Answers a question about the funding agreement between the program and the site

What are some of the strategies demonstrated in this scenario?

• Know, and be able to explain, what your expectations are for the site and the member
• Have written service descriptions, memos of understanding, and other documents that you can refer to in the conversation
• Use key words such as "service" (versus "job"), match, local opportunity
• Practice active listening: Restate the question, validate the concern, provide a solution

This scenario was contributed by Marissa Mizer (AppalCORPS, Athens, OH); Ronjanett Taylor (America Reads-Mississippi, Jackson, MS); Sam Costello (TWC Youth Service Corps, Silver City, NM); and Jo Jones (AmeriCorps OWC English Coaches Program, Niceville, FL).

Go on to Visiting Host Sites

Many programs follow an "intermediary" model: the sponsoring program provides national service members to other local organizations with expectations and responsibilities clearly spelled out in a memorandum of understanding. The benefits of such an arrangement include:

• Opportunities to collaborate with other program directors or project managers
• Cohesive, unified mission
• Control over our recruiting "message"
• Opportunities for professional development
• Efficient use of resources
• Interconnectedness with colleagues and the bigger picture
• Security, advocacy, and support for site staff

What are other benefits of an intermediary model? Click to answer this question and hear how other program directors responded.

Go on to Identifying and Recruiting Host Sites

One of the cornerstones of effective relationships is effective communication. The place to start forging these communication links is during orientation, but sometimes the link can grow weak when members are scattered across multiple sites.

Here's how three veteran program directors deal with this challenge:

Kate Douton of Ocean State Environmental Education Collaborative (Providence, RI) has members at three sites. Because Rhode Island is such a small state, she's able to visit members and check-in at least once a week. She also sends out frequent e-mails. Click play to learn what the messages contain.

Addell Anderson of Michigan AmeriCorps Partnership (Detroit, MI) also makes heavy use of e-mail. She lets members know during orientation that they can phone or message her anytime. She often connects her weekly e-mails to journal prompts that are discussed in monthly meetings. Click play to hear more about this. For more on prompts, check out reflection topics in the EnCorps collection.

Lee Gault of Montana Conservation Corps (Bozeman, MT) has crews deep in the woods, at sites almost 1,000 miles apart. He relies on written communications and biweekly reports to keep up with what members are thinking and doing. Click play for Lee's comments on reaching members who are physically inaccessible. For more on reports, read the tips in the EnCorps collection.

These three supervisors also suggest:

• Use paper or electronic newsletters to share what's going on and recognize members' efforts.
• Use Internet tools like Google calendar to let people know about mandatory meetings and local events. (For more on using technology to connect members, check out these ideas in the EnCorps collection.)
• Send birthday cards to members, to let them know you think of them as individuals.
• Incorporate communication-building exercises into your regular trainings (For some ideas, see the section on designing effective training in EnCorps.)

Go back to Creating Effective Relationships

The Ready to Learn Providence AmeriCorps program serves children, families, and child care providers in Providence, Rhode Island where many families speak Spanish (and other languages) in their homes. In their child care centers and schools, children are learning English, but parents are often uncomfortable or unable to talk with the teacher because of a language barrier. Having AmeriCorps members who can bridge that gap provides much needed support for the children, so that they are not the ones always translating for their parents.

The first step towards recruiting diverse members was to create and distribute bilingual recruitment materials. To do this they:

• Reached out, in person, to the Spanish-language churches, the Spanish radio station and newspaper, and the Latino leadership program in their community
• Created and distributed English and Spanish posters at partner sites, libraries, and grocery stores

In addition, trainings were conducted in Spanish and English during the second year of the program. Use of their native language created a more comfortable atmosphere for Spanish speakers to express their opinions in discussions.

After the first year of the program, word-of-mouth from the members spread the word to the Spanish-speaking community.

Laura Firtel of Notre Dame AmeriCorps in Apopka, FL also recruits bilinugal members. The program tutors and mentors children and youth, offers youth and adult education classes, and works with survivors of domestic violence.

Click the play button to hear her talk about the importance of personalizing bilingual pitches, and not just plastering a community with flyers.

Go back to Recruit for Diversity

Experienced AmeriCorps and VISTA staff agree: "To recruit an ethnically diverse team, it's important to learn about other cultures!"

Addell Anderson, Program Director of the Michigan AmeriCorps Partnership in Detroit, MI works with many cultures in her city. This program has grown to include at least eight graduate and undergraduate programs at the University of Michigan that annually serve nearly 40 diverse nonprofit organizations, primarily based in Detroit.

Click the play button to hear her talk about the importance of building relationships with members of different communities.

Part of learning about a culture is "getting" how it talks about volunteering. Not all languages have a word for "service," but most have a tradition of volunteering.

Khouan Rodriguez is the Project Director at the AmeriCorps ACCESS Project in Greensboro, North Carolina. ACCESS Project seeks to help refugees and immigrants gain better access to human services, build bridges with mainstream society, and become economically self-sufficient. For the 2007-08 service year, their 67 members represented 14 countries and spoke 14 different languages.

Click the play button to hear Rodriguez talk about how different cultures define volunteering.

Research is another way to learn about a new culture. Anderson's program serves a population that is one fifth Arab and Chaldean. After she realized that many of her staff and corps members were not familiar with these cultures (and made false assumptions about them), she did some research and put together a fact sheet on recruiting members from the Arab and Chaldean communities.

Recruiting Members of Arab and Chaldean Descent provides Anderson's fact sheet and explains how she made it.

Go back to Recruit for Diversity

In some communities, it can take extra effort to recruit members from ethnic and cultural minority groups. However, building a multicultural corps increases the perspectives of your team and provides a model of diversity for the community.

Linda Burkholder, of the Youth Development Project at the Folsom Cordova Community Partnership in Rancho Cordova, CA, has created a multicultural VISTA team. Her program works to mobilize and integrate resources that enhance the education, health, and well being of the children and families in the community.

Click the play button to hear Burkholder talk about the benefits of having an ethnically diverse VISTA corps, and about how members can be leadership models for others in the community.

If you want to build a more ethnically diverse team, the following resources can help.

• Tips for recruiting an ethnically diverse team
• How do you say volunteer in Swahili?
• Recruiting bilingual candidates

Go back to Recruit For Diversity

Living on the living allowance is a challenge. Help members start off right with training and tools for budgeting before they get in over their heads.

• Tips on Saving Money in Madison is an example of one program's tip sheet full of money-saving ideas
• Tips on Making Ends Meet is a list of money saving ideas from VISTA members
• Intro to Budgeting is a step-by-step process for creating a budget and tips for sticking with it
• Money-saving Resource List is another list of ideas for living on less
• Living Allowance Challenges in Recruiting for Retention explains one program's strategy of having members apply for food stamps before orientation, and includes tips and tools to help you use this technique in your own program
• Getting Out of Debt is a list of strategies and resources for those who need to pay down debt on a budget

Go back to Prepare for New Members

The first few weeks are one of the toughest times for new members. During this period they are learning the ins and outs of your program, your community, and their assignment. At the same time, they are learning to live in a new environment and face new personal challenges.

Set members up for success with tools that will help them understand their roles and anticipate challenges before their service begins.

Use the following

• Pre-Orientation Retreat is a pre-service assignment designed to prompt members to think about program-related topics before service begins.
• Create a Program Handbook is an example of a program manual used by one VISTA program.

Find more sample manuals and tips for creating your own program handbook on the Manuals 101 page in the Supervise section.

Go on to Helping members make ends meet

Help new members feel valued and connected from the outset by sending a communication that lets them know how happy you are they're joining your team.

Use this sample as a starting point:

• Get to Know Your New VISTAs is an example of a welcome letter used by one VISTA program

For a sample welcome packet and other useful resources, visit the Put Out the Welcome Mat page in the Supervise section.

Go on to Preparing Members for Their Assignments

Now that you've selected your new members, use the time before they arrive to lay the groundwork for a successful year. Use these resources for:

• Getting to know your members—Download sample welcome letters and kits that let new members know how glad you are they are coming aboard.
• Preparing members for their assignments—Find strategies and tools for helping members succeed in your program before they even arrive.
• Helping members make ends meet—Download tools and trainings to help members save money, develop a budget, and even get out of debt while living on the living allowance.

Go on to Getting to know your members

It is important to rank applicants, since many positions have multiple qualified candidates. There are several ways to do this, including ranking them numerically and having multiple people review materials.

As you develop an applicant selection process, consider the following:

1. Determine the criteria for the specific position (be sure to get these directly from the position description). What skills are necessary? What skills can be taught and which ones should the candidate already possess?
2. Consider how the candidate meets the established criteria for the position at each phase of the screening process.
3. When screening applicants, use all available information at your disposal: their application, interview, e-mail, phone and mail communications, and references.
4. Examine evaluation criteria and assign each a value to aid in making a decision.

You'll also want to develop a list of required documents needed from chosen applicants.

The following tools can be customized to fit your program:

• Placement Requirements is a set of recommendations to help staff place members
• Placement Offers Checklist is a list of steps to be completed by staff before an offer is made
• Award Letter is a sample letter to send to a selected candidate
• Offer and Acceptance Letter is sample formal position offer letter
• Rejection Letter offers a polite way to say "No thanks"
• Member Contract is a contract used to formalize the service requirements in one AmeriCorps program

Go back to Screen and Place New Members

The reference check is often the most misunderstood step in screening an applicant. Although the information obtained can be highly subjective, these tips from the field can help you gather useful data:

• See the sample reference call sheet for ideas of what to ask and how to capture responses. While this particular sample contains some questions for a rural, environmental program, it can easily be customized for different programs.
• Look at this set of reference questions that were developed by an urban site.
• Use reference checks to look for information that would change—not validate—your decision.
• Know (or ask for) the reference's position in the organization.
• Refrain from directly describing the position; rather, identify critical skills, attitudes, and characteristics. For example, ask questions related to the candidate's social skills, ability to network, introverted or extroverted personality, and communication style.
• Balance the conversation with open-ended questions. Direct questions provide specific information while open-ended ones may yield unexpected information.
• Pay attention to what the reference is saying—note if he or she raises a red flag, avoids answering a question, or is vague. Probe deeper. If a reference doesn't return repeated calls, ask the candidate to make the connection for you or request another reference.
• Don't be afraid to follow up with a reference if you learn additional information and need clarification.

Although checking references doesn't always provide reliable information, you should always verify candidates' education and employment.

Conducting background checks is critical for programs—particularly those whose members will be working with vulnerable populations such as children, the elderly, or disabled persons.

• AmeriCorps*State and National programs are now required to conduct background checks of applicants. Click here for resources and links to more information.
• VISTA requires a criminal history check on all VISTA members. Click here for more information
• Check out the Staff Screening Toolkit [PDF] developed by the Nonprofit Risk Management Center. This toolkit provides a practical approach to screening paid and volunteer staff.

Go on to Making Decisions

The type of interview you choose will depend on your program needs, number and location of applicants, and the people in your program who need to participate in the process.

Phone Interviews
Phone interviews are usually much shorter than in-person interviews and primarily offer you the chance to find out if applicants meet the minimum requirements for the position. They are also appropriate for out-of-area applicants. The phone interview gives applicants a chance to hear more about the position and decide if they are still interested. If the phone interview goes well and your position and the applicant are a good match, an individual or group interview may be the next step.

Individual Interviews
In the individual interview, a single candidate is interviewed by one or more staff members. It's a good idea for candidates to interview with more than one person. This gives everyone who will be working together an opportunity to evaluate fit. It also gives candidates a balanced introduction to your program and the position. While it may be intimidating for a candidate to be interviewed by several people at once, this is the most time-efficient way to conduct an individual interview. Another option is to have candidates come back for multiple interviews with different people. This can be less intimidating, but can draw out the interview process and requires a larger time commitment from the applicant.

Group InterviewsGroup Interviews provide an opportunity to interview several candidates at the same time. It's important that the candidates have the same interview experience no matter who facilitates their group.