Volunteers

For a successfull community archive event, you will need a variety of volunteers to fulfill the roles necessary for directing contributors, digitizing their contributions, and conducting oral history interviews. We recommend recruiting volunteers for the following roles.

Note: The number of individuals you will need for each role will depend on the size and scope of your event. Plan accordingly.

Greeters (Check-In/Check-Out Stations)

Greeters will welcome contributors by providing an introduction to the event, helping contributors sign-in, and assigning a guide and identifiers. For this role, the volunteer should be comfortable with interpersonal communication, comfortable using laptops, computers or tablets, and have experience with spreadsheets.

Guides (All Stations)

Guides will walk contributors through the process, from check-in through checkout. They will need to be familiar with the whole process and will have prompts for the different stations. For this role, the volunteer should be comfortable with interpersonal communication. For more, see Guides.

Digitization Technicians (Photography Station)

Digitization Technicians will photograph objects contributed either in a lightbox or using stands/mounts for flat objects using a combination of personal (i.e., smartphone) and provided equipment. For this role, the volunteer should be detail-oriented and have experience using smartphones as cameras. For more, see Digitization and Photography.

Oral History Interviewers

The oral history interviewers will ask the contributors pre-determined questions about the object they are contributing to the community archive. They will use provided equipment (i.e., recorders) to do this work. For this role, the volunteer should be comfortable with interpersonal communication. For more, see Oral History Interviews.

Event Coordinators & Support

Event coordinators should also be on-site to make sure the overall process is working, to help troubleshoot issues, assist at the stations, and provide any other support that may be needed.