Volunteer Internship Process for Supervisors

Below you will find the unpaid (by Free Geek) intern accepance and supervising process. Much of the responsibility for paperwork, checkins, and damage control belongs to the intern's sponsor.

Steps/timeline for internships:

1) Shawn works with individual staff members to create a detailed job description for a needed internship. The job description is posted on our internships page.

2) Those interested in internships at Free Geek will be directed to the internships page, asked to choose which internship interests them, and apply for the internship. Shawn then forwards the application on to the prospective FG supervisor, who decides whether to interview the prospective intern. Shawn is available for those cases in which the prospective intern needs more consultation.

3) Intern screening/interview.

• During the face-to-face interview with the sponsor (and possibly one other), the FG staff member asks some questions to see if the applicant would be appropriate for the position.
• Applicant leaves Free Geek. Interviewers talk after the interview to accept or deny the applicant (rejecting an intern is OK! We shouldn't feel forced to take people on if they won't do well in the internship for which they're applying). Applicant can apply for another internship if they don't get the one they interviewed for. Or just volunteer, or whatever.
• Sponsor or Shawn calls or emails applicant the outcome.

4) If intern is brought on, their Free Geek sponsor handles paperwork, evaluations, timesheets, etc. (although Shawn would like copies of it all, which she can make for herself).

5) The intern's Free Geek sponsor trains the new intern (duh). Don't forget, training should happen throughout the intern's time here - it's not just a one-time thing.

6) Intern should check in weekly with sponsor, reviewing concerns about their area, documentation, etc.

7) Sponsor has an informal review with intern after 3 weeks. This is an opportunity to informally talk about what's going right, what's going wrong, is the intern happy where he/she is, or would they like to change their job description? This meeting focuses more on how the intern is doing overall than the weekly check-ins, which focus on the specifics. Shawn can make a form for this if you want.

8) More weekly check ins.

9) If there are discipline problems with the intern, use the Volunteer Discipline Policy. Let Shawn or a member of the HR Committee know about it. If the intern came to us through an outside agency, you or Shawn should get in touch with their case manager-type person at that agency.

10) Final review/wrap-up. A time to reveiw what's happened, what they've learned, how they've improved, what they need to work on, etc. We should also get input from them about how their experience here was and if we should do something different next time.

Note: if a sponsor feels like he or she is getting overloaded with too many interns, they should speak to Shawn. and we can stop offering internsip positions in that area. Stress levels will most likely vary with how hands-free and helpful the intern is. Sponsors might want to set limits on the number of interns they'd be willing to take on.