Volunteer Internship Process for Supervisors
Hey. I want to revamp the unpaid (by Free Geek) intern process. The proposal below will take a lot of the responsibility for paperwork, checkins, and damage control off of me and put it on the intern's sponsor. I can then be freed up to be a resource-finder, searching around for people who would be good in our available internships. Please read through this and let me know what you think.
Proposal for 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 a Twiki page/somewhere that can be accessed from the web, but no link available from the FG website.
2) Those interested in internships at Free Geek will be directed to Twiki/whatever, asked to choose which internship interests them, and then contact the sponsor of the internship for an interview. I would be available for those cases in which the prospective intern needs more consultation.
3) Intern screening/interview. I haven't solidified this yet, but these are my ideas: --When the prospective intern comes in for an interview (hopefully after taking a tour), sponsor hands them paperwork which asks logistical questions of them (hours/week, outside agency sponsor name and contact info, etc.) and an intern contract, which they are asked to look over and sign if they agree or not sign if they have questions/concerns. --During the face-to-face interview with the sponsor and one other (I wouldn't mind if it was me), ask the tough/personality questions. --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) Sponsor handles paperwork, evaluations, timesheets, etc. (although I'd like copies of it all, which I can make for myself).
4.5) Training of intern by sponsor
5) Intern should check in weekly with sponsor, reviewing concerns about their area, documentation, etc.
6) 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 intern's specific area. I can make a form for this if you want.
7) More weekly check ins.
8) If there are discipline problems with the intern, I think that, at least for now, I'd like to be included in talks that the sponsor has with the intern (at least until we all get a little more comfortable with the process and perhaps have a bit of a policy about it). If I'm not in on it, at least one other staff person should be.
9) Final review/wrap-up. I can make a sheet for this, too. It's just 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 on them about how their experience here was and if we should do something different next time.
Note: this is quite a bit of work. This string of events would most likely happen for those interns that have a bit more responsibility (i.e. they're managing an area), or they seem to be way into Free Geek. People like build interns probably would not get this kind of treatment--they're just going through the program.
Another note: if a sponsor feels like he or she is getting overloaded with too many interns, they should speak to me, and we can stop offering interns positions with them. 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 you'd be willing to take on.