Volunteer Spotlight: Amanda Kepner, Volunteer Coordinator, Columbus Museum of Art
The mission of the Columbus Museum of Art is to create great experiences with great art for everyone. Whether presenting an exhibition, designing an art-making activity, serving a lunch, or giving directions to a visitor, they are guided by a belief in advocacy, quality, community, integrity, and creativity. CMA believes that art speaks to each and every one of us in different ways. Art inspires. Art challenges. Art thinks.
Approximately 200,000 people tour the Museum each year, many participating in programs designed for diverse audiences from school children to scholars.
Today, our VolunteerSpotlight shines on Amanda Kepner, who uses VolunteerSpot's free online signup sheets to organize the many Art Docents who lead groups through the museum all year long.
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Please tell us about your organization and your volunteer needs.
The Columbus Museum of Art is a midsized art museum in Columbus, Ohio. We have several large and devoted volunteer groups including a corps of over 120 docents (volunteer tour facilitators.) The docents provide tours to over 15,000 visitors throughout the year from student and adult groups, to public walk-in tours, to roaming the galleries. They are vital to fulfilling our mission of providing Great Experiences with Great Art for Everyone.
How do you use VolunteerSpot to coordinate these volunteers?
We recently decided to use VolunteerSpot to schedule the docents for all the experiences they provide. Until now, the scheduling process has been quite complicated. Each docent is assigned a day-of-the-week team. If someone needs time off, that person must complete and submit a form. Then two docents would use paper copies of an entire month to fit everyone into tours like a puzzle, trying to distribute people evenly and cover all the needed slots. Now I can just put our tours into the VolunteerSpot calendar and each docent can schedule him/herself just by opening up their day and clicking a button! They have more control over the type and quantity of tours they give. Best of all – if we need extra people to cover a large tour they can just find it on the calendar and sign up – no more long email chains and separate lists.
What’s one piece of advice you have for volunteers or their leaders out there?
Always keep your mission in mind. You are a volunteer or manage volunteers because you are dedicated to a cause and have important work to do. If that means you have to adopt something new or take a risk to better achieve that mission you need to go for it.
Also, be very respectful your volunteers’ time. It is incredibly valuable to you and to them, treat it as such.
Why did you decide to use VolunteerSpot?
#1 – Everyone is at a different level technologically. This system seemed easy to use no matter what your skill level.
#2 Point and click sign up. No fuss.
#3 Automatic email reminders when you sign up.
#4 It is very easy for the administrator to set up individual and repeating needs.
Anything else you’d like our readers to know about your organization or volunteering?
We have many great volunteer opportunities at the Columbus Museum of Art. It is a wonderful place to give your time; visit our website to learn more.
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We salute Amanda and all the other volunteer leaders out there making a difference. If you're using VolunteerSpot, write and tell us about what you're doing and give us a chance to shine our Volunteer Spotlight on you!! Just email us at [email protected].
