Paper Sign Up Sheets or Online Sign Ups? That Is The Question.
Today's featured "I'm Signing Up" bloggers give us two unique perspectives of doing the "paper thing" and the "online thing" when it comes to volunteering and organizing school volunteers - don't miss their fabulous posts, excerpted below:
The paper sign up sheets seemed endless, but she hit 'em all - signing up to cook, help with field trips, make cut-outs at home, the list goes on! Deirdre Smith of JDaniel4sMom.com is doing it all, signing up to help at her son's school this year and make a difference in the classroom. Read an excerpt of her I'm Signing Up post below and the entire piece here.
When I got to JDaniel’s room his teacher’s had sign up sheets for different task outside their classroom door along with a volunteer sheet that came home with him in his work folder. His teachers were looking for people to help with parties, check out books from the library on the theme they are studying, cut out crafts, create special snacks, and so much more. I put my name down for helping with field trips, special snacks and taking activities home to cut out. Special snacks sounded right up my alley. I really look for to helping creating thematic snack this year. There were a few thing on the sheet that was sent home that I signed up for too.
I guess I will just have to wait and see what his teacher’s ask me to do. I wish JDaniel’s school used a website like VolunteerSpot . It is free to use and basically works like an online volunteer signup sheet. It allows schools and other organizations to schedule volunteer needs in a calendar format with details on what exactly is needed at what time. Then, volunteers can sign into the calendar to claim these specific jobs.
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Amy Volk of AmyVolk.com is full of love for free online sign up sheets! After taking the plunge last year to organize a giant grade-wide trip (with tons of parent volunteers needed), she saved herself a lot of time (and stress) and certainly had the last laugh. Read an excerpt of Amy's I'm Signing Up Post below and the entire piece here.
Last year, for some crazy reason, I signed up to be the parent volunteer coordinator for the 7th grade Environmental Camping Trip. It’s a week long trip to a ranch with cabins and trails and rock climbing and swimming and lots of bonding. Sounds fun, right? I wanted to be an involved parent and I had heard that this trip was super cool and super important to the kids, so how hard could it be to get some parents together to help out?
Ha.
I soon learned that I would need to fill about 90 volunteer slots including 4 nights for 10 cabins. You do the math. Just the overnight slots alone needed 10 parents each night to sleep over with 7th graders! Holy cow.
Before my panic could set in, a friend told me that she had used this online signup calledVolunteer Spot. Here is the moment when the white horse rides in to save the day! That’s seriously how I feel about Volunteer Spot.
We raise our glasses to both Amy and Deirdre, whether it's jotting their name down on several paper sign up sheets or literally becoming a snake charmer of parent volunteer organizing online - kudos to you both!
Tell us how you're planning to volunteer at school this year over on facebook!