Appendix B—The Forest Service and Volunteer.gov/gov
THE FOREST SERVICE AND VOLUNTEER.GOV/GOV
Contents
This document provides the guidelines for Forest Service use of the volunteer.gov/gov website.
REGION 4 VOLUNTEER COORDINATORS, PLEASE NOTE: All information concerning Opportunities – creation, correction, deletions, and management – should be sent to Glenda Moore, who will take care of them for you. You do not have access to create, modify, or delete Opportunities in the database.
You need only go to volunteer.gov/gov to pick up the applications.
Updated Jan. 2007
Glenda Moore
gmoore@fs.fed.us
Volunteer.gov/gov is an online database of Volunteer Opportunities at several federal agencies and other partners.
A potential volunteer goes to either Freedom Corps or volunteer.gov/gov and searches for available Volunteer Opportunities. When they apply for an Opportunity, the system automatically sends an email to the person shown as Contact.
The Contact receives the email, logs into volunteer.gov/gov, retrieves the application, and contacts the potential volunteer.
- Take Pride in America: http://www.takepride.gov/
- Volunteer.gov/gov website: http://www.volunteer.gov/gov
The Forest Service national administrators for volunteer.gov/gov are (vacant), Program Manager for Volunteers in the National Forests (RHVR staff, WO), who has overall responsibility for the program; and Glenda Moore (Operations-FR staff, Region 4) who acts as coordinator for database input and management.
This document provides the guidelines for Forest Service use of the volunteer.gov/gov website. You can find more help by clicking the icon next to "Tool Kit." Or, phone Glenda at 801-625-5266 or email her at gmoore@fs.fed.us.
Email Glenda Moore at gmoore@fs.fed.us) to create your volunteer.gov/gov user id. She'll need your name, email address, phone number, Region, and unit. User ids are created in the following format:
User id format: firstname.lastname.
Password: password [you can change it later if desired]
What you can do at volunteer.gov/gov depends on what your security level is; typically, new users will have a security level of Volunteer Coordinator, and this handbook is geared toward those functions.
Log in at https://www.volunteer.gov/gov/.
Note that you will automatically be logged out after a period of inactivity, so you need to enter the information fairly quickly. If you’re not sure of something, go ahead and submit the Opportunity, then go back and revise it rather than leaving the screen open and incomplete.
At the Administration page, click the icon next to "Add New Opportunities," then fill out the form as follows:
Opportunity Name: You MUST begin the title with your Region number and your Forest's initials. That should be followed by the type of work and/or location. Examples:
- 1L: Visitor Center Host
- 2AR: Visitor Center Host
- 4BT-3: Campground Host
- 4BT-4 Campground Host
We need the Region number and Forest initials for tracking purposes. The rest of the title should be informative and eye-catching, so the potential volunteer will want to click on the title and read more about the Opportunity.
Description: The description should be informative and complete. Describe the location, list what amenities, housing, tools, etc., are available; state whether a subsistence amount is available; the dates the Opportunity is for; and clarify exactly what type of work the Volunteer will be expected to perform.
You may know what a campground host is expected to do, for example, but a person who has never volunteered before will not have any idea – your description should answer the vast majority, if not all, of their questions, before they even realize they have questions.
You can format the description using simple HTML commands; please see the Addendum.
Facility/Forest/Park Name: Enter the name of the National Forest.
Address: Enter the address of the administrative unit nearest to the work location, with an accurate zip code for the area.
Activities: Choose as many as appropriate for the Opportunity.
Suitable for: Check appropriate boxes to indicate whether the Opportunity is suitable for adults (the default), kids, teens, seniors, groups, or a family.
Level of Difficulty: Choose the level of difficult for the Opportunity: not difficult, average, etc.
Volunteer Coordinator Information: Choose your name from the pull-down as the Coordinator.
Contact Information: If a different person will pick up the applications, choose that user id for the Contact information pull-down – remember that their user id must already have been created. Otherwise, leave it blank and your user id will be automatically filled in.
Available Dates: In the Available Dates section, we have found it works best to show a full year range (such as from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007) so there is a single date for updating all Opportunities. However, you can use this Dates field to show only the dates that the Opportunity is available if you would like. You will be sent an email from the system when your Opportunity expires.
Opportunity/Location Photo: If you have a small photo (no more than 200 pixels wide) on your computer's hard drive, click on Browse, go to the location, and upload the image. It should then be displayed on the Opportunity details page.
Opportunity/Location Website: You can provide the URL to your Forest/unit website if desired.
Opportunity/Application External Web Site: Enter a URL in this field ONLY if you have an external web site where the person will fill out an application, circumventing the volunteer.gov/gov application process.
Enable the Opportunity to make it "live." Information about disabling is below.
Click the Submit button to add the listing to the database.
Click the icon next to "My Opportunities Cabinet" on the Administration page, then click "All." Click on the Opportunity title and revise it, then click Submit. You can also view/revise your Opportunities through the "Update My Profile" function.
When a potential volunteer fills out the application form, the system automatically sends an email to the contact. The email includes a link to the application at volunteer.gov/gov – click on that link and log in. You'll be taken immediately to the application, where you can review the application then contact the applicant.
Alternatively, you can go to https://www.volunteer.gov/gov, log in, then click the icon alongside "Review Applicants."
A note about courtesy and consideration: These folks have taken the time to find the website, search a large database for Opportunities, and filled out one or more applications. The courtesy of a response is certainly appropriate, even if you have already filled the Opportunity or the person doesn’t meet your needs.
If you don't need the applicant, you can forward the application to others who may be able to use their skills.
There are three ways to remove an Opportunity from public view: expire, disable, and delete/archive.
- An Opportunity will expire and be removed from the search engine if the End Date is reached.
- If an Opportunity has been filled, you no longer want to receive applications, but the Opportunity is
going to be available next year:
- Log in, click on the My Opportunity Cabinet icon, click on Active Opportunities, then scroll
to the bottom of the Opportunity and click on the "Disable Opportunity" button. You can
also leave the Opportunity enabled for the season, and forward any applications.
- Log in, click on the My Opportunity Cabinet icon, click on Active Opportunities, then scroll
to the bottom of the Opportunity and click on the "Disable Opportunity" button. You can
also leave the Opportunity enabled for the season, and forward any applications.
- If an Opportunity has been filled, you no longer want to receive applications, and the Opportunity is not going to be available again:
- Log in and click on the "Delete Opportunities" icon and follow the menu.
- Note that you cannot reactivate a deleted ("archived") Opportunity, and it will be in the Archived Opportunities folder of your Opportunity Cabinet.
You can view your active, expired, disabled, and deleted/archived Opportunities by clicking on the icon next to "My Opportunity Cabinet."
Generally speaking, when a disabled or expired Opportunity is a couple of years old, it will be deleted, but it would be best if you manage your own Opportunities.
You can use a few simple HTML commands in the description field to make paragraphs, bold-face information, and make important information stand out. Just type the desired HTML command when typing in the description. Here are a few common HTML commands:
| <p> | Paragraph break | <ul> | Indent following material |
| <b> | Turn bold on | <li> | Place a bullet in front of this line |
| </b> | Turn bold off | </li> | Turn the bulleting off for this line |
| <i> | Turn italics on | </ul> | Stop indenting |
| </i> | Turn italics off |
For example,
displays as:
Campground Maintenance: Each campground offers a cirque lake with steep, rugged granite headwalls. Vegetation is a combination of wildflowers and grass scattered among dense stands of lodgepole pine. Rainbow and cutthroat trout can be found in each lake. A variety of wildlife species can be found, such as black bear, mule deer, elk, and blue grouse. And for the avid birdwatcher, the area hosts a large variety of birds.
Duties include hiking into remote backcountry areas to clean campsites and fire rings. Volunteers will assist with sign inventory and trail survey. Tools and supplies will be provided by the Forest Service. Subsistence and/or incidental expenses are negotiable upon availability of funds.
- 2 positions
- June 1 thru Labor Day
Other Volunteer.gov/gov Functions
There are many more functions available through the Administration page at volunteer.gov/gov than have been detailed above. You can be involved as much or as little as you would like.
Here are a few highlights:
- You can change your password, email address, phone number, etc., by clicking on the icon next to
Change Profile. Note: Do not attempt to reassign your Opportunities by changing your user id to
someone else's name – it will not work; a new user id needs to be created for that person, then the
Opportunities need to be reassigned to it.
- When creating a new Opportunity, you can create a duplicate of an existing Opportunity, then
modify it, saving unnecessary keystrokes.
- You can export your Opportunities in Word format; this would be useful for proofreading or
publishing your Opportunities in hard copy.
- You can export your Opportunities to spreadsheet format; this would be useful for making changes offline – then use the Import Opportunities function to add new Opportunities or change the existing ones.
