This page contains responses to the agency survey for
December 16, 1997.
Click here to see the same responses
organized by question.
Click here to see a list of
responding organizations' names together with their location and
date of response.
December 16, 1997
- America Online
- Organization Name
- America Online
- Organization City
- Dulles
- State/Province
- VA
- Country
- USA
- Organization's Geographic Service Area
- World Wide
- Number of full-time and part-time employees (paid staff)
- 4,000+
- Respondent's Name
- Rebecca Newton
- Respondent's Position
- Assistant Program Manager Recruitment and Orientation
- Organization's Web Site Address
- http://www.aol.com
- Respondent's Role in Working with Volunteers at Organization
- I am responsible for recruitment and orientation of all AOL
community leader volunteers. We currently have 9,500 volunteers.
- How did you hear about this Project?
- no response
- What other staff have involved volunteers virtually at
your organization?
- 300+ Forum Leaders/Recruiters for each forum or AOL community
online.
- Approximately how many of your online volunteers provide
technical assistance to your staff or to other volunteers?
- 3,500
- Please describe the kinds of activities these technical
assistance volunteers provide to your organization:
- computer programming, web design and
maintenance, graphic design, intranet tool instruction, various other
categories.
- Approximately how many of your volunteers provide direct
support to clients / recipients of service via the Internet?
- 6,000
- Please describe the kinds of volunteer activities these
direct contact volunteers provide to your organization:
- Live time Chat, Message board monitoring,
mentoring, training, guest chats.
- How did you recruit the volunteers you involve(d) via
the Internet?
- The majority of recruitment is done within each
forum or community. Blurbs or ads are placed within each forum explaining
the benefits to the members and the forum's needs.
- How did you screen/orient the volunteers you involve(d)
via the Internet?
- Online interviews take place after an application is
filled out. AOL provides an account history check, as well.
- How do you supervise and recognize/reward online
volunteers for their contributions?
- Each forum has several managers who supervise each team
within their forum. All supervision is done online.
Recognition comes in many forms: Discounts for Community Leaders from the
AOL store; A free account; curriculums in training and management which are
applicable to offline work are provided.
- Have you ever surveyed these online volunteers about
their experiences with your organization?
- Yes. One month ago I began a survey of Forum
Leaders and Recruiters and all the community leaders.
- What factors in your organization have promoted the
success of your virtual volunteering program?
- On-site orientations, policies and procedures posted,
establishing a sense of community within the volunteer sector, rapid
advancement in online roles is often a factor as well.
- What factors in your organization have impeded the
success of your virtual volunteering program?
- Communication (left hand, right hand)
Under 18's often posing as adults
Disruptive members harrassing volunteers
- Please add any other comments you would like to send to
us:
- The AOL volunteer sector is a phenomenon in that AOL is a
for-profit company yet we have less than 6% attrition rates with the
volunteer force. We are now building a centralized recruitment and
orientation area.
return to Index of Agency Survey Responses
return to Index of VV Project Message Archives