1. Overview of VCN - mission, goals, community partnerships, day-to-day operations
2. Volunteer Agreement: Rights and Responsibilities
3. Volunteer Activities: Developing and providing Public Access, Community Content
4. VCN Account Registration/Membership Processing
5. Getting Help

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1. Overview of VCN (http://www.vcn.bc.ca/vcn/welcome.html):



a) Mission and Goals (http://www.vcn.bc.ca/vcn/documents/mission.html):

Public Access: free, universal access - accounts, infrastructure, user support, training

Community Content - community space online: groups = 'CIPs'; accounts, website, content development support, user support, training, community development

b) Community Initiatives (http://www.vcn.bc.ca/whats-new/welcome.html):

Working with voluntary, not-for-profit sector to develop community space online, enhance capacity through use of ICT's, develop networks of information providers, volunteers and other community members under:


• Technical Volunteer Web (http://www.vcn.bc.ca/vcn/involve)
  
• "604 Connect!" (http://www.vcn.bc.ca/volnet/)
  
• UrbanCAP (http://www.vcn.bc.ca/cap)
  
• Community Learning Networks (http://www.vcn.bc.ca/vcn/cln)
  
  
c) Day-to-day Operations:

• Users: Groups, Individuals and Langara Students graphs (Real Time Graphs)
  
• Memberships
  
• Staff, Board, Committees
  
• Volunteers
  
• Contact List


2. Volunteer Agreement: Our respective expectations, rights/responsibilities; 411 Seniors Centre relationship; VCN protocols and procedures



3. Volunteer Support Areas and Opportunities (http://www.vcn.bc.ca/vcn/volunteer):


Public Access:
• User Support: Membership, Langara, Help Desk Support Positions (http://www.vcn.bc.ca/vcn/volunteer/usersupjp.html); (http://www.vcn.bc.ca/vcn/volunteer/techsupj.html)
  
• Training Support: Instructors and Assistants (http://www.vcn.bc.ca/vcn/volunteer/trainsupjp.htm)
  
• Technical Support: Installation Assistant, LAN Assistants

Community Content Development:
• Database developers; Programmers;
  
• Designers; Link Request Administrators,
  
• HelpPage/FAQ Writers


Administrative Support: (http://www.vcn.bc.ca/vcn/volunteer/adminjd.html)


4. VCN Account Registration (http://www.vcn.bc.ca/register/)


a) Help an Individual
b) Help a Group
c) Help a Langara Student
d) Troubleshooting Connection and Password Problems
e) Memberships


5. Giving Help, Getting Help:



• Check Volunteer Manual
• Check the Request Tracker for similar problems that have been resolved
• Go to Help Pages: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/help/welcome.html
• Check the Contact List
• Attend VCN Training Sessions: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/training
• Attend Volunteer Training Sessions
• Read posted notices and instructions
• Refer to Green "Volunteer Reference" Binder
• Refer to off-vol archive at: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/lists/off-vol/
• Refer to on-line Help sources of software suppliers
• Refer to on-line Help Pages of other FreeNets and instructional sources
• Ask and work it through with your co-workers
• Send an e-mail: [email protected] or create a request in Request Tracker
  
  ----and----there are loads of resources throughout our site:

The 604 Connect! Project site has some excellent training resources:


• http://www.vcn.bc.ca/volnet/welcome.html
• http://www.vcn.bc.ca/help/ip-help/resources.html
• http://www.vcn.bc.ca/groups/welcome.html

Volunteer Manual Table of Contents