Volunteer Roles

Everyone has to pitch in for the co-op to run smoothly, so each family is expected to fill one job each term. Below is a list responsibilities that we need covered this term.

Room Parent

• The most common and often the most fun volunteer job. Room parents are assigned/choose a class to assist. 
• Find the clipboard for your assigned class, take attendance, and escort the students to the classroom.
• Act as a second set of hands/eyes for the teacher, help with cleaning up, walking children to bathrooms and escort them back down stairs.
• Be familiar with the emergency procedures (on the clipboard) and be able to help assist students in case of emergency.
• If you are not able to attend one week, post on our email list to find a replacement.

Morning Set up

• Affix classroom signs outside classrooms before beginning of classes.
• Bring down bin of clipboards, name tags, etc. from cabinet in Science Room, and set things out on front table in Heritage Hall.
• Place schedules on tables and rules on walls/doors.

Afternoon Clean up  

• Retrieve schedules on tables and rules on walls/doors.
• Bring up bin of clipboards, name tags, etc. from cabinet in Science Room, and set things out on front table in Heritage Hall. 
• Remove classroom signs outside classrooms after classes and add to bin.

Co-Leader

• Co-leaders facilitate the smooth operation of Home Educators for Excellence for one two year term
• Arranging for independent contractors to provide quality instruction in fields of their expertise
• Managing contracts for service with instructors;
• Developing the yearly calendar in cooperation with the facility
• Assigning classroom space and planning layouts in cooperation with the facility
• Communicating both in person and electronically with instructors, member families, and the homeschool community at-large
• Planning and leading parent meetings
• Collaborating with the rest of the HEdFEx leadership team.  
• These duties are to be shared among the two/three co-leaders

 

Volunteer Coordinator

• Volunteer coordinator make sure every room has a room parent the week before term begins

Idea Fair Coordinator

• Set date for the Idea Fair (often the last day of J-Term in January).
• Reserve space with church,
• Send out reminders to sign up.
• Keep a list of students signing up and if they need a display table or performance time. (Documentation may be stored in shared drive drive by leadership to support the coordinator)
• Invite the Mount Calvary Preschool.
• Inform teachers at Hedfex of the date for the Idea Fair, to encourage students to display artwork, present a song with signing, etc.
• Print out award certificates,
• Purchase snacks (contact registar)  and have a donation jar for them.

Event Coordinator

• Set dates for educational outings
  • Coordinate with places such as Camp Tanadoona (Fall and Spring), Science Museum of Minnesota, Children’s Theatre Company, etc
  • Access to Facebook page for coordination if desired.
  • Take feedback from Hedfex members about different days and times that work for outings.
  • Cancel or move outings as needed, depending on the response.
  • Post dates on different websites, such as Homeschool Adventures or MHA.
• Plan social outings that appeal to different age groups, such as Big Thrill Factory, Maple Grove community center, etc, and post on various websites.
• Keep track of what information is needed from parents for various outings.  For example, the Science Museum requires official homeschool documentation from each family.
• Post other events that might be fun for Hedfex members on our website, such as Barnes and Noble Educator appreciation days.
• Plan a few events during the summer such as going to the beach outings or park play dates.
• Several times in the past, an event coordinator has put a down payment for something on a credit card, and then have people pay when they come to the event.   We recommend getting prepayment.  Options are cash or check received or use a paypal account. 
  • Note: Do not to use friends and family, otherwise your Paypal account may be tagged as not doing proper business, add the fee to the amount required by the family.

Facebook Coordinator

• Publish status updates relevant to current HEdFEx families, including reminders of registration deadlines and upcoming events.
• Respond to any posts on or private Facebook messages to the group page, asking for support from the leadership team if necessary.
• Engage current and prospective families in discussion on the group page.
• Advertise class openings when applicable.
• Share resources and articles relevant to current and prospective HEdFEx families.

Scrip Coordinator and Scrip Assistant

• Oversee the Shop with Scrip fundraiser program.
• Promote enrollment into the program as well as understanding.
• Answer on-going participant questions
• Help with participant sign up.
  • Make sure all participants have signed the HEdFEx Scrip agreement
  • As notification emails come in, assist with next steps and enrollment code so that they can continue enrollment. 
  • Follow them to successful completion of Presto Pay sign up (and approve their status on SWS website).
• Gain access to a HEdFEx shared document Scrip folder
  • Maintain and update a list of all active HEdFEx Scrip participants via spreadsheet and ensure Active/Deactive status of participants as Coordinator (Admin) on the Shop with Scrip website.
  • Maintain Internal HEdFEx rebate tracking spreadsheet. 
  • Run a report (typically semi-monthly) and enter all orders that have been placed by each participant over the date range.
  • Note any plastic orders placed and put a placeholder for shipping costs which are calculated later.
• Coordinate with HEdFEx participants in the ordering of plastic Scrip cards.
  • Announce date.
  • Place PO in SWS for group order.
  • Coordinate with SWS accounting if an order sits too long.
  • Be available to sign for plastic cards when they arrive from FEdEX (or schedule pick up),
    • sort cards by family,
    • calculate shipping costs,
    • enter shipping costs in Internal spreadsheet.  
    • Pass out physical cards to participants.
• Coordinate with HEdFEx registrar.  
• Help with policy and process creation.
• Coordinate with Shop with Scrip Customer Service (typically accounting dept or help line with other questions, but rarely necessary).  
• Be available for a round table Scrip discussion during HEdFEx Open Houses/Book Sales.
• Be available for Scrip questions and plastic orders during HEdFEx school sessions, continue the above data entry portion while HEdFEx is out of session - throughout Winter/Summer).  

Open House Coordinator

• Coordinate loosely with Book Sale Coordinator.
• Fill out a room set up form and give it to Kari Beckel of Mt Calvary, (she has them) for the day of the open house.
  • We need one for our Heritage Hall room,
  • one for the entry area, and
  • one for the area outside Heritage Hall where the book sale is held. Feel free to coordinate with the Book Sale coordinator.
• Advertise, advertise, advertise.
  • We have made up flyers in the past and asked members to take them and post them at coffee shops and libraries in their area. Work with Membership Liaison.  
  • Make a new flyer or update the old one. Work with Membership Liaison.  (Gain access to documentation on our Shared Folder for the Open House\Book & Bake sale). 
• For Teachers
  • Remind our current teachers they may have extra students that day or parents sitting in.
  • Invite and confirm all teachers to the Open House who are teaching next year.  This opportunity lets new and existing students the opportunity to visit and learn more about a class they may be interested in.  Teachers like Cassandra who are in class and unable to come down sometimes have a table set up with an activity or information about the class. If they have not worked with us before: ie J term teachers, invite them to bring examples of what they will be teaching, etc.
  • We have plastic holders to place on the teacher tables. Ask for help to make smalls signs with the names of the teachers and the class they are teaching and company (if any) they are from.
• Recruit volunteers for set up, clean up, welcome table, the registration table, and tour guides. Create an event on the website and have them sign up for specific tasks.  
  • We can link a tracking document to the website for open volunteer positions via the Shared Open House Folder.
• Table Setup
  • In the Heritage Hall room, rectangular tables are set up around the front edge of the room where teachers can meet students for Open House information.
  • In the entry, setup welcome tables and chairs. Don't forget to mark in chairs for all the tables.
  • Check signs:  we have several trifold signs that are put out by the welcome table in the front, signs that indicate where the tour starts and what times. Make sure they are updated and accurate.
  • Get supplies for welcome table.
    • several sign in sheets,
    • name tag stickers and pens.
    • In the past, we have sometimes put out balloons but it's an added expense.
    • Make copies of the class descriptions and class schedule. People want to take them home even if it's all on the website. We often run out.
  • Make sure we have extra computers available for the registration table and bring down a power strip.
• Also in the past we have offered coffee, tea, and snacks. It's extra work and money and could make an additional mess to clean up. We haven't done it for the last few years.
• We have had speakers in the past, like Homeschooling 101, a round table discussion on how our Scrip program works, etc. These are a good draw and an extra opportunity to advertise.

Open house Assistant

• Give tour of the facilities to prospect families on the day of the Open house.
• Introduce them to the instructors so they can chat with them if they need to.
• Take the prospect families to the classes they want to sample
• Answer basic questions about how HEdFEx works.
• If they have any more specific questions regarding fees, or special needs refer them to the leadership team.

Membership Liaison

• Answer questions of prospective members via e mail or telephone in a prompt manner.
• Create external advertisements for HEdFEx promoting the different courses or events and post them online or via e mail.
• Inform the leadership if there are any prospective families looking to sample classes in the midst of the school year.
• Coordinate visits of prospective members to the co op with the leadership team.

• Post reminders on Hedfex website about events: like pajama day, crazy hair day, potlucks, picnics, Valentine's Day, etc... Include any details concerning the events such as what members should bring to take part in them

Website

• Updating the homepages (private and public) when there are any changes needed, usually at the request of some other member of the leadership team.
• Adding events to the calendar, helping create custom pages/polls/etc.
• In spring, helping get the class info online in preparation for opening registration.
• No programming or super technical skills needed. If someone can use a program like Microsoft Word, they can edit the website.

Book Sale Coordinator

• Help post book sale advertisements(craigslist) other local homeschool forums or online groups (Yahoo Groups, facebook etc..) Work with Facebook Coordinator.
• Send out emails/ post on Hedfex Forum to members who would like to participate in sales.
• Request tables from church for book sale.
• Once someone would like to participate, provide details and send book tags sales.
• Set up volunteer schedule of who is helping, what are their roles, (cash box, set up or clean up).
• Get cash box ready (petty cash) get lock box from registar.

Day of Book sale

• Come a little early, put up subject signs on each table for organization,
• bring notebook and calculator to keep track of sales and a phone/device that is connected to hedfex paypal and that has internet connection (get credit card scanner from registrar)
• At the end help add up total sale and give amount to registrar.

Book Sale Assistant

• Help the Book sale coordinator with the setup and the cleanup of the sale.
• Assist with the cash box when people are making purchases.
• Assist with the use of the credit card scanner in case purchases are not made in cash.
• Keep track of the tags  that are being sold and organize them, to be able to keep track of member's merchandise.
• Make sure to tell members to be there at the end of the sale to pick up their unpurchased merchandise.
• Update the ad brochure, flyers, trifold and MHA ad as needed assisting the leadership team.