Jun

Volunteer now: Smithsonian Associates Launch Online Training Program

Suzanne Tofalo is a volunteer with Smithsonian Associates’ Studio Arts Program.

Suzanne Tofalo, a Studio Arts volunteer with Smithsonian Associates for a little over a year, believes SA will conquer a new frontier by using online learning to Zoom classes from the Mall to learners wherever they may be. She and some 30 volunteers supporting the process are delighted to begin the journey. “There’s no substitute for a live event, but there’s a heck of a lot that can happen online that’s terrific,” Tofalo says. “Now we can reach the world, and who wouldn’t want to engage with the Smithsonian?”

That’s the goal that Smithsonian Associates the self-supporting, lifelong-learning division which offers more than 750 courses annually, is aiming to achieve with its online learning initiative.

A recent program with former Secretary of State Madeline Albright showed the promise of online audience outreach. Her talk drew more than 1,000 registrants from the United States and Canada—a crowd more than twice the size of the Smithsonian’s largest auditorium.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic prevents public gatherings and events such as concerts and classes, SA is trying to bridge the isolation gap with online programs that bring audiences and volunteers together in new ways.

Jenna Jones, (JonesJeL@si.edu)the Associates’ Volunteer Coordinator, is leading the volunteer effort. “Volunteers will provide background support for our zoomed lectures, virtual tours, and studio arts courses.” she says. “Our Remote Volunteers will manage the chat box and funnel some of the questions and comments onto the on-camera Moderator. Now that I’ve shadowed this process, and seen how it works ‘behind the curtain,’ I realize that our volunteers gain more insider access than the in-person Event Representatives ever had before the pandemic.”

“Indoor Orchids for Home or Office” is one of the live-streaming experiences offered by Smithsonian Associates. Photo by Barb Schmidt

Between late June and August, all remote volunteers will provide background support for a “mock webinar” as a culminating training activity. Eighteen mock webinars are scheduled at various times of day and week, mostly in July and dozens of new volunteers are needed to attend these mock webinars. The voluntreers will be instructed to ask multiple questions and make comments during the presentations so the volunteer trainees can practice how to sort them correctly. Click here to see a list of the mock webinar topics and dates and register to attend them. All Smithsonian volunteers will be credited for their mock webinar attendance in Vsys later this summer.

“Creativity in Dark Times: Artists and Writers of the New Deal” is one of the live-streaming offerings from Smithsonian Associates.
“Subway”, 1934, by Lily Furedi (Smithsonian American Art Museum)

Jones anticipates that “a third wave of training” will be held for “new-to-Smithsonian volunteers” later this fall. “Smithsonian Associates will need three training groups, possibly more, to fully provide background support for our online programs. The biggest area of need for Remote Volunteers is to support the studio arts courses, most of which generally meet weekly for two months at a time, for four quarters a year.”

Tofalo, a retired corporate trainer and financial manager, says she entered the online corporate training world back in 2007 when tech platforms such as Zoom were nonexistent. “Back then you were flying the airplane while building it,” she says.

“It has always impressed me that there is so much to do [at the Smithsonian] as a volunteer,” she continues, adding that she also enjoys the perks that volunteering adds to her social and cultural life. “It’s unfortunate that it took Covid to make this [Associates online learning] happen. But in the long run, both program participants and volunteers will enjoy the benefits of this new world.”

If you would like to learn more about volunteering, please contact Jenna Jones at JonesJeL@si.edu.

About the author: Joann Stevens blogs regularly for Smithsonian Associates.