Please read through these important documents and advise if there is anything you feel as a board should be addressed differently or needs clarification. Once you have read them, please leave a comment saying you have done so. There will be four more coming later in the week.
PDF Documents for Review
Here are my comments on the posted documents. Overall, they look very comprehensive, detailed, and thoughtful. Thank you for all your time and effort in these matters! The Background Check Letter, Grievance Policy, Volunteer Liability document, and Harassment Policy document all look great to me.
Confidentiality doc:
-“residents initials” should be “resident’s initials”
-in the last bullet about sharing information about “staff, clients, or the Shelter Program” online or over the phone- Maybe be more specific about what parts of the shelter program we don’t want discussed? We want people to know about the program, right? Just not who is involved…
Disciplinary discharges:
-What’s the difference between “AWOL/Walkout” and “Late”? They seem to have the same definition.
Check-in Procedures: Looks good (“hot water not guaranteed” made me chuckle).
Background Check Policy: I agree with the policy as stated. Fingerprinting takes a while to come through and if we do all the other background checks, it covers as much as we can in a short period of time. In my past experience with this type of thing, if a volunteer can’t get to work shortly after filling out paperwork, they can lose interest or find another agency for which to volunteer.
Thanks!
Sarah F.
In regards to the background check policy, ” Individuals may begin participating prior to the completion of a background Check”….I’m in favor of the background check being complete BEFORE they are allowed to work. I’ve never been able to start a job before the background check was complete. I think this opens us up to liability if something were to happen and we let someone start before the check was completed. Also, I’m with Marylee on not advertising the fact we are insuring the volunteers. Thanks for all of your work on this!
# 3 back round check: what is an example of a barrier crime?
#4 check in: the last area that involves “case by case basis”; looks like they are folks who would not be under our focus-but is it to triage to another helping agency?
#7 volunteer liability: a line for staff to witness might be necessary?
Thank you – good catch
I know this is might be obvious but one person per shower should be stated.
Agreed!