Parishes and schools can find parish member and school parent volunteers to be extremely helpful in carrying out technical projects. However, we often struggle with how to manage this relationship to produce the best results.

CompuMentor, a San Francisco area organization dedicated to helping nonprofits in their use of technology, has published Working with Technical Volunteers: A Manual for Nonprofit Organizations. This manual is designed to help organizations and schools:

-- Assess how a technical volunteer can help

-- Write up a job description for a technical volunteer

-- Best manage the project and document the work the volunteer does

This manual can be downloaded from the CompuMentor site at http://www.techsoup.org/howto/worksheetpage.cfm?worksheetid=111&topicid;=7.