We are reaching the part of the course where we’re going to be doing some real work for the Volunteer Center. The most important thing we do all quarter will probably be interviewing current users of the Volunteer Center web site; that’s the foundation for everything else.

I will be at each interview, and my goal is to have each student participate in one interview as well. The interviews themselves will be no more than an hour, but it is likely that they will all be off-campus, so you will have some overhead time for traveling there as well. In recognition of the effort and time commitment involved, 5% of your course grade will be based on your participation in this interview. If you come to the interview and actively participate in the process in a professional manner, you get those points – there are no criteria beyond that.

I have started sending e-mails to individual students regarding their availability for specific interviews, based on your responses in the Doodle poll. We do not have the luxury of lining up all the interviewees in advance, such that you could pick and choose among available times. We may even complete a couple interviews before we know the possible times for the others. So if I e-mail you and you can make it work, I encourage you to step forward. The other options down the road could easily be less convenient rather than more.

I am going to do my best to work some scheduling magic and find times when all of you can attend an interview. If we truly can’t make that work, I will come up with an alternative assignment for that student or students. However, to discourage students from “opting out” of the interview because they don’t want to deal with the hassle, the alternative assignment will be chosen to take longer and be much less fun than the interview.

If you have any questions about this process, please don’t hesitate to ask.