By Guest Blogger, Debra Connelly and Jenna Jones, Blog Editor
Wayne Gifford, a remote volunteer, supports a wide variety of the live streamed lectures the Associates presents on Zoom. Part of that support is tied to his own inquisitiveness: how do we best use Vsys for making program requests and how do the many features of MS Teams work? Wayne likes to figure out how volunteers work with the two systems and then produce short video tutorials. The result: other remote volunteers are able to use Vsys and MS Teams with much greater ease.
But let's step back a moment to share this Q&A with Wayne and you'll see why staff and fellow volunteers alike value his being part of their teams:
How long have you been a volunteer for the Smithsonian Associates and why did you join?
I started back in 2018 and worked my first program in early 2019.
Jenna recruited me. One day while I was with the National Park Service at the Information Kiosk on the National Mall, Jenna got caught in a rain shower and she took cover under our overhang. We started chatting and got around to talking about volunteering. She gave an overview of the Associates and its volunteer program and as I was looking for something else to do to fill out my retirement hours. I completed the application a while later, was accepted in time for the fall new volunteer training session and off I went.
Tell us about how you came to create video tutorials for the remote volunteers. Was this a skill set you already had from your career?
I first started creating presentations for my own training purposes when I was working in high tech. One of my stints included the responsibility for developing and delivering training to the people selling and supporting new product as they were introduced.
At first, I did a LOT of traveling ( I've flown over 1 million real miles on United alone). I flew to sales offices around the world to introduce new products. However, as much as I love to travel, I couldn't feasibly visit even just the major sales office in every country several times a year so that was not sustainable long term. Fortunately by then, applications were available to record video right from the monitor so I could just record the sequences of me using the product while narrating what was going on, which is essentially how I create training videos now. Capturing and editing are easy, it's writing the script for the voiceover that is tedious.
What talents do you like to share when volunteering?
I love talking to people and sharing what I know with them. I obviously get to do that far more frequently with my Park Service shifts but with the Associates, I’ve used that to put together the VSys and MS Teams training videos. I’m a novice there, too, but as I figure things out, I can then record and narrate the experience, then by sharing I can help the rest of the crew. I currently use a couple of different (mostly free) apps to put the videos together for editing, splicing, and rendering I use WeVideo. Although I can use that for screen capture too, I generally use scre.io in Chrome just for some added flexibility. Both of these apps have free version but I splurge on the $5/month version of WeVideo since I also use it for personal projects.
What are the best parts of volunteering at the Smithsonian Associates?
The best part of the Associates opportunity is sharing in the experience of each of the sessions you volunteer for. The amount of time spent on putting on each session is more than made up for the knowledge you are exposed to while helping with the production. Secondly, is getting to work with people (even remotely) that are there for the same reasons, people using their capabilities not only to help others but because they too are interested in learning themselves.
I'm most interested in the science and technology programs but have provided support for pretty much the full range of offerings over the course of the last year. I'm also into the antiquities and ancient civilizations, international cuisines and of course, beer, wine and spirits presentations and tastings. My favorite over the last year was the program on the Webb telescope with John Mather back in September. The idea of putting a satellite of that complexity into a such a precision orbit a million miles from earth is just completely mind boggling.
What are the best parts of volunteering elsewhere?
The Park Service is a completely different volunteer experience than with the Associates. It is nearly 100% person in-person interactions with tourists and other people visiting the National Mall and requires a broad, comprehensive knowledge of what is where on the Mall, a good functional knowledge of the monuments and memorials there and, a good understanding of the layout of the city itself. The best part of the experience there is the sheer number of people you can actively help in a day, dealing with people literally from all over the world, and the satisfaction of knowing that you’ve personally made their stay better. You always feel good at the end of a shift.
Do you have a special tip for your fellow remote volunteers?
The most important thing to remember, at least for the Zoom programs is not to sweat it. This isn't a commercial TV network
with precision time constraints. Yes, we endeavor to be professional about it If you miss your cue by a second or two, no one is likely to even notice.
As I probably live closer to the Ripley Center than anyone on the team, I'm definitely planning on being available for the in person lectures once they start back up again. I also think that the camaraderie that unexpectedly grew between the volunteers and the program staff over Zoom since the hiatus will really enhance the in-person volunteering experience for the future. I think everybody appreciates each other much more now that we've all seen how much work goes into putting these programs together.
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Thank you, Wayne for all the ways you contribute to our successful live streamed programs! And congratulations for being selected for a "Video Guy Guru Award" at the Associates' Thank-a-Thon volunteer appreciation event on November 18th!
