Information about Volunteer Program for CEED
There have been many changes to the volunteer program with comparison to previous years. The goal of the new program is for the volunteers to build their skills in either the Makerspace or Brunsfield by getting them to complete tasks generated by the space managers. These tasks will be available on Makerepo and the volunteers can sign up for them once they complete necessary training.
First, the volunteers will have to complete two mandatory trainings, a 3D printing workshop and their basic training in the MTC. If they have done the training within the past year and have been actively using the spaces, they don’t need to repeat it. Once they have completed both of those, they will need to shadow for 6 hours in the Makerspace and 6 hours in Brunsfield.
The goal of these shadowing shifts is to get the volunteers comfortable with the spaces by learning the vibes of the spaces and getting exposure to some of the other things that can be done. It’s important that volunteers hear some of the questions being asked by students to learn how to answer them and therefore learning more information about the spaces.
Once the candidates have completed their trainings and shadowing, a staff member will accept them as a volunteer on Makerepo and they will gain access to the task list. The task list has various small project for the volunteers to accomplish on it with a suggested number of hours it will take to complete and then a corresponding amount of CC points they will get from completing the task. CC points are essentially translated into Makerstore gift cards. Students can use them to purchase things from the Makerstore or can use them to pay for their proficiency projects. Proficiency projects are the test project students can complete once they have completed a suggested number of hours building the skill of their choice and feel they are ready to move up to the next level. Upon successful completion of the proficiency project, they will receive a badge which will be visible on their Linkedin profile. They start at basic proficiency upon completing the workshop, and can move up all the way to Mastery.
Volunteers will also have the opportunity to sign up for tasks on Makerepo such as “open hours in the Makerspace” and for specific events like Makercon. They can receive volunteer hours for doing these tasks.
If people are interested in volunteering, tell them to reach out to me by email at and I will send them all the information they need. If there are previous volunteers, they still need to go through the required trainings and if they have questions about it tell them to email me and we can talk about their specific case. My goal is to have it as systematic as possible however there are always exceptions and I am going to do my best to accommodate within reason.
If you have any questions, please feel free to either email us at [email protected].