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VITA sites require volunteers in order to operate, and
there are many organizations doing the recruiting. Such
organizations include the IRS, State Tax authority, the
organization with which your site is affiliated, other
non-Profits, or regional arms of national organizations
such as the United Way. Volunteers are usually
assigned to a site, and it is up to you, the site
coordinator and the assigned volunteers to ensure a
positive experience for involved parties. Long time
site coordinators and those running other
non-profit organizations realize the need to be
proactive in working with and maintaining friendly
relationships with and among volunteers for continued
success. Volunteers returning from last season
whose work you are happy with are the best volunteers,
followed by contact and communication with potential new
volunteers as early in the season as possible.
When trying to volunteer, interested individuals look
on the web, and find many resources where they could
volunteer, except that usually they may not find the
place right for them.
vita-volunteers.org, originally designed for Santa
Clara County, Ca VITA sites, receives visitors who sign
in with their contact information, and the information
is sent to the VITA national headquarters which forwards
the information to the appropriate local IRS office.
Vita-volunteers.org is willing to forward the
information directly to site coordinators all around
the country who are seeking volunteers, and are
willing to answer questions about their site. This
free service can be used in addition to the other
sources that have provided volunteer contact
information. Since a comprehensive list of sites
is not available, the webmaster relies on indications of
interest from the site coordinators, so long as there is
a SPEC Relationship Manager willing to vouch for the
site.
The mechanism for enrolling individual sites is
currently undergoing development and test, and will be available
for use in early September 2009.
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