XENIA — Greene County Commissioners on Thursday designated April 18-24 as “National Volunteer Week.”
Focus is being placed squarely on Greene County Archives.
A resolution passed by the commissioners acknowledges that volunteers at Greene County Archives play a vital part in the processing, organization, indexing, and preparation of historical records-projects. Normally, staff members would not have the time to work on such aspects.
“It’s an opportunity to express our appreciation to the volunteers for all of the work they do for us,” Greene County Records Manager and Archivist Robin Heise said. “Our volunteers mean the world to us.”
Volunteers are important as they assist the organization to fulfill its mission. In addition, public records are more easily accessible. During spring 2020, COVID-19 forced the volunteers to go from in-person to virtual.
“We have three full-time staff and one part-time staff. The rest are volunteers,” Heise said. “Due to COVID, two volunteers are inactive. Five volunteers are involved with the Virtual Volunteer Program.”
Therina Clod-Svensson, Elizabeth Govan, Kathy Haller, David Pigeon, and Andy Wood are the five volunteers who are involved with the Virtual Volunteer Program. Each individual is named in the resolution.
Ever since the program got started, the group of five has spent many hours working remotely with tagging and indexing digital records on the Archives’ FLICKR page. As a direct result, the public has been able to easily access the records.
“In June of 2020, we launched our virtual volunteer program and offered training via Zoom,” Heise said in a memo given to the commissioners. “Five of our eight volunteers took us up on the offer and have put in nearly 370 volunteer hours since June 2020.”
Heise thanked the commissioners for their continuing support.
“We are very fortunate to have a Board who truly understands the importance of a good records management program and the role that it plays in ensuring that records with permanent historical value will be accessible to future generations,” she wrote in the memo.
