The Friends of the Library Book Sale, held every February, is the biggest event of the year for the Friends of the Metropolitan Library System in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This year Volunteer Coordinator Heidi Port ran into a huge problem just weeks before the sale.
Although booked months in advance, the venue at the Fairgrounds was mistakenly reserved one week too early. By the time Heidi was made aware of the mix-up, 350 volunteers had already signed up for specific dates and times, using Samaritan’s Volunteer Management System.
“As soon as I heard the news, I immediately contacted Satina at Samaritan” stated Heidi. Satina Smith is Samaritan’s Support Manager, and she has helped many clients with emergencies for more than three and a half years.
Working together, Heidi and Satina developed a strategy to solve the problem. Heidi went into Opportunities in the system and changed the dates and times. She sent an email to all volunteers who had already signed up to inform them of the change. The volunteers could then use Opportunities to change their times and dates. Without the Samaritan system, Heidi and her staff would have had to call and reschedule each of the 350 volunteers.
Prior to using Samaritan’s system to sign up volunteers for the sale, 500 volunteers served in 2013. Since then, the number of volunteers has increased every year, with a record breaking total of 1,090 in 2016.
Heidi is already looking forward to next year’s sale. She continued, “the Library is very happy to partner with Samaritan. Their amazing support plays a large part in our efforts”.
