Adler Planetarium Volunteer Orientation

Location: Adler Planetarium

Date: Sunday, April 27, 2014; 10:00 am-2:00 pm

Post my technical interview, I was informed that I had been appointed as an ‘After Hours Education Host’ and would be working the ‘Adler After Dark’ events.  Well, the title was way cooler than any other titles that I have had in my career.  Before I could do that, I had to attend a general volunteer orientation, followed by a more focused one for my duties.  But they offered me tickets to attend April’s event as a guest, though I couldn't go due to prior commitments.  I did however accept an invitation to go see a preview for a new show in the dome called ‘Destination Solar System’.  On this Sunday morning I arrived at the Planetarium and was taken to a conference room where a number of people had already gathered.  I had been assigned a specific seat with a folder which had a personalized agenda, which included amongst other things, a scavenger hunt!

My personalized agenda

Before we got underway, Natalie, who was conducting the session, took us for a photography session for our identity cards.  Back in the conference room, Natalie gave us the important contact numbers for staff members at Adler.  Everyone attending the session today was volunteering for a different role and everyone had a different supervisor.  As we introduced ourselves, I learned that there were a couple of volunteers for the ‘Space Visualization Laboratory (SVL)’, which has several interactive and immersive experiences for the visitors.  There were 2 gentlemen who were going to be a part of the ‘Far Horizons’ program, performing hands on experiments and research, like sending out high altitude balloons to collect data.  Two others were a part of the ‘Zooniverse’ program, which an online community performing large science projects.  The rest of us were floor volunteers, including a gentleman who designs sundials. 

Natalie then went over the various HR policies and also the dress code and the attendance requirements, which is stricter than some other places and they hold their volunteers accountable.  Like ‘Lincoln Park Zoo’, they also have reciprocity with other museums and volunteers also get access to the Planetarium for themselves and guests when not on duty, including the ‘Adler After Dark’ event.  I then got my volunteer code, required for signing in and out of the system, and the staff entry code to the doors.  Needless to say, we were asked to keep this confidential.

After a quick tour of the staff area, we were taken upstairs for a special treat -  a viewing of the show ‘Cosmic Wonders’, in the main dome.  We then had a 90 minute break for lunch and the scavenger hunt, which had been designed to make us explore the museum.  As I went about filling the form, I was particularly engrossed in the ‘Shoot For The Moon’ exhibit, the ‘Apollo’ missions being a particular fascination of mine ever since I had seen the fantastic ‘From The Earth To The Moon’ miniseries.  I also visited the ‘SVL’ to look at the cool gadgets, including an ‘iPad’ visualization program and seeing how a ‘Black Hole’ functions, in 3D!  

I returned at 1:30 with only half of my scavenger hunt completed, but so what.  It had served its purpose in getting me “hooked”.  I did a final checkout with Natalie to see if my code worked and then we were done.  There was one more workshop to attend before I could volunteer and I signed up for a session on May 10^th.  This would mean that I would be giving up a ticket for a beer festival and I mentioned that I was sacrificing it for science and discovery!  I told Natalie about this blog since they too have a social media policy and she said that it would be fine.  I always say that I look forward to new projects, but this one really has me excited.  After all my love for astronomy far precedes anything that I have ever done in the volunteering realm.  This was indeed going to be an adventure.