VLCT 2024 Summer Internship

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Classified Details

Classified ID
739
Description

The Vermont League of Cities and Towns (VLCT) Summer Internship Program provides college juniors and seniors, and graduate students an opportunity to serve and strengthen Vermont local government.

This summer, VLCT will hire one intern who will have the opportunity to work with the Municipal Assistance Center to research local government operations, learn about Vermont’s municipal laws, and help respond to local officials’ questions.

Project Summary: VLCT collects a wide range of data about member municipalities’ governance structures and operations, analyzes it and publishes actionable insights, reports, and resources to support local government decision making.

Research Tasks

  • Collating external data sets for import into the database

  • Cleaning datasets and identifying missing data

  • Following up with municipalities for missing data

  • Identify opportunities for further data collection

  • Identify and pull data sets from business associates, government, and nonprofit entities

  • Compile reports from database and survey systems

  • Coordinate pilot groups to test surveys

  • Identify potential recipients/respondents for the surveys

Municipal Assistance Center Legal Research, Resource, News, & Training Support

  • Assist review and update of publications

  • Organize current resources and records for ease of access

  • Research answers to member questions

  • Summarize research results for articles or other publications

  • Research past VLCT News articles and news items and recommend updates

  • Learn basic content management to update website items

This internship will support the work of the Municipal Assistance Center in multiple ways:

  • Publishing relevant data for member use and comparison with other municipalities.
  • Fill in data gaps for VLCT. This will allow us to report on and support members through news updates, policy planning, training support, and published resources.
  • Enhance members ability to use data to support effective decision making.
  • Provide administrative and research support to MAC legal team

Survey Support

  • Track survey responses, follow up on incomplete surveys or errors

  • Assist with data collection - Contact nonrespondents and offer assistance

  • Resend/reset survey links for users

  • Input survey responses for manual respondents

  • Provide support for users with light technical issues or survey questions. Capture issues for support documentation

  • Clean up data sheets for compilation

  • Assist with data compilation & cleanup

  • Assist with data modeling and report drafting

  • Assist with data review and editing

  • Website Updates – Conversion of docs into HTML

Other Potential Projects

  • Catalog web content for updates

  • Update and create resource and guidance documents for members

  • Research member questions and help with responses

  • Provide additional VLCT admin support to various departments as needed


The VLCT Summer Internship Program is a 10-week, 37.5 hour a week paid internship program ($15.00/hr.) that runs from May 28 - August 10. The right candidate will be asked to work a hybrid schedule, including several days a week in our Montpelier office, and occasional remote work from their home if desired. VLCT recognizes that summer is brief and fleeting in Vermont, and hours may be adjusted to allow participants to take vacation or participate in other summer activities.? There could be an additional scope of work between September and December 2024. Details will be discussed during the interview process.?

Qualifications and Experience Needed

Comfort with basic data administration, data collection tools and methods, information gathering and qualitative research. Comfort with software systems and applications: databases, survey software, Office365/MS Office Suite (particularly Excel). Good customer relations skills, an interest in local government.

Internship Value

  • Better understand research and information gathering methods.
  • Learn how to clean data for compilation and analysis and be exposed to basic database administration and research methodology.
  • Understand how data can be used to support effective and defensible decision making
  • Understand how bias and assumptions can result in poor data and decision making.
  • Gain knowledge of municipal operations and priorities

How will you support the intern through the project?

We’ll provide oversight, hands on systems and process training, ongoing support, regular check-ins, feedback loops, and participation in planning and strategizing. We expect and hope intern prospects will provide input and recommendations throughout the process. We will provide learning and engagement opportunities with other departments to diversify the intern’s understanding of organizational business processes and other service areas.

To Apply

Send cover letter, resume, and three professional references to jhill@vlct.org with the subject line 2024 Summer Internship by Friday, May 3. VLCT will conduct virtual interviews via Zoom during the second week of May. Participants will be notified of hiring by May 17th. Internship begins as early as May 28, depending on the finalist’s school schedule.

Title
VLCT 2024 Summer Internship
Application Deadline
05/10/2024
Location
Montpelier, VT
Website
www.vlct.org 

Contact Information

Name
Jessica Hill
Phone Number
(802) 262-1928
Email
jhill@vlct.org 
Best Method of Contact
EMAIL
Apply Here
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