Without our hardworking, dedicated volunteers, PBS would surely not be the wonderful site that it is. All week we will give you an overview of what our volunteers do and why.
Today we start with Tour Guides
Spotlight on PBS Volunteers – Tour Guides
By Diane G. (icesk8tr) Tour Guide Coordinator 
When you joined PaperBackSwap, you were assigned a personal Tour Guide! (That is if you joined after February 2006). What many members don’t know is that all of the Tour Guides are regular members that have volunteered to help out other members with questions they may have as they are just getting started. There is a lot going on at PaperBackSwap, and a lot to learn when you first join, even after you have been a member for a while something may confuse you, and the PBS Team is constantly making improvements and changes to PaperBackSwap. Your Tour Guide is a great resource to help you with questions you may have as you are enjoying your membership!
We have a great group of Tour Guides, and always welcome new volunteers to help with member’s questions. With all the new members, at least some are bound to have questions, and everyone will get answers faster if more people are available to ask!
What do Tour Guides do?
* Be the first person a new member will interact with when they join the site! (each new member is assigned a personal Tour Guide to consult with any questions)
* Answer questions from your assigned new members
* Take Live Help questions from members (Live Help PMs may come in to you when you are online–Live Help is a big part of Tour Guiding)
* You do have the ability to put your duties on hold when you are on vacation, or unavailable to help.
* Visit New Member Chat to greet and help new members
* Chill in the Tour Guide Private Lounge
* Get to wear a cool TG volunteer icon on their profiles and forum posts
Some of our Tour Guides do a lot with their new members, some just answer questions when they come in, some like to chat, some like to help out by answering questions in the regular forums…Tour Guiding can be as individual as the Guide himself or herself.
If anyone is interested in volunteering to be a PBS Tour Guide, all it takes is:
* Having been a PBS member for at least 3 months
* Have a PBS nickname
* Signing the PBS Non-Disclosure Agreement
* Passing the Tour Guide Quiz (not too tough, we promise!)
* A willingness to help other members solve problems/learn how to use the site
Anyone who is interested in becoming a Tour Guide can contact Diane G. (icesk8tr) for the link to sign the NDA and then after having done that, I will give you access to the Quiz. It is an enjoyable experience, and as I said, we have a great group of Tour Guide volunteers! They have been wonderful at helping members with their questions!
Tags: Members, Tour Guides
I am honored and proud to be a Tour Guide on PBS and to work with so many wonderful people that make up the Tour Guide group. I would love see more members join this great group of people, so come join us in the Lounge. Thanks PBS for giving members the opportunity to give back to the site.
I’m also a Tour Guide (one of the TGLs) and have met soooo many wonderful members through my “work” as a Guide. I really feel the Tour Guide program is one of the flagship volunteer groups here and they are what makes PBS different from and better than other book sites.
Tour Guides have fun together and have an interesting and active forum — there is a great sense of community and Tour-Guide-Togetherness! Tour Guides get to daily meet, greet and interact with other awesome Tour Guides, and it’s a great way to make more friends at PBS – both with other TGs and with other members as well. Not to mention the great feelings you get when you are successfully able to help someone negotiate their way around the site and help solve a problem for a member. Tour Guides truly help make this site unique and wonderful.
As my fellow guide Robin (jubead) said in her comment, we REALLY would love to see more members join us and share in the good times. More Tour Guides helping more members can only be more of a good thing!!!!