It’s tax season, and getting ready for the Volunteers In Tax Assistance (VITA) Program is an extensive and critical undertaking! Well before the community comes in with all of their paperwork, there are extensive trainings and testing coordinated with the IRS. Yes, Shuly Serrano takes on the IRS and puts her heart into the extra details that make the volunteer’s experience easier, and the community has help doing their taxes. Well done Shuly!
This email came to me from a brand-new volunteer to the City, but she’s been doing the same program with AARP for 16 years.
I just wanted to tell you how pleased I am to be volunteering with the VITA program at the Branigan Library. I have volunteered with VITA/AARP tax program for the last 16 years. Shuly Serrano and Andree Genereau are extremely organized and dedicated leaders and I’m excited about working with them.
On Super Saturday they had everything so well planned. Shuly made sure that the library facility had signage to help the customers, and she anticipated the large early crowd. She had a table for greeters close to the entrance and a place for the customers to sit. Because of the separation of our working area, they even had Walkie-Talkies for better communication. Shuly was ready to help get whatever we needed. She was up and down the stairway making sure that the facility was meeting the needs of the customers and the program. Andree had everything for the tax preparers organized and ready for a busy day. Her careful planning and organization helped both the tax preparers, and the customers feel that they were experiencing a top-quality program. To add to the stress of the first day, we had an IRS observer there and she was very complimentary of the way the program was being run.
Shuly moved us to the Roadrunner Room on our first Monday, again with attention to the logical flow of the customers. Andree again made the program run smoothly while ironing out the kinks to improve our service. I am very pleased to be working with these two amazing people.
Sincerely,
Jeannie Shipley, Resident
