Very glad to see this, MJ. Understanding what the newbie experience is at the moment and how it differs from what we might desire will help us make a better, more welcoming experience.
a On Tue, Feb 7, 2023 at 5:11 PM Melissa Foulks <melissafou...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi everyone! I'm MJ, a brand new volunteer. You may have seen me at > ApacheCon Las Vegas 2019, or more recently in New Orleans 2022. > > I've been talking to Shane about my desire to get involved with ComDev, and > he asked me about my experience as a newcomer to the foundation. At his > request, I've put together some thoughts about my experience thus far, and > some suggestions for how to potentially make onboarding easier for the new > volunteer. > > I'm happy to hear any feedback or suggestions that anyone has. Thanks for > your time! > > --MJ > > > *From the Newcomer’s Perspective* > > > *The Beginning for a Volunteer:* > > > Getting started with any volunteer organization can be a nervous experience > for the newcomer. The best charities bear this in mind, and try to make the > early days as easy on a new volunteer as possible. The goal is to make new > volunteers feel not only welcome, but *wanted* in whatever they choose to > pursue. There are a lot of young programmers that hold the ASF in high > regard and would love to volunteer, but may not have the technical > experience required to navigate the different projects and tools. For > new/inexperienced volunteers, easy navigation (specifically on a website) > and access to warm, welcoming, tenured volunteers would be helpful, and > would lead to better volunteer energy and retention. > > I’m new to the ASF, and not at all technical. My goal is to work on ComDev > related things, the soft infrastructures that are critical to any > Foundation that relies mostly on its volunteers. As I try to begin as a > volunteer, I’ve found it difficult to interpret some of the language, as > well as navigate how to get started. Subscribing to the ComDev email chains > seems like a good place to start, but can feel presumptuous and intrusive > to someone new. If I didn’t actually know people at the ASF, I would have > no idea how to get started. > > > *Helpful tools for Newcomers:* > > > *--The Website: *For most volunteers looking to get started (who don’t > already know someone at the ASF), this is going to be their first > interaction with the Foundation. It’s important to bear that in mind, and > make the website not only easy to navigate, but also use language that is > easy to understand and feels welcoming. Consider the Red Cross’ volunteer > website. When I started as a volunteer with them, their website made me > feel wanted, and helped me figure out exactly what my interests were and > how I could put them to use for the Red Cross. > > Here are some things that the Red Cross and other charities use to entice > volunteers and make it easy for them to get started: > > *A menu with bold, easy to read print**:* > > This may seem obvious, but for someone just getting started, a menu is > exactly what they’re looking for. They want to find the “volunteer here” > button. The menu should definitely include an “About Us” section, but it > shouldn’t be the main focus of the website’s homepage. Consider the > following sections: > > *Learn**--* Used by Planned Parenthood and Feeding America, this section > offers links to important information that may feel elementary to tenured > volunteers, but new volunteers would find extremely helpful. For the ASF, > this could include the basics, like how to use Markdown, Slack, and > Confluence, as well as where to go to ask for help. FAQ pages would be > listed here. > > * Donate--* Almost universally used, this gives a big, obvious link to > where donations can be made. Many charities, such as the ACLU and Habitat > for Humanity, even put in windows for credit card information to make > donating as easy as filling out a few bubbles. > > * Volunteer-- *This is the most important section of the menu, and needs to > be the most visible. This is where Shane’s idea (automating question and > answer trees for new volunteers via “Choose Your Own Adventure” method) > would be found. Other charities have you take a short quiz to help direct > you to areas that may be of interest. The Red Cross has a sub-menu that > pops up when you hover over the volunteer option, which goes into more > detail (it includes sections like “explore opportunities” and “Urgently > needed: view our top-needed positions”). New volunteers may also find a > message box helpful, one with character limits that would send a short > message to someone in the ASF. I’ve seen this on websites for legal firms, > tax preparation companies, and other busy organizations. It helps bridge > the gap between the needs of the messenger and the limited time of the > receiver. Most message boxes, once the message is submitted, offer a “Thank > you for your submission” and give a time frame in which to expect a reply. > > *About Us--* This section should include a brief history of the ASF and an > explanation of its achievements and goals. It should be worded for the > general reader and not necessarily someone well-versed in tech speech. The > language used is important, as the inexperienced may find high-level > language intimidating and may make potential volunteers wary. > > *Dynamic, on-message images-- *Every popular nonprofit organization has > this in common. Planned Parenthood shows an image of a friendly looking > doctor. St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital features a smiling young > child in a hospital bed. The Red Cross shows a flooded neighborhood with a > volunteer sporting a Red Cross vest surveying the damage. For the ASF, > which prides itself on Community over Code, images of volunteers diligently > staring at code might help to set the right tone. (Bonus if the featured > volunteer is young or part of a minority group.) Other images could include > people warmly interacting at past Cons and passionate keynote speakers. > > > *--Training/Orientation Programs: * Once a volunteer has found the area in > which they would like to donate their time, the next step is figuring out > exactly how to best utilize that time for the job chosen. Utilized by most > nonprofits and corporations, even seemingly small and easy jobs benefit > from a little bit of training and orientation. These programs are > beneficial to the volunteer as they help to give direction and, upon > completing the training/orientation, a sense of confidence and capability. > This also benefits the nonprofit because training programs help to weed out > volunteers that find they are no longer interested, as well as help to > answer questions and address problems before they even need to be addressed > by more senior members of the organization. > > Training and orientation programs don’t need to be grand, organized > classroom affairs, and their complexity can be scaled up and down as > needed, based on the new volunteer’s position and responsibilities. Here > are a few ideas for ways to handle training and orientation: > > *Welcome emails*-- Once the new volunteer has been assigned to a specific > project or duty, a simple welcome email can go a long way to making a new > volunteer feel, well, *welcome*. For simplicity’s cake, this email can be > automated and generated as new volunteers sign on, and doesn’t have to be a > hand-written note for each new volunteer. These generated emails should > include helpful links for how to get started. Ideally, the email should > include a link to any training/orientation course associated with their > newly given project or position. > > *Orientation*-- This could be as simple as a small handbook to read (pdf > for easy online viewing), or could be structured out as an online class. > Most orientations endeavor to help the volunteer get to know the nonprofit > as a whole, so that they have a holistic picture of the organization for > which they are volunteering. > > Orientations tend to go over the basics of what it means to be a volunteers > at said nonprofit. For the ASF, this would be a great place to go over the > basics, such as the ASF’s mission, Code of Conduct, and avenues of > communication and how to best utilize them. Many nonprofits have a general > online orientation course that must be completed before moving onto > training, one that is separate from specific courses related to the > volunteer’s specific position and duties. The creation of a single > orientation course could save a great deal of work for more tenured members > of the foundation, since they won’t have to answer as many questions about > the basics of getting started. > > *Training*-- Once orientation has been completed, a more specialized > training program could be created for specific positions and projects. For > the ASF, it would likely be best to have a structured online course that > can be completed at one’s own pace. These training course should go over > knowledge required for specific projects or area of interest, and the tools > the volunteer will be required to use (email, Slack, Confluence, Github, > and how to use them). These tailored training courses give more direct > guidance, allowing for important information to be highlighted while > leaving out information that may not be needed for that particular role. > For example, as a new volunteer working for ComDev, I would likely need to > know about the relevant email chains and how to use Slack, but I don’t > necessarily need to know how the podlings interact with the infra team. A > tailored training program would help give the new volunteer the information > and guidance needed to get started, while not overwhelming them with more > information than they need. > > **A Note on Training/Orientation programs: * While this may seem like a > great deal of work to get these things off the ground, the hours invested > into these programs will ultimately save volunteer hours (and stress > levels) in the future. Volunteers who are well-equipped with the basics are > not only more productive and valuable, but they also need less guidance > from more senior volunteers, leaving tenured volunteers with more time to > continue in their jobs. The initial investment of volunteer hours to create > these programs will ultimately save volunteer hours in the future. > > *Dedicated Mentors/Superiors*-- New volunteers often feel vulnerable, and > even after training and orientation, they may still have questions or need > guidance when they run into problems. Consider nominating tenured > volunteers/members to act as mentors for these new volunteers. These > mentors can be nominated in specific factions of the ASF, such as ComDev > mentors, project mentors, coding language mentors, etc. Mentor-ship does > not have to be a one-on-one relationship, but rather one or two mentors who > would oversee the new volunteers specific to their faction of the > foundation. These mentors should be personable and patient, having an > understanding of what it feels like to be in a new position and just > getting started. New volunteers are more likely to stay and produce better > work when given warm, welcoming means to ask questions and make mistakes. > > > *Summary:* > > > The ASF is a highly respected nonprofit organization, one for which many > new and young folk would love to come volunteer. It is in the best interest > of the ASF to make it as easy as possible for new volunteers to decide to > volunteer their time, find their particular area of interest, and be given > the basic tools necessary for them to succeed. A single, cohesive website > with an easy-to-navigate menu, followed up with dedicated orientation and > training, would be beneficial not only to the new volunteer, but to the ASF > as a whole. Following training, access to dedicated mentors will help new > volunteers continue to feel both welcome and needed. These simple tools can > help the ASF find new, young volunteers ready to dedicate their time and > energy to the ASF, and will help to ensure that they continue to offer > their contributions around for a long time. > -- Andrew Wetmore Editor, Moose House Publications <https://moosehousepress.com/> Editor-Writer, The Apache Software Foundation <https://apache.org/>
