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Learning patterns/Guide for involving new volunteers

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A learning pattern forproject management
Guide for involving new volunteers
problemSometimes we don't know how to match our projects with our existing volunteer community. We all lack volunteers when projects get deeper or bigger. How to deal with this?
solutionWikimedians are not Contortionists. Each one of us has specific skills. Deal with your community by gradually engaging volunteers, progressively moving from simple tasks (patrolling recent changes in an online contest) to more complex tasks. Some members will be progressively committed into deeper projects or even programmes, depending on volunteer will, skills and expectations.
creator• Kippelboy
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created on14:30, 29 September 2015 (UTC)
status:DRAFT

What problem does this solve?

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Wikimedia organisations are usually made up of a group of engaged wikimedians who want to take a step forward and not only collaborate on Wikimedia projects but also promote them. It is not always easy for these organisations to engage volunteers to assume responsibilities further than editing Wikipedia, and frequently the answer is "let's hire more people".

What is the solution?

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What if we think about it the other way around? Let's create a programme based on our community members' skills and will and progressively engage them into deeper collaboration, up to the point they are comfortable with.

Things to consider

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  • Draft your organisation's annual activity plan based on your community's wills and skills.
  • Identify different levels of commitment/availability and map your volunteers on different areas. E.g
Real Life activities Online activities
  1. Attending a real life event
  2. Assuming tasks in a real life event (e.g. Registration, printing materials, guiding newbies)
  3. Presenting an event (wiki training...)
  4. Organizing an event
  5. Co-organizing a programme (series of activities)
  6. Helping developing a strategy
  1. Participating in an online contest
  2. Helping new editors in assignments (edu, GLAM)
  3. Leading an online project (wikiproject, classroom, contest)
  4. Co-organizing an online programme
  5. Helping developing an strategy
  • You need to considered that most of your chapter's volunteers will be OK with 1 and 2 levels, but only some of them will be ready/available when talking about leading a project or organising an strategy
  • Meritocracy inside your org raises when someone has gone through 1,2,3... and so on
  • As an organization you can set up goals like "look and find 5 key members of my community who wants to go one step beyond"

When to use

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  • When you have several activities and proposals to be done and you need to take in account the skills and wills of your community before actually planning things.

Endorsements

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See also

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References

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