GetOrganizedBK: Volunteer Skill and Resource-Sharing

[anniehirshman]

What problem are we trying to solve?

We are solving the “I have ___, I need ___" problem.

How do we match actions and projects with the volunteers who can help, within a distributed grassroots group? Currently, there’s no easy, visible way for members to get in touch with other members who can help provide skills or resources for a specific need, without revealing contact information.

Examples:

• A volunteer leader is planning a protest, and needs musicians to attend. They need to contact all the musicians who have volunteered for the group.
• A volunteer leader is looking for a space to host an event, and another volunteer within the group has a space to offer.
• A volunteer leader is looking for a videographer to create a campaign, and another volunteer within the group has volunteered their video skills.
• A volunteer is busy but able to help on specific tasks, and wants to seek out available opportunities.

Who will benefit (directly and indirectly) from this project?

Volunteers who have skills or resources to offer will benefit by getting info about concrete, manageable tasks that are relevant to their skill set, when they don't necessarily have time to be proactive about seeking out volunteer opportunities or attending meetings. They'll learn about what and when a grassroots group they care about needs their help.

Organizers and leaders within a distributed grassroots group will gain access to the list of people who have signed up to volunteer, tagged in a way so that they can easily contact and better utilize the list.

Our goal is to address the needs of grassroots groups like GetOrganizedBK and Indivisible to make better use of their membership, and help volunteers with skills get more engaged in activism.

Where can we find any research/data available/articles?

Project Plan: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16CafmRJQp2Ft64OGRHEqwjC3ZIupAoCD2ZHE02pMWO0/edit?usp=sharing

Personas:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wSu7De4mpqQMUDZKjAUcNApWYieIgK9bodZSns6LidE/edit?usp=sharing

Service Blueprint:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NYbpnwfp3simkwaFzjGE_5wZ8JRa4YkOAos31rgDNrc/edit?usp=sharing

Tech Notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z2nza_HkKIcohGrmSrjGGJtAcZrNUokWcRwM1yk_AdA/edit

What help is needed at this time?

Design
We are looking for designers/UX-ers to wireframe and design the submission form, and build a pitch/prototype to demonstrate and test the MVP.

Dev
We are looking for an enthusiastic developer to lead the creation of a plug-in or other technical solution. The project would start as a simple submission form linked to a back-end CMS that would tag and sort volunteers who fill out the form.

Next steps would include: determine where the data will live and which back-end solution will scale best, merge and clean existing data, then build the submission form and back-end. From there, we hope to develop this into a lean, versatile and useful open-source volunteer management tool.

This is a great role for someone who wants to own and creatively shape an open-source tool from the ground up, with the potential to test and iterate on the solution over time.

Researcher
We are looking for additional researchers to help understand how grassroots groups and volunteers would use this tool, and what level of masking, privacy and moderation is needed.

What are the next steps (validation, research, coding, design)?

See above needs.

How can we contact you outside of Github(list social media or places you're present)?

Contact digital@getorganizedbk.org to get involved and join our Slack!

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Project management

Checklist for NEW ideas 👶

Hey, you're official! You're now part of the growing Progressive HackNight community. Here's a few things to get started (a couple you've probably already done).

• Create this idea issue
• Flesh out the who, where, and what questions above
• Start the conversation about this new idea on Slack (this project uses #general )
• Respond with at least one update on this issue within the next month

Checklist for ACTIVE projects 🔥

Let's get this project started! When this idea starts taking off, the Progressive HackNight Team will start helping this project's lead(s) out with project management and connecting you to resources you may need. To get there, please complete and check off the following:

• Post an update at least once a month to this issue. Use BASEDEF for ideas, but it's ok even if your update is just "nothing new happened this month" or "we saw a small increase in traffic to our app this month". If there's no activity for two months, that's no problem, life happens. We'll just label this as backlog so others know you'll get back to it when you have the time. If nobody hears from you at all in more than two months, we may mark it as abandoned so that others can pick up this idea and run with it.
• Create a GitHub repository and Slack channel for work.
• Create issues to describe each task that you plan to do or need help with and how a contributor can get started on that task. You might start and stop a lot, so consider issues as your to-do list.
• Create a team for your core contributors
  • This will make it easier for you to manage your github repo access. People on a team have the same level of access. Admin access will allow your trusted contributors to make changes as needed.
  • You can remove and add people to your team as needed.
  • Note: You can also allow collaborators outside of your team and give them more limited access.
• Create a Google Drive, Dropbox, or other cloud storage to share larger files
  • Github and Data.World are good for code and data, respectively, especially when you need version control. But they're not good for very large files, documentation, articles, etc. A cloud storage option will allow you to easily share, create, and collaborate on documents with your team and help organize ideas and thoughts.
  • Doing this early on can help your team stay organized and to onboard new contributors who wouldn't have access to files you all have shared over email.

If you get stuck at any point, feel free to reach out to the leadership team with an email to steering@progressivehacknight.org or come find an organizer at a HackNight. We're here to help bring great ideas to life!