How do you engage tech volunteers?

Hey all...in the interest of stirring up some new conversation, here's a question for everyone: how do you engage technology volunteers at your organization? Please post and share your successful (and even not so successful) ideas, roles, projects, etc. Happy 2008!

Erin

I can share my experience with TechSoup's work in Second Life. The Nonprofit Commons community is volunteer-run. We have a blog where community members can be set up as bloggers and blog about events or other activities related to nonprofits in Second Life. We also have a community wiki that is open to all and members can update information. We've found it helpful to have a volunteer coordinator (a volunteer position!) that serves as a "match maker" in connecting folks in the community that express interest in volunteering and offer skills to needed skills/tasks. We also have a Google Group, which is another channel for members to connect.

I think making information very clear to people is crucial to helping volunteers engage. Having tools that are easy and open to use encourages people to connect and contribute. The hard part is since we're all volunteers is making sure we harness the energy and enthusiasm in a timely way, with small, do-able roles.

--Megan

I'm currently managing the volunteers (all remote/online) for the Aid Workers Network. AWN involves tech volunteers to maintain its web site, which uses tools most of the other volunteers, including myself, find much too complicated to use (Drupal and CiviCRM). The tech volunteers add/update links, add new pages and info the non-tech volunteers need added, verify new users (to make sure they aren't spammers), send out the newsletter to users, and handle any tech problems as they arise.

Our biggest problem is that the tech volunteers have trouble explaining all that they do in such a way that we, the non-tech volunteers, can understand it. They also have never had to document their work before, and I'm meeting a bit of resistance to my requests for such. But I'm hopeful it's all going to work out.

AWN is recruiting more tech volunteers for web site support, through the Online Volunteering service. If anyone is interested, just type "AWN" in the "Group Search" function at the bottom of the OV home page.

Technical people who "have never had to document their work" have just gotten sloppy. Good documentation is essential.

Bob

30+ years Information Technology Corporate Executive and Consultant

Good documentation is, indeed, essential. Sadly, some tech folks who would always document on-the-job often don't document while they are volunteering. Some -- not all -- tech volunteers have an attitude of you-should-be-happy-I'm-working-for-free-for-you.

In this case, it's more of a combination of two things: they've never been required to do it before, and as there haven't been any problems (yet), they don't see a burning need to do it now, and, a frustration on the part of the tech volunteers that the non-tech volunteers can't figure out how the tech works on their own. In short, it's a culture clash, and I'm doing my best to bridge it.

Does anyone have suggestions for good resources or best practices for volunteer management folks specifically addressing documentation?

It's really an issue of regarding setting expectations from the start of a volunteer relationship.

If you are just starting or taking over a program, put the requirement to document in *writing*, in the task description that is used to recruit volunteers, and discuss the importance of such with candidates BEFORE volunteering begins.

In programs I've started from scratch, getting volunteers to document their work and the systems they've built has been easy, because we all know right from the start that it's a part of the expectations of the volunteer.

When you are inheriting a volunteer program, then it's much trickier -- volunteers, tech or otherwise, are used to doing things their own way. Perhaps they've never gone through an orientation, never had their volunteer task outlined in terms of expectations, never had to report in, etc. -- they've simply done what they've done. Coming in to a process like this means trying to implement guidelines without driving the volunteers away with what they see as silly bureaucracy.

What's worked best in my experience when inheriting a program is trying to make the idea of documentation, guidelines, etc., the volunteers' idea, as in my saying "Here are the problems this volunteer program is facing. How do YOU think these problems could be addressed?" The discussion of suggestions creates a sense of buy-in among the volunteers. But even so, there is always at least one volunteer who doesn't like the change and may walk away before documenting -- or that you even have to "fire" because of his or her refusal to document. It does happen.

> Does anyone have suggestions for good resources or best practices for volunteer management folks specifically addressing documentation?

Hi Ebarnhart,

It's common amongst volunteer tech initiatives, especially the more successful free and open source (OSS) initiatives, that documentation is a separate project - this is for several reasons, but not least that many of your more brilliant tech professionals are simply quite poor at documentation - It requires a different skill-set - Good documentation requires considerable skill and we often find those best at documentation are not developers or others engaged in other aspects of technical developments or support.

It's really a management issue (in truth what isn't?) - look at the skill-set of your tech volunteers and the way your project is structured. Maybe you need to recruit additional volunteer document specialists... maybe it's a case of restructuring the project so documentation receives an increase in management focus and resources.

Good luck!
Don
(Director, Sahana Open Source Disaster Management System - http://www.sahana.lk )