Care and Feeding of Volunteers

The Care and Feeding of Volunteers

OR

How Can Volunteers???

About Me

Kat Toomajian (MissKat, zarhooie)Dreamwidth Studios, LLCCommunity & Volunteer SupportExperience15+ years Non-Profit5+ years Non-Profit Management4+ years OSS

Why This Talk

General Perceptions about OSS Little diversity Hostile community Need to already have experience Interview process

Why This Talk

Breaking it down Half the people on the planet aren't male

10-30% of tech professionals are female Only 1.5-5% of OSS developers are female

Everyone's a newcomer Experience is a catch-22 Your vol interviews you, not the other way around

Your Project is Not A Special Snowflake

Your Project is Not A Special Snowflake

Lots of projects out there Your potential volunteers have choices Make yourself competitive in the market

Potential volunteers look for Culture Environment Other people ???? (can be literally anything else)

STEP ZERO:How Do I People???

Be nice. Keep your IRC channel PG-13 Community standards, enforced adequately, will

self-enforce Peer pressure works both ways

Combative vs Collaborative development It's ok to argue about stuff It's not ok to argue in a way that ends with people

leaving the project

Four Letter Words

Woman is not a four letter word. Neither is diversity.

Don't make assumptions or jokes based around racism, ableism, sexism, or any other -isms

These jokes aren't funny, and will drive volunteers away from your project.

If you hurt someone's feelings... Apologize. Don't tell them to get thicker skin.

WELCOME

Be Welcoming

Lower the entry barrier Have a welcome wagon

Links to: Jargon page Culture wiki Development wiki

Lower entry barrier = more developers = less work for you in the long run

Step One:Follow the

Yellow Brick Code

STEP ONE: Follow the Yellow Brick Code

Wanted: awesome people! Not everyone has experience, but...

Lots of people want experience Let them get that experience by coding for you!

A → B → C Give people a job to do. Make mentors available.

STEP TWO:What Can You Doo-OO-oo... with a

Newbie Dev? Training and mentoring your developers Clear path from user to leader to management

User to developer to leadership Developer development is a lifestyle choice

Takes effort, but it's totally worth it DW brought 14 devs and staff to YAPC for

development. The return will justify the means.

Invest in Your Community

Common Fears of OSS Projects They don't know enough to be useful I'm too busy to handle their question If they have a question, they'll ask I had to do it the hard way/that's not how I learned

Invest in Your Community

Rebuttals Knowledge is an acquired thing, not innate Mentoring is the most important thing you can do. Technology advances. So should teaching

techniques Don't ridicule those who ask for help

What is a Newbie Dev?

Specific term for someone new to a project or development in general

You don't have to go through the mentoring if you don't want to

Many of our devs started out knowing nothing about coding at all, let alone how to code

So What CAN They Do?

Let them work on tiny bugs Makes you look good You don't have to untrain bad habits! Can point to it and say I DID THAT

Motivational tool Retention tool

STEP THREE:?????????

Every project and developer has special requirements THIS IS OK.

Look to your project's culture to find out what these needs are Adjust accordingly.

Be Encouraging!

Give credit where credit's due News posts “merit badges” Bribes can be a good motivational tool

Write references Impostor Syndrome 101

Impostor Syndrome

There's a Place for (almost) Everyone Don't allow people who are violating

community standards to keep doing that. Non-Development Positions

Cheerleaders Documentation

End-User Project Culture

End-User Support End-User Support is a gateway drug to development

STEP FOUR:Profit!

Mentoring = Long-Term Project Survival More invested = will bring their friends

Next to having dev custom built, it's the best All your tiny stuff gets fixed No bad habits to train out They will learn what you want them to learn

how you want them to learn it.

LET'S RECAP!

Be Nice. Learn how to people. Lower your entry barriers. Mentor your developers. Project-specific goals Ensure the long-term survival of your project

How Can I Do This In My Project? You can do them all, but start with one.

Pick one. Probably be nice/welcoming

Master it. Move on to the next one.

Learning how to newcomers takes time. Be patient. Ask for help. perldoc friendlymentor (not really, I made this up)

Birthday Hat Hedgehog sez:THANKS FOR LISTENING!