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History
How Hack for LA evolved from in person onboarding to remote, and the iterative approach that we have taken to arrive at the need for a dedicated interface to list volunteer opportunities.
Hack for LA practiced in person recruiting on onboarding nights. It had its own benefits, like each volunteer felt valued and had agency
The team later moved on to a new process where the open roles on each team were posted on the Hack For LA website. This led to:
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Some volunteers contacted teams directly and the teams became responsible for all onboarding, which was inefficient use of time, leading to poor cohesiveness of our org (onboarding conducted differently by various people and projects). And some projects got too many volunteers but not the right skill level. Ultimately this method led to high turnover of volunteers and product managers getting burnt out.
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Other volunteers attending a Zoom onboarding session (held weekly). In this process the project leads would show up to recruit at the end, but sometimes there would be no one who could fill the domain specific role. This process was also inefficient.
Hack for LA moved to a new model where all new volunteer attend onboarding and then join a communities of practice (CoP) and no open roles are posted on the hackforla.org website. These CoPs have volunteer opportunity boards so that when project leads recruit, they can go to a larger group of people who are more likely to be a good fit for the role available. Also CoP leads can help provide coaching if someone is unsure of if they are a good fit. Listings at CoP allow the org to determine if the project is actually ready to receive volunteers.
The Hack for LA organization team has now green lighted a project to create a dedicated job board page where volunteers can search and find volunteer opportunities that match their goal and aspirations while still maintaining the involvement of onboarding and Community of Practice (CoPs).
In March 2023, the MVP for our product changed due to some new circumstances.
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Code for America would be dissolving the Brigade network (which Hack for LA was a member) by June 2023. This meant that Hack for LA would have to change their governance structure in a few ways, but most notably the formation of a new non-profit (Civic Tech Structure) that would serve as the parent company for Hack for LA in this new chapter. With these new changes, Hack for LA has to think of sustainable strategies that can carry us forward i.e. fundraising, governance, marketing, etc.
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Due to these changes, our stakeholder asked the Civic Tech Jobs team to add the requirement of a Skills Matrix that would allow users (volunteers) to rate their skills according to the CoP they choose i.e. Choosing the Developer/Engineering CoP will show skills related to that proficiency. The Skills Matrix will be helpful in volunteers keeping a log of their improvement on certain skills. This will also be valuable for how Civic Tech Structure measures their progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The Wiki is a working document and we would love to improve it. Please compile any questions and suggestions you may have and submit it via creating an issue.