Tag Archives: volunteers

Open Air Hackathon – Nonprofits Get Web Sites, Designers Get Accessibility Training

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The Accessibility Internet Rally is a community hackathon with a unique twist – Internet accessible for everyone, including people with disabilities.

AIR benefits nonprofit organizations and schools in any community by providing them with free, professionally designed, accessible websites.

AIR benefits participating volunteers, who are web designers, by providing them with increased awareness of the tools and techniques that make the Internet accessible to everyone – including people with disabilities – thereby increasing skills they can take back to their work places.

The result: dozens of professionally designed, accessible websites for nonprofit groups, and web designers with new skills and understanding regarding accessible design and usability.

Open AIR Registration for both nonprofits that want web sites and teams is NOW.

The competition – the hackathon — begins October 23, 2013 (& and lasts a month).

If you are a web developer, professional or aspiring (but with the needed skills), sign up a team of three to six members via the online developer registration. Besides helping nonprofits and learning new skills, you will also get the opportunity to win tickets to SXSW Interactive 2015 in Austin, Texas.

As a participant and competitor you will:

  • Be matched with a non-profit organization, budding artist, or worthy community organization (though you can also help a nonprofit register and be asked to be matched with that particular nonprofit)
  • Create an exciting, interactive web experience that is accessible to everyone.
  • Network with area artists, web professionals, and other really cool people.
  • Get to complete your development project in a more relaxed time frame – unlike past events that happened in one day, onsite, the development cycle is 30 days for Open AIR and can be done from your own location, giving your team the opportunity to create something really special fromanywhere.
  • Have access to training worth over $4,000

Don’t have a team to register with? Submit an individual registration and we will work to place you on a great team. Knowbility recommends a $25.00 donation to support the Open AIR program in lieu of a team registration fee for individual registrants.

Fees are $100 for the first 4 team members, $125 for teams of five, $150 for teams of six.

For nonprofits: register for free and if you are selected, a $100 registration fee will be due.

The Accessibility Internet Rally is open to participants in three categories:

  • Community Organizations: to qualify in this category, entities must be either a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization or an entity that exists for community benefit such as a church group, an arts organization, or a performance organization, to be decided at the discretion of the Organizer.
  • Web design team: to participate in this category, a group of up to 6 web and related professionals sign on as a team. Each web design team shall be considered a single Entrant. No person may enter more than once, either individually or as part of any team. If an Entrant uses the name of a corporation, partnership or other legal entity, the Entrant certifies it has the permission of the entity to do so.
  • Individual web professional: Individuals may sign on to participate and will be matched to other individuals at the discretion of the Organizaer to create a Web Design Team.

All Entrants must be officially registered to participate in the competition.

Entrants will be given access to a collection of online resources (training) to help them build accessible Web sites. Entrants will be expected to read and familiarize themselves with these resources prior to the Rally.

Entrants are required to submit their Entries in accordance with a mechanism determined by the Organizer This mechanism shall include instructions for preparing files for upload, file specifications including file type and file size and location for uploading.

Here are the complete details of participation, including team commitments.

Here is registration info for both teams and nonprofits.

I need your (not so stinking) badges

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Some organizations give out online badges when an online user reaches a certain level of usage, reaches a certain milestone, proves a set of skills or knowledge via an online quiz, etc.

For instance, here are a list of Yahoo contributor badges that are awarded to users that have completed a part of their academy, achieved a certain level of popularity, etc.

TechSoup also has badges for contributors to the TechSoup Forum that reach certain milestones or take on certain roles.

There’s one for vetted volunteers with Translators Without Borders.

Cary, North Carolina has four different “Cary It Green” badges or online pins to “help Cary residents learn eco-friendly tips and take advantage of the Town’s environmental programs and amenities. Users earn points and badges for their green achievements, share their actions with friends, and see how they rank among others in the community. By tracking simple actions on their smartphones — from replacing light bulbs to installing a rain barrel to telecommuting — players can save time, energy and money and challenge their friends to do the same”:

  • “Trash to Treasure”–donating an item instead of throwing it away;
  • “Aquastar”–logging into your online Aquastar account,;
  • “Spruce It Up”–volunteering for a green volunteer project; and
  • “Park Place”–walking or biking a Cary greenway.

TakingITGlobal has a series of badges for its online contributors.

TripAdvisor has several badges:

  • Reviewer badges, sometimes called Star Badges.
  • Category badge: shows if the writer has reviewed many businesses of the type you are currently viewing. For example, 10 restaurant reviews.
  • City badge: shows the number of cities the writer has written reviews for.
  • Helpful vote badges: when travelers find your reviews helpful, they can give you a helpful vote to help you earn this badge.
  • Passport badge: this badge for world travelers displays if the writer has written reviews in multiple destinations.

Geocachers can be awarded online souvenirs, for being at a particular geographic location, attending a particular event, achieving a certain number of finds, etc. Here’s a long list of available geocaching online souvenirs.

I’m looking for other examples of online badges that are awarded or given to users, just for being users/contributors or per completing some milestone- PARTICULARLY to VOLUNTEERS (unpaid people) for nonprofits, NGOs, libraries, government initiatives, etc.

Anyone?

(and if you are interested in developing a formal program for earned online badges, check out the Mozilla Open Badges project; also see this pro-badge editorial, and this anti-badge editorial).

pro vs. volunteer firefighters

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Back in 2010, I blogged about how the firefighter union in the USA is anti-volunteer – and my feelings about such as a manager of volunteers, a trainer of such managers, an advocate for volunteerism and an advocate AGAINST volunteers being used to replace paid staff.

To stay up-to-date on this issue, check out the National Volunteer Fire Council‘s excellent Right to Volunteer campaign. They post updates about this struggle after the narrative. I’ll try to do a better job of staying up-to-date as well.

Also see this: NVFC Asks FEMA to Examine Whether Anti-volunteer Provision in Labor Agreement Violates Federal Law, from March 2012.

Also see:

Volunteers needed, but are they wanted?

Fire station turns away volunteers – & how it could be different

Volunteers needed, but are they wanted?

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This isn’t just a lesson regarding volunteer fire fighters; it’s a lesson for any organization that involves volunteers. Your organization might need volunteers, but does it really want them? Is this want expressed in the attitude and action of everyone that interacts with potential volunteers, and in all of your procedures regarding potential volunteers?

Yesterday, I reposted a blog from 2010 that was inspired by my husband’s frustration at trying to be a volunteer firefighter in the USA since moving here in 2009. As I noted in yesterday’s blog, my husband is German, he’s been a volunteer firefighter for most of his adult life in Germany, and he wants to remain such here in the USA. He has no interest in a professional firefighting career — he already has a career. He’s fluent in English, and ready to start out from the very beginning with training and certifications.

Since moving to Oregon in 2009, he has visited at least six fire stations in the state that involve volunteers, trying to find a place to volunteer. I was with him on most of those visits, and talked to him at length about all of his visits. And I am astounded by how differently each of these fire stations talks about volunteers and to potential applicants.

Take Silverton, a small, picturesque town outside of Salem. We happened to be passing by the fire station while on our motorcycles just a few weeks after arriving in Oregon, and thought we would stop by just to see if anyone was around. Indeed, there was someone – one of the paid, career firefighters, who, after hearing our story, said, “Volunteers are the backbone of this fire station!” He took us immediately on the tour of the station, told us all there was to know about becoming a fire fighter, detailed what volunteers get to do, which includes fighting fires, gave my husband an application to print out, and said that, while there were no guarantees, he would love for us to move to Silverton.

Another station that was excellent was Estacada, which we happened upon while it was having an open house. All of the firefighters were friendly, and we met one who was oh-so-proud to have volunteered for more than 10 years and enthusiastic about showing us the protocol for going on a call. After hearing my husband’s situation, he said, “Oh, please move to Estacada!” Had it been closer to Portland, we would have!

Unfortunately, both Silverton and Estacada were too far from Portland, where my husband works and where I travel to frequently for work. So we moved elsewhere, to a town with a fire station with a sign out in front saying, “Volunteers Needed.” My husband went in during regular business hours. According to my husband, the chief seemed annoyed to have to talk to him, wasn’t very forthcoming with information, gave short answers, and was vague about what the exact steps would be to become a volunteer. He also made statements that made it clear his preference for paid career firefighters rather than volunteers. Nevertheless, my husband filled out the application and turned it in in-person at the station. In the next few months, the fire station never called my husband – so he called them, two or three times. Each time, he felt the person on the phone didn’t really want to talk to him. In those calls, he was told that:

  • someone from the fire station had tried to call him but the number had been wrong (my husband confirmed the phone number they had on record was correct)
  • someone from the fire station had sent emails but my husband never responded (he never received such, and he confirmed the email they had on record was correct)
  • the academy for new volunteers was canceled, the next one wouldn’t happen for 10 months, and my husband could not go to another fire station’s academy as a substitute (later, we found out that the station had sent a small group of applicants to the academy in Silverton, in contrast to what they had told my husband)

He checked the web site and this fire station’s Facebook page regularly, but no information on volunteering was every posted or updated. As my husband put it, “Volunteers are needed, but they aren’t wanted.”

On his own, my husband visited another fire district during an open house, where he was told, for the most part, volunteers don’t do any fire fighting or emergency responding; they clean up the hoses or other equipment after a call. By contrast, another city’s firehouse staff invited him to view a training and said that, while volunteers were never first responders, they were often second responders, and in those cases, might undertake firefighting or emergency treatment responsibilities.

We ended up moving to Forest Grove, Oregon this year. We live two blocks from the fire station. The application process to be a volunteer is online, and my husband filled it out almost immediately after we moved into our home in January. Since then, he’s passed the physical test and the interview, and he will begin the academy next month. One of the leaders at the station saw us at a local event and approached us, asking if he had received the official offer yet and if he was excited. He was also proud to tell my husband, “Our volunteers aren’t just hose-rollers. They’re essential.”

What is your organization’s attitude regarding volunteers? Do your words, actions and procedures say, “Volunteers are essential, we value them, and we’re transparent and explicit about how to volunteer!”? Or do your words, actions and procedures say, “Volunteers are needed here, but we don’t really want them. They aren’t essential. If we didn’t have to involve them, we wouldn’t.”?

Also see: International Association of Fire Fighters is anti-volunteer

Fire station turns away volunteers – & how it could be different

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This blog was originally published on 12 April 2010 on my blog platform at the time. More than three years later, I finally have an update on this situation, which I will post tomorrow. But first, let’s revisit this blog:

A fire station turns away volunteers – and how it could be different

My husband is an experienced, highly-trained, highly-skilled firefighter. He’s been a volunteer firefighter for most of his adult life, and wants to remain such (he has no interest in a professional career — he already has a career). Imagine our shock when we moved to a small town in Oregon with signs outside all of the area fire houses proclaiming Volunteers Needed but upon asking about volunteering, were told, “We only bring in new volunteers once a year. We won’t be talking to new candidates until June. If you are still interested in 10 months, we’ll talk to you then.”

This isn’t just the policy of many fire stations or emergency response agencies that need volunteers. There are other organizations, such as domestic violence shelters, that also have only a once-a-year new volunteer training or induction.

If your organization has just one window of opportunity for new volunteers to join, you are regularly turning away potential volunteers for most of the year.

Most people who are interested in volunteering are not going to wait around for months for your once-a-year training. You need to explore ways to keep those candidates involved until the once-a-year induction rolls around.

Here are actions you can take to either alter your program or to keep potential candidates engaged until your once-a-year window comes around:

  • Ask anyone interested in volunteering to immediately fill out either your full application to volunteer or a special one-page pre-volunteering application that asks for just basic information (full name, email address, mailing address, note about why the person wants to volunteer). Keep track of this information so that you always have an up-to-date list of everyone interested in volunteering with your organization; you do not ever want to say to a potential volunteer “We lost your information.” Have a rock-solid system for making sure all applications or pre-volunteering applications are accounted for.
  • Invite everyone on your list of people interested in volunteering to a meeting or event at least once-a-month at your organization. This can be a training event (allowing candidates to observe but **not** to participate), a celebration, an open-house, a presentation, etc. Have a sign-in sheet for candidates at the onsite event. Ask staff and current volunteers to greet these candidates at each event. Your goal is to build relationships between the potential volunteers and current volunteers and staff, which better ensures the potential volunteers will be around for your once-a-year induction of new volunteers.
  • Create an email distribution list for all those interested in volunteering with your organization. This can be a YahooGroup or GoogleGroup that you configure so that only you can post to the list. Ask anyone interested in volunteering to join this group. Use this group to post
    • a notice about new information on your web site that might be of interest to potential volunteers (photos, a new program that’s been launched, a message from the Executive Director, an evaluation report — the material does not have to be specific to volunteers)
    • a request for potential volunteers to complete an online survey (such as via zoomerang or surveymonkey)
    • a reminder of a deadline
    • an invitation to join an organizing or exploratory committee
    • an offer from another organization (an invitation to an event, for instance)
    • a link to an article online about your organization, or that relates to the mission of your organization and that you think volunteers would find helpful
    • an essay or testimonials by one of your current volunteers
    • a link to photos of volunteers in action at Flickr or Picasa
    • a reminder about training activities at other organizations that could be helpful to a potential volunteer (for instance, for potential firefighters, classes offered by the American Red Cross or the state agency that oversees firefighter training)
  • Look for ways to offer your induction/training for volunteers more than once-a-year. If you absolutely cannot offer it at least twice a year, look for an organization within a 50 mile radius that has the same induction/training for new volunteers as your organization, but that offers such at a different time of year. Sit down with that organization and look for ways to create a reciprocal agreement so that you can send potential volunteers to their volunteer induction/training, and vice versa. It may mean adjustments to both of your induction/trainings so that they meet each others’ needs. Talk with your legal adviser to make sure insurance covers volunteers trained at another facility. You can still require these volunteers to go through parts of your own induction/training when the time comes, to take a mini-induction/training so that they are familiar with all equipment and unique procedures at your organization, or to be limited in their volunteering activities until they go through your own induction/training.
  • Could volunteers-in-waiting help with events that honor current volunteers, or their training activities? Could they staff sign-in tables, hand out food and drinks at training events, help prepare a venue for an event or training, etc.? If they do any of these activities, they need to thanked very publicly by the current volunteers.

The goal is that potential volunteers start to feel a part of the organization as soon as possible, even though they are not yet active volunteers. You have a much better chance that these candidates will be around for your once-a-year induction for new volunteers if you create ways for potential volunteers to be involved in some way right away. This process will help volunteer candidates learn the culture of your organization — the language you use, the vibe of your work place, etc. This process will also help you screen out people who will realize volunteering at your organization isn’t really for them, and screen in people who are a good fit to your program. And isn’t it better that people realize this before they go through your actual full training/induction?

If all of this seems like too much work, you need to take a hard look at your commitment to involving volunteers. What is behind your reluctance to involve volunteers? What value do you see in volunteer involvement at your organization? Is it time for you to go to your supervisor and be honest and ask for help to overcome your reluctance to involve volunteers?

Also see:

International Association of Fire Fighters is anti-volunteer

Conferencia Latinoamericana de Voluntariado, 14 al 16 de octubre

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Del 14 al 16 de octubre se realizará en Guayaquil, Ecuador, la VI Conferencia Latinoamericana de Voluntariado que organiza la International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) con el lema “El voluntariado como expresión de la participación social”. A la Asociación Coordinadora del Voluntariado, ACORVOL, en tanto miembro del IAVE, le ha correspondido organizar la Conferencia Regional Latinoamericana de Voluntariado. De este modo por primera vez Guayaquil será sede de tan magno evento.

Contará con una jornada dedicada a la juventud y, durante su desarrollo, se abordarán dos grandes ejes: Voluntariado como agente de cambio y transformación social; y Voluntariado Corporativo: ¿Hacia dónde vamos?. Es de destacar que el Consejo Mundial de Voluntariado Corporativo  de IAVE (Global Corporate Volunteer Council) sesionará en este marco, por lo cual contaremos con líderes globales y regionales de voluntariado corporativo.

ACORVOL cuenta con 40 años de presencia en la comunidad, 77 instituciones afiliadas y es el referente del voluntariado en la provincia del Guayas. Particularmente en Guayaquil el voluntariado tiene una tradición que data desde la época colonial, pues tuvo que hacer frente a una saga de desgracias que generaron el comportamiento peculiar de su colectividad, dentro de la cual, el sentimiento de solidaridad ha sido una constante, llegando a ser parte consustancial de su identidad.

ACORVOL cuenta con 40 años de presencia en la comunidad, 77 instituciones afiliadas y es el referente del voluntariado en la provincia del Guayas. Particularmente en Guayaquil el voluntariado tiene una tradición que data desde la época colonial, pues tuvo que hacer frente a una saga de desgracias que generaron el comportamiento peculiar de su colectividad, dentro de la cual, el sentimiento de solidaridad ha sido una constante, llegando a ser parte consustancial de su identidad.

Desde estos valores estamos trabajando para invitar y abrir las puertas para la participación de organizaciones del voluntariado, líderes de organizaciones públicas, privadas y comunitarias, ONG’s y al sector empresarial de América y el Mundo.

OBJETIVOS

  • Ofrecer un espacio de encuentro, reflexión, contraste y trabajo a las organizaciones de voluntariado y a las personas voluntarias en el contexto de América Latina.
  • Contextualizar la acción voluntaria y su participación en el cambio de época y en los distintos escenarios que estamos viviendo.
  • Contribuir al fortalecimiento de la interacción del voluntariado con los diferentes estamentos de la sociedad.
  • Fomentar el encuentro y articulación entre voluntarios y organizaciones de voluntariado juvenil en la región que potencien un trabajo en red.
  • Visibilizar las acciones e impacto del voluntariado juvenil en la Región.
  • Presentar a la Conferencia Regional las recomendaciones y propuestas que la Juventud tenga sobre el voluntariado.
  • Aprovechar, incentivar y encauzar el potencial del personal de las empresa en beneficio de las necesidades sociales y de las asociaciones de voluntariado de la comunidad en la que trabajan a través del conocimiento de lo que es el Voluntariado Corporativo

Virtual volunteering & a rose by any other name…

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Virtual volunteering – it goes by oh-so-many names, and not just in English:

  • virtual volunteering (and variations such as virtual volunteers)
  • online volunteering (and variations such as online volunteers)
  • evolunteering (and variations such as e-volunteering, e-volunteers, etc.)
  • voluntarios virtuales
  • voluntarios en línea
  • voluntarios digitales
  • voluntarios en red
  • bénévolat virtuel
  • bénévolat enligne
  • bénévolat Internet
  • e-wolontariat
  • e-mentoring (and variations such as online mentors, online mentoring, telementoring, etc.)
  • microvolunteering (and variations such as micro-volunteering, microvolunteers, etc.)
  • microtasking
  • micro work
  • crowdsourcing
  • wisdom of the crowd
  • crowd computing
  • crowdcasting
  • distributed computing
  • distributed development
  • distributed thinking
  • hive mind
  • smart mob
  • virtual community of practice
  • virtual management
  • virtual teams
  • virtual workforce
  • Internet-mediated volunteering

More?

Wiki re: virtual volunteering in Europe

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In the course of researching and writing about Internet-mediated volunteering (virtual volunteering, online volunteering, microvolunteering, online mentoring, etc.) in European Union (EU) countries, I created a wiki to serve as a publicly-shared knowledge base for resources used to inform this project, resources that could inform future research projects related to the subject matter, and to invite further submissions of relevant information from any wiki visitor. The ICT4EMPLOY wiki includes:

  • More about the overall project & researchers
  • The information we are seeking / How to submit information
  • Online Volunteering-related recruitment or matching web sites
  • Organisations that involve online volunteers in the EU
  • Resources related to volunteering as a contributor to employability
  • Resources related to arguments against and concerns about volunteering by unions/professionals in Europe
  • Resources and research related to Internet-mediated volunteering (focused on, but not limited to, Europe)
  • Resources related to telecommuting, virtual teams and remote management
  • Legal status and regulations regarding volunteers
  • Resources related to volunteer engagement and volunteerism in EU countries statistics, studies, volunteer centres, volunteer matching sites, sites for volunteers, sites for those that want to involve volunteers, etc.
  • RSS feeds for keywords associated with Internet-mediated volunteering
  • Información en español
  • Informations en français
  • Informationen in Deutsch

I’ll update it as long as I’m working on the research.

Time Magazine asserts there are no organized Atheist volunteers

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Time Magazine published a gross misstatement by Joe Klein recently:

“funny how you don’t see organized groups of secular humanists giving out hot meals.”

Hemant Mehta did a brilliant job of detailing just SOME of the organized groups of secular humanists that have helped after disasters. But Time refuses to apologize and continues the misstatements about these not-so-faith-based volunteers.

We hear so much about faith-based volunteers, and that’s fine, but let’s remember that there are not only also lots of secular humanists and atheists that volunteer, there are ORGANIZED groups that cater especially to those people, despite what Time Magazine and Joe Klein say. Volunteering is not just a Christian thing, not just a faith-based thing, not even just an American thing  – it’s a very HUMAN thing. 

EU agencies exploiting interns?

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Here we go again.

I blog about the exploitation of unpaid interns a lot – most recently just a few days ago when a US Federal judge has ruled that against the company that made the movie “The Black Swan” for not paying interns.

Now the spotlight is on various EU offices and their involvement of interns:

The European Commission offers some 1,400 sought-after five-month traineeships a year with a 1,074 euros monthly salary that is top tier… Yet the pay is well below the Belgian minimum wage requirement of 1,500 euros per month. Many other advertised positions offer monthly stipends of a few hundred euros and sometimes nothing at all.

Traineeships are supposed to provide training, but the line between that and actual employment is often blurred.

EU agencies, you have two choices:

  • pay trainees at least minimum wage and limit an intern to no more than four months in any internship at any organization, or,
  • create a mission (and a mission statement) for your volunteer (unpaid staff) involvement and live it: state explicitly why your organization reserves certain tasks / assignments / roles for volunteers (unpaid staff, including unpaid interns), to guide employees and volunteers in how they think about volunteers, to guide current volunteers in thinking about their role and value at the organization, and to show potential volunteers the kind of culture they can expect at your organization regarding volunteers. A commitment by the EU to involve volunteers would be a wonderful thing – allowing EU citizens to take on tasks and see first hand how an agency works that is meant to serve them, creating a sense of both ownership by citizens as well as a sense of transparency about the agency.

Either way, these internships, paid or unpaid, should be structured so that they provide real, meaningful learning experiences – that’s what makes them internships, regardless of pay.

And you best do it soon, because otherwise, EU interns may use the dollar/Euro value of volunteer hours that UN Volunteers, IFRC, ILO & others are promoting to sue you for back pay.

My previous blogs on this subject:

Note that the links within these blogs may not work, as I moved all of my blogs from Posterous to WordPress a few months ago, and it broke all of the internal links. Also, some web pages on other organization’s sites have moved since I linked to such, and I either don’t know or haven’t been able to find a new location for the material.