Connect Online Community





Volunteer Opportunities & Mentor Matching Spec v1.0

Objectives

  • Keep it as simple as possible
  • Unify concepts of mentor matching and volunteering and general opportunities / tasks
  • Unified term: Opportunities; ie Find Opportunities, Post Opportunities, etc.

Requirements

  1. Volunteering involves finding and signing up for opportunities, and potentially approval/selection for confirming
  2. Mentor matching involves finding and signing up for mentee and mentor opportunities, and approval/selection for confirming; note this establishes a special kind of relationship between members and other members, but also a group because the opportunity will be removed upon a match
  3. Project management / tasks are also a kind of opportunity; but typically with more explicit assignment by a manager; though closely tied to volunteering with committee responsibilities
  4. Possibly this also covers Classifieds - though no payment system is in place currently.
  5. Possibly overlaps Accomplishments/Badges.

Scopes

  1. For tasks and volunteering an opportunity might typically in-group; but, you might offer it externally to help bring in new members to help with the objective of a group; for example member driven initiatives
  2. Mentor matching is a kind of task when you are a mentee and require a mentor, or are a mentor and require one or more mentees; upon a match, the relationship becomes a kind of task on both sides; enforcement, monitoring, reminders, accept, decline; for simplification a log of progress makes sense for any kind of task, including relationships between mentee / mentor.

References

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FgDjMU3ChA-4c_uBPIjMxaUCtcaIOumCBCdaaVDgor0/edit?usp=sharing


User Experience

Groups in the Community are generic containers which can be used for many purposes; opportunities within groups may have many flavors.  For example you might have a volunteer opportunity to bring in new mentors or mentees broadly; but another opportunity for a specific mentor or mentee who needs a match.  In terms of data all of these concepts work well together; but the user experience will need to be intuitive and simple when possible.


Opportunity Matching UI

Actions:

[Add]

List of opportunities

[Name; Mentorship]        [Posted By John Smith]        [Expires]        [Edit]

Edit Details / Demographics:

Field

Value

Name

Known

Gender

Known

Birthday

Known

Nature

I need help

Mentee,Task,Opportunity

I want to help

Mentor,Assignee,Volunteer

Demographics (apply to both Natures in both directions)

Filters

Optional

REQUIRE or PREFER values

Gender

Ethnicity

Married

Children

Other Considerations

Optional

Military Veteran

Second Career

Working Parent

First Generation College Graduate

First Generation American

Interests

Optional

Sports

Traveling

Arts & Music

Outdoor Activities

Community Involvement & Volunteerism

Other

Objectives to Learn or Teach

*

Professional Development

Personal Development

Professional Networking

Leadership Development

Behavioral Development

Specific Interests

*

[Definable list here]

Special Needs

Introduction / Bio / Application Bio

Time Term

Start / End

Total needed

3

Maximum proposals

100


Enhancements to Platform

Demographics Management (core category system)

  • Branch (branch > type > category)
  • Type of Demographic: Name
  • Categories in Type:
  • Matches: Group, Member
  • Scope: Global (all customers - shared), Specific (this installation only)
  • Multi-selection / single selection - enforcement/validation
  • Values:
  • Name (text)
  • Description (text)
  • Value (number/text)
  • Tags (special handling or findability?)
  • Auxiliary Types (functional handling)
  • Applies to (simplification of opportunity type list)

Concerns: customizable demographics/categories create huge amounts of redundant work and box in perspectives based upon industry; alleviating this with global scope (sharing) could benefit all customers in all industries and dramatically reduce redundant work (standardization).

Opportunities Management

  • Type of Opportunity:
  • Nature (need help, want to help)
  • Scope:
  • Members in group
  • All members
  • Note technically all matches are always between members - a task is created by a manager/member, a mentor creates a “want to help” a mentee creates a “need help”; this relationship is implicit in all scenarios
  • Invite specific members
  • Assign to specific members
  • Matching:
  • *Conflict of interest statement attachment
  • Technically if you sign up for an opportunity, you are posting a singular “want to help” or “applying” to an opportunity; it may be a hidden “want to help” behind the scenes
  • If there is always a required “need help” and “want to help” relationship with opportunity matching; algorithmically point matching becomes simplistic
  • Submissions should have: “no preference”, “prefer”, “require” for demographics
  • Time Terms:
  • Start date
  • End date
  • Priority
  • Product of Opportunity (requirement for completion):
  • Hours logged?
  • Interval of log entry with hours? (ie meet once a month for 2 hours)
  • Completed status? (task completed, document signed, etc.)
  • File Attachment?
  • Group permission based review/mark completed status)
  • Finding:
  • Community-wide searching; includes groups I am in and groups I could be in
  • Must match demographics
  • Must be under maximum submissions
  • Show opportunities on Homepage for members
  • Redundancy:
  • An opportunity bio or “application” needs to be possible in all scenarios
  • Multiple bios managed by members; handled by re-using previous bios
  • “Apply using”: Bio selection; new Bio; perhaps bio is the wrong term, “apply with”: previous applications (opportunities in same nature/direction; “I want to help”, “I need help”)
  • Re-posting ability to refresh
  • Notifications:
  • A mentor, manager, or task owner gets notifications of submissions
  • Group owners (permissions) also?  Method to cover multiple targets and passively moderate or accept on behalf of
  • Broadcasting opportunities in some type of “you may have missed” email notification for groups you are a part of, or can be a part of? (can’t use discussions due to accessibility and frequency needs)
  • Method to anonymously or specifically complain to group owner about members of an opportunity
  • Feedback / Surveys?
  • Internal feedback only?
  • History trail from all opportunities/feedback for staff viewing
  • Blacklisting some people?
  • Block from opportunities checkbox? Types? Mentorship/Volunteer?
  • Approval:
  • Approval per owner of opportunity or group permission as manager

Progress Management

  • A progress entry is required soon - reminder
  • Failed to meet requirement
  • An opportunity is expiring soon - re-broadcast opportunity before expiration
  • List of items “to do” for member
  • Automation rules to initiate private messages between opportunity members for reminders?
  • Classifieds: staff involved in managing - entails actions; todo, etc.
  • RSS/API feeds for opportunities
  • Tracking financials in AMS; product purchases
  • Engagement scoring (NetForum, etc.)
  • Exposed publicly - member only / public opportunity
  • Kanban chart of items needed to complete or enter log for
  • TODO, IN PROGRESS, OVERDUE, DONE

Simplifications / Facade

  • Intrinsic Types
  • Mentor
  • Mentee
  • Task
  • Volunteer Wanted
  • Want to Volunteer
  • Job Opening
  • Acquisition
  • For Sale
  • Seeking Job
  • Application Bios
  • Volunteer Bio
  • Mentor Bio
  • Mentee Bio
  • Job/Career Bio
  • Attachments (letter of recommendation, etc.)
  • Project Management
  • Monday.com type of user experience
  • Per Group label for Opportunities to rename (Mentorship, Volunteering, Tasks, etc.)
  • Per Member Opportunities Management (My Opportunities > Bios/Applications)

Accomplishments (tangential)

  • Accomplishments are a series of steps or action history to complete or be awarded an Accomplishment; such as a badge, visiting a number of booths at an event, private messaging (networking) with a certain number of people, etc.
  • Automation rules are already conducive to this; along with facilitating badging (goal to expose in Open Badge system for cross platform badge support)
  • Accomplishment incentives may cross with Opportunities; ie you can win this badge if you volunteer 5 times this calendar year.