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

• Mentor Matching v1.1: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17vE4j6G3M7rIMlMlVmFoSpUR79UDCM1OvjYoNydn91Y/edit#gid=1416036833
• ASE Demographics:

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:

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.