Hi fellow Brigade leaders! I’m happy to share a process that we’ve created (and have been testing for some time) at OpenOakland related to onboarding – collecting contact information for who shows up and making sure they get welcomed into the fold.
The process consists of two Google Forms and a bit of Google Apps Script to tie everything together. It’s outlined in detail at:
What is this?
This repository embodies the onboarding process we’re using at OpenOakland. It works pretty well for us, so we felt it was worth sharing with the network.
OpenOakland’s Onboarding Goals:
- Be able to measure retention of volunteers who stop by OpenOakland
- Create a feedback mechanism in case a newcomer feels unwelcome for any reason
- Acknowledge the volunteer’s time contribution by thanking them for attending the next day
- Develop an understanding of how new volunteers connect (or don’t connect) with projects.
Here’s an overview of what the process includes:
- Onboarding Form - During Hack Night, collect new members’ names, emails, and whatever else. Here is OpenOakland’s.
- Slack Invitation - Send members an invitation to your Slack workspace immediately after completing the Onboarding Form.
- Follow-up Email - For members who give permission, send a follow-up email the next day thanking them for attending.
- Follow-up Survey - Collect information on if the person expects to return and feedback about how their first Hack Night experience was. Here is OpenOakland’s.
How can I use this?
You’ll just need to copy a couple Google Forms and set up some Google Apps Script. Instructions are in the README.
If you deploy this yourself, ping me in the thread here and I’ll make sure to update you when I release any bugfixes.
Who’s supporting this?
This project is a volunteer project of OpenOakland, maintained by me, @tdooner, on a best-effort basis. It’s not something that’s officially CfA supported.