Registered Code for America Network Volunteer

As mentioned in the Network ReVisioning Strategy, our vision is to move from nebulous member definitions to registered volunteer designations.

In response to ReVisioning and discussions with Code for America HR and Legal, CfA is working on a more formal volunteer agreement in place with all Code for America volunteers (e.g. volunteers in the Network, volunteers supporting the CfA Tax Benefits work).

The volunteer agreement will detail the relationship between volunteers and CfA, and will outline the expectations and duties for both CfA and volunteers.

Note that the volunteer agreement should be signed by volunteers of fiscally sponsored Brigades of CfA and volunteers on CfA Network projects and initiatives (including but not limited to: National Action Team volunteers, Network Organizing Branch Working Group members, and Brigade Congress committee members).

3rd Party and Partner Brigades are separate entities, so volunteers in these Brigades are not required to sign the CfA volunteer agreement unless they are working on something directly owned by CfA. We are working on identifying who can be considered as a Code for America Network volunteer.

How to Participate

CfA Volunteer Experience Survey: In addition to the CfA volunteer agreement, we are working on revamping the Network’s volunteer experience. Please participate in our volunteer experience activity, which you can access and read more about here. We will be using the insights from the activity to inform what areas of the experience we need to prioritize working on.

Registered Network Member Benefits: Anyone* will be able to register as a Code for America Network Volunteer/Member, which will come with benefits and perks. If you would like to take part in proposing what the perks should be, leave a comment in this thread or email Mari at mmiranda@codeforamerica.org.

*Folks who don’t live in the U.S. will not be able to be a registered volunteer.

Great to hear of this opportunity :+1:. For both volunteers and the CfA Network.

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Suggestion for a Network Member perk: Ship stickers to Brigades!!!

This amazing effort to gather ‘signatures’ from folks in-person was led by Tyler Chong.

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What is this effort trying to achieve?

My initial reaction is that unless it’s very free and very easy, we’re creating a barrier to entry.

I have mixed feelings about this proposal.

Something that I could potentially really support about it, though, is if it enabled volunteer contact information to be collected once and managed under a consistent privacy policy, enabling sort of a single sign-on for all Network activities. That is the benefit I would most appreciate as a volunteer and as an organizer.

Here’s what folks shared in the Participatory Governance area at Brigade Congress (with one more signature added to the sticker petition!):

  • Ship stickers to Brigades!!! (with 23 supporters)
  • Impact Sprint style volunteering @ this level could be very useful – defined expectations on both sides of the agreement.

A new volunteer shared that a perk she would appreciate from registered volunteering would be a way to document the hands-on experience she gets from her contributions to Code for America projects.

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In general having a central volunteer database/resource would be helpful, and providing an incentive like a sticker would be great. I once imagined a paradigm where folks might have a CfA profile and get different stickers or badges based on how they contribute (i.e. first pull request merged, participated in a beta testing session, etc.)

It would be helpful if there was a way to link the registration to things like a Brigade newsletter, have a CRM to mail folks postcards, etc. if brigades choose. But that might be a bit ambitious.