[Computerbank] many many new volunteer induction days at CAI-VIC - new volunteer program

[Kylie Davies <mailkylie@optushome.com.au>]

  Hello hello...

I guess this is a test...a test for two things;

a) does the mailing list work?...and...
b) who is serious about getting involved / staying involved in CAI-VIC 
under our "new (gnu)" revamped improved volunteer program?

Okay folks - here are the luverly details :)

CAI-VIC will be holding regular volunteer induction days for three kinds 
of volunteer... technical, training / documentation / support, and 
administration / policy.

Stream A: Technical - I'd like to divide this further into hardware and 
software but I dont think we have the folk to do this.

In order to do this I need to hear from people or a person who is 
willing to mentor others in hardware and system building / refurbishing. 
Ideally this person would be required to give up one night or 
saturday/sunday on a monthly basis. Do i have any volunteers??

We have our software people - Grant Diffey, David Hatton and Con Validas 
helping out with software installation induction. We'd like to hear from 
others with competencies in debian/gnu linux installation /kde and linux 
peripheral config / troubleshooting / music and sound specialists who 
may also be willing to contribute to these days. If there is enough 
interest we may be able to run another technical induction day in the 
evening or another weekend day.

A technical volunteer is someone who installs systems, builds systems, 
configures systems, configures peripherals and does a bit of 
troubleshooting. Specialist technical volunteers might participate in 
software development, database devlopment and networks.

Under this new volunteer program at CAI-Vic all volunteers (new and old) 
are being asked to participate in the induction processes.

Induction will occur for four/three streams of volunteer and will be 
based on volunteers filling out a skills audit (you are not required to 
fill these out if you dont want to) - skills audits will be in addition 
(and an extension) to the volunteer registration form we *do* require 
all volunteers to fill out (if you havent filled out the official form - 
email me for one). Please see the attached skillsaudit txt file for my 
thoughts on this.

Naturally any volunteer that has a particular flare / expertise for an 
operational area or a current project/ proposed project at CAI-VIC or 
for CAI -AUS* in general (task package development, interactive web 
strategies, software development projects for information management and 
c) will be noticed.

These special folk will be streamed into their area of expertise after 
completing a different kind of induction. An induction that introduces 
them to the organisation - why, what, who and how of CAI. All other 
streams of volunteer will do this as part of their induction day (briefly).

*CAI-AUS projects; ones that benefit all Compterbanks - need to be 
opened up to others - need to be decentralised in some ways. We are 
trying to do this. :)

The first technical induction day for 2002 will be held on Saturday the 
2nd of March. We will kick this of at 1.00pm sharp. We will require you 
to RSVP - because spots are limited and filling!! :) If you dont make it 
on to the March 2nd program - you can come to the next one. :)

Okay other volunteers streams include:

Stream B: Training / Documentation / User support: This kind of 
volunteer helps (or would like to help) train people, provide end user 
support or document training / support issues. This area isn't well 
endowed with volunteers - we need more :) Penni, myself, Steve P, Andrew 
R, Joanne B and David H are the mentors for this area.

We are having a regular mothly (if required and if enough interest) 
induction day for this group (main focus is training and introduction on 
the new KDE system)-the first of which will be conducted onWednesday the 
27th of Feb between starting at 7pm and ending at 9pm.

We want this group to start a fresh for the year 2002 and we welcome all 
newcomers. This group will continue to meet on a regular basis to 
discuss all issues involved in the area of documentation, training and 
support. This group will also look at current projects (ie: 
documentation) and try to improve our strategies for opening up and 
web-publishing our information.

Stream C: Administration and Policy - This kind of volunteer helps with 
admin work; phones, faxes, email, enquiries, taking messages, filing. 
Other people in this area might help to write processes on how they do 
things or how things could work better. Other volunteers in this area 
contribute to the policy writing process. Penni, myself, and Sue are 
experts in most of this - and will be mentors for all new volunteers to 
this area.

There are a few standard ways of doing things at CAI-VIC and the 
administration / policy induction day is your opportunity to come and 
learn them all. We will be holding this - (and yes it is only for people 
who are available to help out daytime hours - that's when we need folk) 
on Tuesday the 26th of February starting at 1.00pm and finishing around 
4.00pm. I do need RSVP's for this induction day - some spots have 
already been filled. :)

Okay so to recap:

Technical Induction Day - Saturday March 2nd 2002 starting sharp at 1pm. 
RSVP to me ASAP.

Training/Support/ Documentation day Induction - Wednesday February 27th 
commencing at 7pm sharp. RSVP to me ASAP.

Administration / Policy Induction - Tuesday February 26th starting sharp 
at 1pm. RSVP to me ASAP.

All new and old volunteers asked to do a skills audit and asked to sign 
up for induction (or talk to me about it if you really shouldnt be doing 
it) depending on their area of interest.

Skills audit information attached.

RSVP to my kylied@projectx.com.au account if you can remember.

Kind Regards,

Kylie Davies
Computerbank Australia - Victoria Branch State Co-ordinator.




This process is designed to assess the skills of people (whether they be
work for the dole, recipients, volunteers or staff) within Computerbank. The
skills audit will be appropriate to the environment at Computerbank.

The skills audit will happen at the beginning of a persons entry into CAI and 
at various milestones as determined by CAI. The skills audit is an ongoing
process.  

For certain groups (staff, work for the dole) a resume will be required.
This may be extended to volunteers. Recipients will be excluded from this
requirement for obvious reasons. Recipients will be required to do a
different skills audit (as per training audit and maybe extended further
into application process). We already obtain some skill information from
recipients as it is. 

The volunteer registration form should be reviewed by other groups. CB-NSW's
adaptation of it into a pdf style form is great and reduces the form to one
page. Can we improve on this form? Can we find out better information -
particularly about our more skilled volunteers?

Work for the dole group will be required to fill out a similar form - I'm
looking at that at the moment - I'm also looking for exisitig resources -
I'm sure I already have some. :) I will pass this on to other groups. 

A skills audit is useful in itself, but what is even better- is setting
goals to attain new skills. Learning objectives that incorporate (given the
work environment) activities to acheive them. This needs to be documented in
the skills audit. To add to it further, and to encourage people, we look at the 
opportunities in the work environment; that is places and strategies where
the skills will be attained.

Everynow and then, we do a review and start ticking off our NEW SKILLS.
When we do a review, learning objectives can change and will change - this
IMHO should be encouraged. Once people have attained a particular skillset
they can encouraged to look further and beyond.

And of course we must always remember to start off from where a person is,
dont take them somewhere they dont belong.

If Resumes are involved - upon a skills audit review - they should be
updated.