Open Source Comes to Campus/Meta-organizing/Meta organizer


 * 1) What's a meta-organizer?

A meta-organizer finds workshop organizers and venues so that lots of workshops can happen in a given locale. Since we have 1-2 workshops a month in San Francisco, we spread out who's doing the heavy lifting of running each workshop.


 * 1) How we meta-organize in San Francisco

In SF, we have a spreadsheet that lists out our prospective organizers / venues, the status of each upcoming workshop, and which of us was responsible for making sure that worskhop took place. This helps us keep track of who's doing what, where, when.


 * 1) Workflow:


 * At least once per quarter, get together to brainstorm and send emails.
 * Comb through the past volunteer and organizer lists to see who might be willing to organize again or for the first time.
 * Look through our list of companies who have previously offered to host or that we have contacts at and decide who to ask.
 * Send out a bunch of emails to potential organizers and venues.
 * Follow up with those who have questions or are up for it.
 * Connect volunteers and venues to pick a date for their workshop.


 * 1) Strategies for Recruiting Organizers

The path often looks something like: student --> TA --> teacher --> organizer, but that's very rough and often steps are skipped. Lots of teachers don't start off as students, for instance, and sometime students are ready to jump right into organizing!


 * 1) Places to look for organizers


 * Look at your recent volunteers list, and see if you have repeat volunteers. These folks might be up for stepping into the organizer role for a workshop.
 * At the beginning of the workshop, announce that there will be a table at lunch of people talking about organizing a workshop if anyone is interested in that.
 * Ask! And when you ask, ask for nominations as well. They might know someone perfect.


 * 1) Information & Skills Needed

These are the things you need to know and be able to do to be an effective meta-organizer.


 * 1) Growing the Potential Workshop Organizers List

Information needed:


 * A list of past organizers, friends, volunteers, and anyone you can think to ask to organize
 * Other humans' suggestions for who to ask

Skills needed:


 * Ability to ask for help convincingly
 * Participation at events where you can recruit people to the list of potential organizers is hugely helpful


 * 1) Recruiting Venues + Sponsors

Information needed:


 * A list of local tech companies; often but not necessarily RoR shops
 * Space / tech requirements for a workshop
 * Benefits to hosting a workshops

Skills needed:


 * Research skills to find new venues
 * Ability to email people you don't know
 * Remembering to follow up
 * Following up
 * Keeping track of who you've asked, so you can follow up


 * 1) Actually recruiting workshop organizers

Information needed:


 * A brief pitch of what organizing is and why they should do it
 * Prior experience organizing goes a long way in explaining what it entails

Skills needed:


 * Ability to email people you don't know
 * Email writing and follow up, remembering to follow up, following up, etc.
 * Ability to keep track of who's been asked, when, and what they said (spreadsheet!)


 * 1) Matching venues with organizers

Information needed:


 * Venue's and organizer's availability
 * Where to announce / post when workshop is scheduled

Skills needed:


 * Tolerance for email back-and-forth to determine date of workshop


 * 1) Hosting organizer kick-off meeting

Information needed:


 * Who is organizing
 * General stuff about organizing, to answer their questions

Skills needed:


 * Ability to schedule drinks/coffee with all the organizers and hopefully the mentor
 * Excitement for RailsBridge and workshops
 * Ability to answer questions about organizing


 * 1) Making sure the workshop is actually being planned

Information needed:


 * Date of the workshop
 * Whether or not the organizers are planning the workshop

Skills needed:


 * Ability to follow up with organizers to make sure things are going okay
 * Judgement to determine if one of the organizers is doing all the work
 * Communication skills to help resolve issues with organizers / mentors / venues should they arise