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Open Source Comes to Campus/Meta-organizing/Meta organizer: Difference between revisions
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__NOTOC__
## 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.▼
▲A meta-organizer
## How we meta-organize in San Francisco▼
The event's '''organizer''' is responsible for the event, through and through -- they reserve a room, handle food logistics, set the schedule, and more. They're very welcome to delegate that, but they're the person primarily responsible.
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.▼
The organizer is supported by a '''meta-organizer''' -- a person who works with the organizer to help them run a great event. The meta-organizer makes connections between the organizer and prospective mentors, helps the organizer decide on a schedule, answers funding questions, and more. Typically a meta-organizer is someone who has organized events before and has wisdom to share.
### Workflow:▼
If you're reading this, that might be you!
* Follow up with those who have questions or are up for it.▼
Meta-organizer is '''a relationship you have with a particular event''' rather than a title one keeps forever. It's OK to be a meta-organizer for an event today and be an organizer of a different event tomorrow!
## Strategies for Recruiting Organizers▼
Keep reading and you'll see how to be a great meta-organizer for an event.
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!▼
### 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.▼
* Ask! And when you ask, ask for nominations as well. They might know someone perfect.▼
In general, we share this with every person who has been a meta-organizer for an event.
## Information & Skills Needed ▼
These are the things you need to know and be able to do to be an effective meta-organizer.▼
* Periodically, some people who have been meta-organizers get together to brainstorm and send emails to prospective event organizers.
### Growing the Potential Workshop Organizers List▼
* To find event organizers, we look through the list of past volunteers and organizers and people who have contacted OpenHatch expressing interest in running an event.
* We also sometimes look through big lists of computer science organizations (such as this [http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_academic_organizations_interested_in_women_in_CS List of academic organizations interested in Women in CS]) to see if any of them might be interested in organizing again or for the the first time.
* For each prospective event, we assign a prospective meta-organizer. That person sends out emails to their potential organizers.
* The meta-organizer helps the local organizer pick a date for their event and find volunteers, and answers any other questions the organizer has.
Information needed:▼
▲The path often looks something like:
* 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:▼
▲* Look at your
* Ability to ask for help convincingly▼
* At the beginning of the event, announce that there will be a table at lunch for people interested in how the event was organized, so that attendees who are curious can begin to learn about the inner workings of the event.
* Participation at events where you can recruit people to the list of potential organizers is hugely helpful▼
▲* Ask past attendees & mentors & organizers! And when you ask, ask for nominations as well. They might know someone perfect.
▲These are the things you need to know and be able to do to be an effective meta-organizer.
Every event needs an organizer and some mentors. We need to keep growing the list of people so that people who would enjoy doing that are able to do it!
Information needed:
▲* A list of past organizers, friends, volunteers, and anyone you can think to
* A list of past organizers who might be interested in organizing
* A list of colleges/universities you are willing to email people at -- even better if there is a computer club or women in CS organization
▲* 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 & mentors is hugely helpful
Information needed:
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* Ability to keep track of who's been asked, when, and what they said (spreadsheet!)
=== Helping organizers pick a date & create sign-up page ===
Information needed:
*
* Availability of mentors if you know some who are tentatively interested in attending the workshop
* Knowledge of where to announce the event once it's scheduled (for example, events.openhatch.org)
Skills needed:
* Tolerance for email back-and-forth (or Google Hangouts meetings/phone calls) to determine date of
* Willingness to convince the organizers they need a sign-up page
Great events often start with a kick-off meeting between the '''meta-organizer''' and the '''organizer(s)'''. We often do this before the date is picked, but it's OK to do it after the date is picked.
Information needed:
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Skills needed:
* Ability to schedule
* Excitement
* Ability to answer questions about organizing
=== Helping the organizer(s) get connected with mentors ===
### Making sure the workshop is actually being planned▼
Every Open Source Comes to Campus event needs mentors. The organizer is fundamentally responsible for getting a mentor involved, but they typically need help finding the mentors. That's where the meta-organizer comes in.
▲Information needed:
* List of people's names & email addresses & general info about them, who are possibly interested in mentoring
* Knowledge of what mentoring options are available
* General stuff about mentoring, to answer their questions
▲Skills needed:
* Ability to email prospective mentors, preferably with a suggestion of a ''specific'' mentorship task they'd be good at, CC:ing the event organizer(s)
* Willingness to follow up with prospective mentors if they don't reply
* Ability to stay organized with these emails
Information needed:
* Date of the workshop
* Whether or not the organizers are planning the
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, to see if you can help spread the load
* Communication skills to help resolve issues with organizers / mentors / venues should they arise
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