If you're reading this, you've probably been invited to join the Virtual Coffee volunteer team for room leading and note taking at our regularly scheduled weekly coffees! Welcome!! :)
This article serves as a living document for getting you all set up for feeling confident and secure in your new role. While you are always welcome to ask a community maintainer or more experienced volunteer for advice, we know folks get a lot of value from having an official source that they can refer to. So without further ado, here are our recommended steps for getting the most out of your onboarding experience.
Table of Contents
- The Documentation
- Choosing your roles
- Your first note taking
- Your first paired room lead
- Your first solo room lead
- Final Notes
Here at VC we're trying for documentation driven roles and processes. As such we always recommend new volunteers start by reading the current documentation. Check out the virtual coffee contributors repository for information, either in the files, or in the community driven discussions. It's probably the fastest and most convenient way to get up to speed with how the team operates.
If you're part of the coffee room leading and note taking team, we suggest getting started with reviewing the docs in the coffee folder and focusing on the room leader and note taker documentation especially. That should provide a decent start to understanding your role, as well as suggested tips and techniques for having a successful session.
Once you've read the docs, the next step should be making note of any lingering questions, concerns, or notes you have about the process and bringing them up to a maintainer. No question is too simple, or silly, and the VC maintainers Love an opportunity to provide more clarity for members. At the end of this discussion, the next step may be for you to add those answers to the docs, so the next person who views them gets to benefit from the knowledge you've gained. It's by this process that we make our documentation more helpful, thorough, and complete. So we really really do welcome as much feedback as you'd like to share. It makes us all better.
Once you've read through the documentation and suggested some changes, you're ready to take the plunge into choosing a role. The most important thing to remember is, you never have to volunteer. Never feel guilt, shame, or stress over not being able to take on a role on a particular day, even if you notice there aren't many volunteers for that day. We do appreciate the time and effort everyone makes to help around here, but this isn't a job. We do what we can, when we have the bandwidth. This should be fun, and it's hard to have fun when you feel like you're forced.
As for the practicals of volunteering, every Monday a post is made in the #room-leaders-note-takers channel in the slack asking folks to indicate with emojis,
whether they're available for room leading, note-taking, both, or neither. On Monday and Wednesday afternoon the first draft of the roster will be posted. This
gives folks a few hours in case we need to make adjustments. You can always change your mind by replying in the thread for a particular day.
note: If you notice one of the maintainers has put you in a role you didn't sign up for, or one you no longer feel comfortable with, again just let them know in the thread.
If you've familiarized yourself with the docs and you've signed up for your first notetaking then all that's left is to show up on your scheduled day ready to go! The note taker doc should have all the information you need to get going. If you feel nervous, feel free to reach out to whoever you've been paired with. You should be assigned to someone who's had a lot of experience leading a room, and you can always ask them for advice or feedback. Just be aware that not everyone has a lot of time before coffees begin to chat due to other responsibilities.
Your first room lead will always have you paired with another experienced member, typically a maintainer. They'll chat with you beforehand to decide the way the two of you will handle the room, and what responsibilities you'll handle or share. You will probably start off doing mainly observation and monitoring and responding to the text chat. As you grow comfortable, you can start practicing doing the intro at the beginning of the breakout room, leading the ice breaker section, and finally, facilitating the main conversations. More details can be found in the room leader doc. We highly encourage you to reach out to your paired room leader before, during, and after this for advice and feedback.
Two things we believe it's important to remember during this process:
- You are free to hold off on leading a room until you feel comfortable
- You are free to request paired room leading until you feel comfortable doing it solo
Once you feel ready for solo leading you can begin volunteering for room leading by yourself (still with a designated note taker of course). At this point, you should be fully familiar with the process and the host will try as much as possible to keep some familiar faces in your room for additional support and encouragement.
That should be enough to get you started! If you feel like anything could be added to this doc, let us know! If you want to add anything, also let us know! If you hate this doc, also also let us know! (But be kind about it).