Global Summit 2011/Working With Volunteers Workshop

WORKING WITH VOLUNTEERS SESSION
Sunday, September 18 @ 11.00-12.30 (Yellow room)
CC Summit 2011, Warsaw Poland

Hosts: Christian Villum (CC Denmark), Jay Yoon (CC Korea), Li Lujing (CC China Mainland)
Summary: Christian Villum (CC Denmark)

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Agenda:

• 1. Stories and ideas (CC Denmark, CC Korea, CC China Mainland)
• 2. Discussion
• 3. Sum up

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Summary:

1. Stories and ideas (CC Denmark, CC Korea, CC China Mainland)

"CC Denmark Friends" - presentation by Christian Villum (CC Denmark)

Idea / concept to be launched in Denmark in the next months: Basically, we've been discussing how to involve our community a little more in promoting CC. In Denmark we have a relatively large following who attends events and speaks positively about CC in their networks. Some of them have even asked how they can help more, but with a group of 3-5 people already organizing CC's current activities and events, it's hard to involve people more in that part. This is why we've been talking about other ways to let people get involved - and have come up with an idea called CC DENMARK FRIENDS (working title).

The idea is to make a group that everyone can become a registered member of (for free). The group - CC Denmark Friends - will act as a community with whom we, the CC Denmark staff, can interact to discuss tasks and ideas. First and foremost we would use the group to crowd source brainstorming for events (speakers, locations, sponsors etc.), but also it would work as a "street team" to spread info about planned CC events and activities (through e-flyers, social media etc.). With such a community we could also harness the benefits of a much larger network in order to lower costs of events through sponsorships (a large network usually have people running hotels, venues, gear rental etc. who would like to help out or sponsor). Last, but not least, we are playing with the idea to use the community to do small-scale crowd funding to collect means to invite more prominent speakers to CC Salons and other events. In other words, CC Denmark Friends would involve a larger group in several stages of planning activities and create more momentum for CC in Denmark.

In practice, we have a guy (great CC activist) ready to act as community leader (in collab with us), and would probably use Ning or something similar as backbone for the experiment. After implementation, we'd naturally also want to share all our experiences with this to other CC affiliates, so if it works well maybe others would like to do something similar. The plan is to launch over the winter 2011-21.

"CC Korea community" - presentation by Jay Yoon (CC Korea)

Key points: Emphasis on creating an activist community rather than a legal community. Focus on strengths of creating an open community - of both ideological and practical reasons. Volunteers needs to be interested in a project to be motivated. Important to point out a community coordinator - in Korean case, a full-time position for two people (secretary function too) Over 100 members of current community They've recently changed membership rules, so that temporary volunteer engagement is possible (project based). This has removed one of the known barriers of recruitment, and 60 people joined after this tweaking of the organization. "Volunteer long tail" (as the Chris Anderson concept) Important realization: Do not focus solely on internal competence. Instead, as a community, focus on personalization (via social media, for instance) Tools used: Google Docs, Facebook (FB) group page How to get people to join - reach out via Twitter, FB Other motivation-factor: Tone down the fact that the community will be working for a global organization. CC hardly has to been mentioned. Focus on the good cause. Protocol: Once volunteers are part of a project, they are obligated to make sure it finishes.

"CC China Mainland online community" - presentation by Li Lujing (CC China Mainland)

Key points: They've built an online community (started in 2009). The idea was to create an influential organization. Activities: Salons, OER, translations, event participations, and more. The online platform is the main connection between community members. Tools used: Twitter, webpage, BBS (Bulleting Board System), newsletters (translated into chinese) Participation gives score; highest rank gives credit among volunteers. It's important to have a system for inviting people. Also important to give volunteers a success-feeling and also be aware that volunteers maybe not necessarily are interested in CC.

2. Discussion

Discussion (hosts and audience): CC Qatar: Good idea to keep a database of potential volunteers. Most people would like to lurk (avoid obligations) - when starting new projects, select the first person and let that person take charge, the rest will follow. CC China: Having translations contest works well for us. An idea (not tried) could be to give ranking in the community based on level of engagement. In time a community could maybe even become team leader based on such a system. China: It's also a good idea to have people be able to suggest ideas for projects. Another good idea is to create and advisory group with a background in the arts. They can help find good people for the network. No registration is also an idea for communities, in order not to have volunteers feel too much obligation. Other: CC should not forget it's cool factor, it carries values to say that you're volunteering for CC. CC Denmark: Motivation factors are also culturally rooted (different things motivate you to volunteer depending on what culture you're part of) Other: Internal ranking (within global CC system) could be a incentive to do volunteer work. CC Denmark: Maybe it could be an idea to create a global CC framework for volunteers, where people could gain recognition for their volunteer work. In other words, an international community ranking system. Could be something to be administered locally on affiliate level - but the framework (portal) should be global (initiated by HQ maybe) CC Korea: Would be good to condense the CC-volunteering selling point in one sentence, like a slogan for volunteering with CC.

3. Sum up

Time unfortunately didn't permit us to do this.