Faustian Bargain of DMS
15 Likes
Also, I don’t know of anywhere the volunteer tasks are posted or who to talk to as a point of contact for direction.
That in itself might be helpful!
The most common place probably is here on Talk (we even have a category for it, "volunteer opportunities).
There is also a category for volunteer events on the calendar, and some committees probably have a few other things they do specific to them.
In terms of a person, there isn’t a specific volunteer coordinator. Within a committee it would usually be the chair unless they designate something. Maybe we should have a volunteer position just to track the tasks each committee needs and see who has someone assigned to them.
1 Like
I assumed it was Draco…
Would this discussion be prudent to that idea?
Which, of course, points back to this
https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/bod-2019-10-13-create-a-member-services-group/63529
and, to be honest, I’m sure there are other similar ideas floating around, here on Talk and elsewhere…
Let’s get one fleshed out and get some sucker volunteer instilled!
1 Like
I’ll honestly say, if people posted more to the “Volunteer’s Needed” Forum I would probably volunteer. It’s always either been filled or empty when I look so I assume things are going well without me.
3 Likes
A lot of volunteer items require heavy lifting and sometimes getting ladders to crawl around near ceiling tiles. In other words, Expansion. This isn’t a good fit for me.
However, Laser cleanup and Woodshop cleanup on days that I can come to the space are one way I like to volunteer. Another is through attending committee meetings and volunteering to do assorted projects.
Maybe committees that need volunteers could do some sort of pinned post saying what they need, and then edit it as people do the tasks.
Maybe a shared resource like SignupGenius could be beneficial for tasks, since they can be time-slotted or be a checklist similar to a potluck where people can say what they’ll do instead of what they’ll bring.
1 Like
A person up on a ladder often appreciates someone to hand something up or retrieve dropped objects…
Posting a list on the front bulletin board or other prominent place with contact information may net more eyeballs than anything electronic.
3 Likes
I can do that if I know it’s needed and if my schedule allows it.
1 Like
First, in order to get (most) people to do volunteer tasks they have to be well-defined, discrete tasks with specific dates and times. Volunteering has to fit in around normal life. It’s difficult to get someone to commit to or even participate in a large task like “finish the Creative Arts annex”, but “paint the north wall Sunday the 10th from noon - 2pm” is within the realm of what people can commit to.
I think this is partly because with the large tasks (with little direction) people are afraid they’ll do something wrong or something that the “sponsor” won’t like. I also think that people just aren’t able to commit to something that isn’t well-defined because they’re concerned about the potential time commitment and/or schedule conflicts with “real life”.
Also, I don’t want to be the Debbie Downer, but it is my experience that in order to get someone to do a volunteer task you have to:
- Get all the supplies and tools, label them, and place them next to the task that needs to be done
- Write a detailed instruction about what needs to be done
- and, more often than not …
- Return the tools/supplies and/or clean up after the task is completed.
More often than not, the support items 1-3 take up more time than actually doing the volunteer task.
So - if it’s a little task that doesn’t require prep work it could be on the committee list - or also if it’s a recurring task. But if it requires all the prep work, it’s just as easy to do the task yourself unless it’s a monster-big task.
10 Likes
I am a 5 year member that rarely volunteers. I want to volunteer but the amount of discovery required makes it real easy for me to justify working on my own projects while ignoring any rumors of volunteer opportunities. What I’m saying is probably not all that obvious to those that frequent DMS multiple times / week; you will probably even dismiss this outright for various reasons, but I think my sentiment represents the very people you are trying to encourage to participate (i.e. the 90% that rarely volunteer).
I only get to visit this remarkable space 3 to 5 times per month. I have maybe 2-3 hours / month to volunteer; I might even stretch that to a full day if I knew what to do with that full day. This is not a lot that I’m offering but if 100 people like me did volunteer we might have a much better space.
The reason, right this moment that I’m in my comfortable sitting area, sipping on coffee, pontificating about volunteering rather than busily working around DMS is that I can reasonably guarantee you that if I drove 35 minutes to DMS right now, at 7am on a Saturday, at best I could only answer the first of this important list of questions:
- Where is the list of opportunities that need to be done (50/50 I might be able to find one task)?
- Do I have the necessary skills?
- How much time do I need to plan on being at DMS?
- Can I find the tools and supplies to complete the task without seeking out a mythical officer that I’ve never met and who doesn’t even have a picture posted somewhere?
- Can I figure out the task from what is written or do I need to, again, search for someone I don’t know who probably doesn’t frequent DMS at the hours I have open (e.g. early mornings)?
I don’t think there is a lack of ideas or software tools. Could we come up with some really cool software tools? Sure, but that’s not going to fix the “maker space volunteer problem”. The problem is lack of volunteers to coordinate the volunteers. To truly engage a wide range of volunteers takes a lot of work. Nicole did a great job when she was chair of creative arts but it required a lot of work to write down each task in enough detail that a volunteer could understand the skills needed (is this right for me?), know where to find the necessary materials and tools, and know exactly what needs to be done. The same can be said for the extensive amount of work Rich did to coordinate volunteers to make power drops. That’s a lot of writing and no tool or fancy idea is going to reduce the effort to write down the task. This is the “makerspace volunteer problem”.
Not being one to complain without offering advice… There are at least three ways, probably more, to greatly improve the makerspace volunteer problem:
- Encourage more group/committee work days. This is useful because volunteers can show up and be told what to do without a lot of work to document the activity. Volunteers also know the time commitment. However this doesn’t work for most members like me because the schedule is fixed (e.g. 2-4pm on Saturday) and people like me cannot make a window like that very often.
- Get a single volunteer to be volunteer coordinator and document opportunities by interviewing all group / committee leaders and then curate the list on a constant basis. This person would need to solicit work items from the groups / committee possibly attending group / committee meetings. It would take daily involvement to make a real impact this way; this bar is probably too high for a single individual.
- Encourage every group and committee to nominate a volunteer coordinator from the committee members who will perform the duties in 2) above but just for one group / committee. This option effectively formalizes the volunteer coordination aspect of groups and committee and might help to foster a culture of volunteerism that can transcend individual chairs, presidents, and boards.
Note: I didn’t include the option of “chairs / officers work harder to document volunteer opportunities” because that’s been tried and asking these leaders to do even more is not a path to success. In fact I only offered this advice now because it sounds like we have a couple of volunteers to be volunteer coordinators and I think it is important to define what that role entails. I also didn’t say anything about software because I think there are plenty of choices we’ve already tried (just pick one) and the tool isn’t going to solve the makerspace volunteer problem.
7 Likes
Work days with someone to spell out what needs to be done would be very helpful.
You have valid points about the larger tasks; building things, maintaining things, special projects.
But there are a lot of small volunteer tasks that don’t require special instructions. Most are 15 minute tasks that fall into the category of “leave the space better than you found it” and don’t require a special trip.
I frequent Creative Arts, so I’ll use that as an example. There are small things that anyone could do with no instructions:
- Empty overflowing trash cans into the dumpster
- Wipe off the common use tables
- Vacuum or sweep up any specific messes (sawdust footprints out of woodshop is an example of this)
- Put away errant tools that have either walked off or been left out
- Straighten up the consumables areas
These are relevant to most committee areas. All these little things add up to having a space that we all want to frequent.
2 Likes
Totally agree and this is why I said I don’t volunteer much. You will see me returning tools, pushing a broom, and doing some general cleaning when I’m at the space. I assumed though that this topic is about the larger tasks that require a volunteer coordinator.
4 Likes
Noting that even at the space, the Volunteer board in the common room usually has nebulous requests, for example “Move storage bins from Electronics to X”. And right next to it we have a off topic of “When will we have larger storage totes?”.
Volunter board should have directly actionalbe items as mentioned above “3D Print Cinitas access key”, “Using supplies staged next to printmaking, replace light bulbs in printmaking”. Even if it’s a high level description, provide a pointer to the wiki/talk/whatever that gets the volunteer the information needed to complete the request.
1 Like
A nebulous, undefined request for volunteers is less effective than a specific, time-based volunteer request.
Woodshop, Laser, Metal Shop and Machine Shop people know to look at the calendar for scheduled workdays and maintenance days. If, for example, Infrastructure wanted to have someone change lightbulbs over science, for example, they could post a thread and/or notice on the bulletin board saying, “We need two people to volunteer to change lightbulbs on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.- one person to climb the ladder and replace the bulbs, and another to hold the ladder steady and pass the bulbs to the other volunteer. Meet in the galley.”
Specifics reduce anxiety and make things simpler to accomplish.
3 Likes