Major Change: Create Institutional Onboarding Process

[PamelaJohn]

Proposal: Create an Institutional Onboarding Process

ProgCode is increasingly contacted by progressive groups and tech education organizations who seek to onboard large numbers of new members to the community on a recurring basis so those members may gain development experience and/or onboard social good projects which further the requesting org's mission. When the mission and legal entity status of the requesting org is aligned with ProgCode and meets the four-pronged test, it is in the best interest of ProgCode and the requesting org to enter into collaboration. This issue proposes adoption of an institutional onboarding process for successfully implementing the collaboration.

Problem: Shortage of Tech Leads, Project Managers & Projects in Relation to Beginning Coders Results in Disengagement & Drift from the Community

• It's been the experience of the onboarding team that onboarding large numbers of beginning coders to ProgCode in and of itself is not necessarily a successful model for scaling and sustainability.
• The ProgCode community relies on senior level technicians and tech project/product managers to drive projects forward to completion.

• If the ratio of new/junior level technicians outweighs senior level technicians and tech product managers who generally work full-time and volunteer at ProgCode on limited free time, the result is:

  • Shortage of active projects for students to work on.
  • New and junior level coders are intimidated from contributing to open source projects without a tech lead to assist.
  • Drop in engagement of new and junior level coders who eventually drift away from the community.
  • Low project completion rate due to lack of volunteer developers.
  • Difficulty reaching ProgCode goals to scale and achieve sustainability.

Creating an Institutional Onboarding Process Will Improve Engagement, Project Completion & Mentorship Within The ProgCode community.

• An institutional onboarding process will also increase new members' confidence and portfolios, give them an opportunity to work alongside/network with more senior developers and CTOs--some of whom could ultimately become their employers. This is a value add to the requesting org.
• Value add for Network Partners who will have a large and talented pool of mission-aligned volunteers to draw from.
• Value add to ProgCode as it will be on target to meet its goals for scaling and sustainability.
• Value add to the larger community as more low-to-no cost tech tools are created which reduce or remove the influence of money in politics and empower the grassroots.

Plan

When ProgCode staff are approached (whether in person, by email or some other online method) by a mission-aligned educational facility, progressive organization or other institution wishing to onboard large numbers of new members on a recurring basis, ProgCode staff should:

• [ ] Send requesting org leader a Slack invite & ask them to undergo New Member Onboarding and Project Onboarding in order to learn ProgCode's culture, core values, mission and processes before implementing the collaboration.
• [ ] Request the requesting org to designate 3-4 Product Managers tasked with counseling graduates and helping to drive the projects they are working on from ideation to implementation. Product managers can be paid members or volunteers from requesting org's community.
• [ ] Explain to the approaching org that all transitioning members must participate in:
• ProgCode's registration process
  • Institutional Members must note in their registration form which institution they're with
  • Institutional Members must opt-in to ProgCode's Anonymized Member Skills Directory
• ProgCode's usual vetting process
• ProgCode New Member Onboarding
• ProgCode Project Onboarding (if a project is being onboarded)
• [ ] Schedule quarterly meetings with requesting org to check-in on current processes and to gauge effectiveness or need for revision

Decision Making

Consent to proceed by volunteer staff super majority. This vote shall remain open for 72 hours following the Mon, 11/20 Operations Meeting. Vote is final on Thurs, 11/24.

Resources

ProgCode Operations Change Process ProgCode Sustainability Plan ProgCode 100k Members Strategy

[stephenscapelliti]

This relates to the vetting process for donors and other affiliates, which we began to discuss a while ago. Define Vetting process and implement #200 Consider addressing those elements of Issue 200 which relate to prospective network partners for institutional onboarding.

[jpb5013]

Ah, the four pronged test, it's good to see you again. I like the idea of knocking out multiple simultaneously. A couple thoughts I had:

• We probably don't need to specify 3-4 product managers, as I could see it being far more or even just one depending on organization size
• I think we'll need to include a deeper set of standard steps and processes for the partner onboarding to help get them down the road
• We should also include an ask for mentoring/guidance, especially for those CTO types you mentioned who may not have a ton of time but could be very valuable
• We should also define other standard mechanisms and means we'll use to help make project leads and more junior level devs successful
• We should do a broader review of other issues to see overlap. For example, this one somewhat relates as well https://github.com/ProgressiveCoders/functions/issues/220