kpchi
commented
8 years ago For Chain of Command - I like the idea, and that works better for On-Day when designating who is in-charge instead of repeatedly going back to the organisers. But part of managing the chaos is fluidity and trusting the teams to make the right call. I might add a section about that in "Building the Team".
Alternatively, take a look at the Volunteer Helpdesk section in the Attendee Communication topic - that might also be an alternative way of Chain of Command by having dedicated volunteers to that role.
Yes that's definitely a great point for the weekly meetings, thank you for the reminder. I've included that bit below in a section called "Kept in the Loop"
Let me know if you think that covers what you had in mind, or if I'm missing out detail.
Kept in the Loop
Speaking of kept in the loop - with the wealth of information available, how do you keep track of everything? Here are some ways:
- Slack
- Full Team Discussions
- Announcements of issues / news the team needs to be aware of.
- Google Drive
- Centralised repository for files
- Meeting minutes, spreadsheets to keep track of budgets etc.
- Trello
- Can act as a summary of tasks. Easy to see at a glance what needs to be done by when.
- Regular team meetings
- Things can move very quickly, and with Slack firing fast and furious people can lose track of what's going on. Having regular team meetings can keep different teams up-to-date on what progress is like. Other topics include barriers teams might be facing and upcoming issues teams will need to work on together.
- Allow everyone to attend these meetings but make it mandatory for the relevant teams involved. This goes back to building a sense of investment in the volunteers. Unless there is a need, full team meetings should be held sparingly.
roh7
We had weekly catch-up meetings for the UCL DSSC - they helped bring groups of volunteers working on different things up to speed on the progress of the other groups and the hackathon as a whole. It was especially useful considering we had < 7 weeks to plan and execute.
It is also important to note the benefits of a proper chain of command - don't have one person in control of every minute detail. Have groups of volunteers, each focusing on a different thing and one person in charge of each of those groups, who report back to the lead organiser.