Hi again! Today’s blog post/article comes to us from one of our education team members, Eliana! We wanted a best practices article to help in both creating projects for the forums, and realistically helping to just guide the project in general. Please enjoy!
Have an awesome project idea and need some help to make it come to life? It may be time to make a recruitment post! First, you should find out if a similar project already exists. You can search the project forums for keywords that relate to your idea, or you can email the education team for some help figuring that out.
Once you have checked that there isn’t an existing project to work with, here’s a template for an informative and successful recruitment post that gives potential project members info about your project and makes sure your recruits are the right fit for the project.
General Project Information:
Name of Project- Tell everyone what project you represent!
Goals of Project- Try to be as focused as possible. Most successful projects have a specific plan in mind. Judges are more likely to contribute to a project that has a clear direction.
Website/Product of Project (if applicable)- Is your project already established? Link interested judges to what you’ve already done so they can see what type of work your project is producing!
Timeline of Project- Is this a one-time project for a few weeks to months to create a static product? Is it an ongoing publication? Make sure prospective contributors know how long they are committing to your project.
Who You are Looking For:
Role- Are you looking for an editor, a programmer, content development, or something else altogether? Tell prospective project members what part they can play.
Language (if applicable)- Is your project operating in a particular language?
Time/Task Commitment per Week- Make sure the time commitment you expect from project members is clear and upfront. That way judges know how much they are expected to contribute while working on your project.
Contact Info/How to Get Involved- Who should interested judges contact to get involved with your project? Include the name and contact info for the person who is coordinating the project, and make sure that person checks their e-mail/messages to respond to interested judges! If your project has a public forum, you could also include a link.
And with that we wrap up what has been a productive, if not short 2016 for the education sphere. If you glance at the other posts on my blog you will find our mission statement, and our goals for 2017. I want to take a second and add one more to that. I’ve been discussing things with the team, and it’s something we’ve kind of been doing anyway, but we may as well have it public. It’s my goal to be the most accessible/transparent sphere. Happy new year!