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SF Leadership Team
The San Francisco RailsBridge team is restructuring itself. We used to have one or two meta-organizers, who kept the calendar, recruited venues and workshop organizers, and mentored those organizers. This was too much work for one or two people, so we are establishing an SF leadership team with specific roles. And to try to minimize volunteer burnout, each of these positions have an initial 3-month term, after which the volunteer can move onto something else or potentially continue in their leadership role if it is still fun.
The leadership team is expected to meet approximately once a month to check in on workshop planning progress; otherwise the leadership team is primarily focused on facilitating the work of RailsBridge volunteers (via email, GitHub issues, or other means of communication not yet invented).
This person works with the venue manager and the organizer manager to schedule and support workshops happening in San Francisco. They also manage the calendar for the SF RailsBridge chapter, ensuring that workshops are happening at a good pace, about one per month (sometimes two) via GitHub issues on our organizing repository.
The chapter lead also assists with recruiting workshop organizers and new leaders in the community, by attending workshops and meeting new community members, and championing the work of the current volunteer base.
As the leader of the SF chapter, and works to make sure that volunteers aren’t burning out, and is able to step into roles temporarily if needed.
The venue manager is a member of the SF chapter leadership team, and makes sure that RailsBridge maintains good relationships with the venues that host workshops, as well as working with new potential venues to make sure they are an appropriate host for workshops.
This role involves writing and responding to emails, visiting potential new venues to check them out, and making sure that the venue understands RailsBridge’s expectations and requirements.
After each workshop, the venue manager gets feedback from the venue contact about how the workshop goes, and shares it with the leadership team to consider in planning future workshops.
The organizer manager recruits and supports workshop organizers, and is a member of the leadership team. They work with the the chapter lead and venue manager to facilitate RailsBridge workshops.
Many people don’t think they can organize events, so much of the organizer manager’s job is explaining that as a member of a workshop organizing team, they won’t be alone. The organizer manager also works to identify serial participants who should be recruited as volunteers, even if not in technical positions. The person in this role also works with the RailsBridge board and SF leadership team to recruit organizer mentors and match them with new workshop organizers, so that they aren’t personally tasked with answering every question from new organizers.
This person also follows up with the organizers after their workshops to thank them and identify improvements we can make in the planning process.