Volunteers make open source projects go. This talk discusses how to attract volunteers, what to do once you have, and how to keep them happy once you've got them.

1. The Care and
Feeding of Volunteers

2. OR

3. How Can
Volunteers???

4. About Me

Kat Toomajian (MissKat, zarhooie)

Dreamwidth Studios, LLC

Community & Volunteer Support

Experience

15+ years Non-Profit

5+ years Non-Profit Management

4+ years OSS

5. Why This Talk

General Perceptions about OSS
− Little diversity
− Hostile community
− Need to already have experience
− Interview process

6. Why This Talk

Breaking it down
− Half the people on the planet aren't male

10-30% of tech professionals are female

Only 1.5-5% of OSS developers are female
− Everyone's a newcomer
− Experience is a catch-22
− Your vol interviews you, not the other way around

8. Your Project is Not A Special Snowflake

9. Your Project is Not A Special Snowflake

Lots of projects out there
− Your potential volunteers have choices
− Make yourself competitive in the market

Potential volunteers look for
− Culture
− Environment
− Other people
− ???? (can be literally anything else)

10. STEP ZERO:
How Do I People???

Be nice.
− Keep your IRC channel PG-13
− Community standards, enforced adequately, will
self-enforce

Peer pressure works both ways
− Combative vs Collaborative development

It's ok to argue about stuff

It's not ok to argue in a way that ends with people
leaving the project

11. Four Letter Words

Woman is not a four letter word.

Neither is diversity.
− Don't make assumptions or jokes based around
racism, ableism, sexism, or any other -isms
− These jokes aren't funny, and will drive volunteers
away from your project.

If you hurt someone's feelings...
− Apologize. Don't tell them to get thicker skin.

12. WELCOME

13. Be Welcoming

Lower the entry barrier

Have a welcome wagon
− Links to:

Jargon page

Culture wiki

Development wiki

Lower entry barrier = more developers = less
work for you in the long run

14. Step One:
Follow the
Yellow Brick
Code

15. STEP ONE:
Follow the Yellow Brick Code

Wanted: awesome people!
− Not everyone has experience, but...

Lots of people want experience

Let them get that experience by coding for you!

A → B → C

Give people a job to do.

Make mentors available.

17. STEP TWO:
What Can You Doo-OO-oo... with a
Newbie Dev?

Training and mentoring your developers

Clear path from user to leader to management
− User to developer to leadership

Developer development is a lifestyle choice
− Takes effort, but it's totally worth it
− DW brought 14 devs and staff to YAPC for
development. The return will justify the means.

18. Invest in Your Community

Common Fears of OSS Projects
− They don't know enough to be useful
− I'm too busy to handle their question
− If they have a question, they'll ask
− I had to do it the hard way/that's not how I learned

20. Invest in Your Community

Rebuttals
− Knowledge is an acquired thing, not innate
− Mentoring is the most important thing you can do.
− Technology advances. So should teaching
techniques
− Don't ridicule those who ask for help

21. What is a Newbie Dev?

Specific term for someone new to a project or
development in general

You don't have to go through the mentoring if
you don't want to

Many of our devs started out knowing nothing
about coding at all, let alone how to code

22. So What CAN They Do?

Let them work on tiny bugs
− Makes you look good
− You don't have to untrain bad habits!
− Can point to it and say I DID THAT

Motivational tool

Retention tool

24. STEP THREE:
?????????

Every project and developer has special
requirements
− THIS IS OK.

Look to your project's culture to find out what
these needs are
− Adjust accordingly.

25. Be Encouraging!

Give credit where credit's due
− News posts
− “merit badges”
− Bribes can be a good motivational tool

Write references

Impostor Syndrome 101

26. Impostor Syndrome

27. There's a Place for (almost) Everyone

Don't allow people who are violating
community standards to keep doing that.

Non-Development Positions
− Cheerleaders
− Documentation

End-User

Project

Culture
− End-User Support

End-User Support is a gateway drug to development

28. STEP FOUR:
Profit!

Mentoring = Long-Term Project Survival
− More invested = will bring their friends

Next to having dev custom built, it's the best

All your tiny stuff gets fixed

No bad habits to train out

They will learn what you want them to learn
how you want them to learn it.

29. LET'S RECAP!

Be Nice. Learn how to people.

Lower your entry barriers.

Mentor your developers.

Project-specific goals

Ensure the long-term survival of your project

30. How Can I Do This In My Project?

You can do them all, but start with one.
− Pick one.

Probably be nice/welcoming
− Master it.
− Move on to the next one.

Learning how to newcomers takes time.
− Be patient.
− Ask for help.
− perldoc friendlymentor (not really, I made this up)

31. Birthday Hat Hedgehog sez:
THANKS FOR LISTENING!