Volunteer Coordinator Report

Coordinator of Volunteers Activity Highlights

Term 1

Events For Working Groups

ORIENTATION for 6 of 7 Working Groups (Facilitation provided by Coordinator of Volunteers)
S26 PIRGTOPIA - rented space, promoted to working groups and campus - rained out
N5 NETWORKING EVENT - all seven groups represented at Collaboration Station (James N) (Facilitation provided by Coordinator of Volunteers) Meeting notes.
Added criteria for new working group applicants
- you should have a clear public interest goal for your group
- your overall strategy will address how to make meaningful change
- your goal should be achievable given demands of school/work/family
- your group will be primarily McMaster Undergrads plus interested community members
- your group will have a strategy to recruit volunteers for meaningful task
- our policy does not allow outside groups to open McMaster “chapters” through our working group process
WORKING GROUP INTERVIEWS - advertised, arranged interview/board committee, interviewed 7 new groups, approved 4 (for a total of 11 - board budgeted for 10)
FACEBOOK GROUP - communication channel for working groups

General Volunteer Events

S7 Clubs Fest Table
S13 Table in MUSC
O4 McMaster Volunteer Fair table
O25 McMaster Sustainability Fair table
O31 Street Tree Presentation at Public Works Committee, Hamilton City Hall - livestream on Facebook
N8 History and Science Hike in Lot M (with McMaster biology)
D1 Resource Centre Redo (8 Volunteers helped thin collection based on criteria)
D9 Table at Collaboration Station at December Art Crawl - button maker, networking
D15 Pre Break/International Tea Day Volunteer Drop In
Facebook Group for Volunteers used for communication
Facebook Group for Resource Centre collaboration/updates

Content Production

2015-2016 Year End Report - published online in two formats - pdf, and an infographic version
Volunteer Job Description Documents - published on website
Updated Working Group Google Site with docs and support information
Volunteer-created videos
- A15 Minutes from Mac (The Mule)
- O20 Maria’s Walk (Lot M)
Updated and promoted call for new working groups
Promotional video on Facebook (with Angela Ma, edited by Angela)
D7 Printed newsletter for outreach at Art Crawl table
edited and formatted CVA article for Blog (written by CVA)
Working Group online quiz
New volunteer intake form (to capture working group volunteers coming from web)

Volunteers

32 general volunteer activities - multimedia production, resource centre staffing, poster creation, etc.
16 new volunteer applicants
References for 11 volunteers (past and present)

Networking

S7 Clubs Fest table
DeGroote Marketing at their event in Mills Plaza
O6 MIIETL/MacPherson Institute/Faculty of Engineering “MacChangers” - Transportation issues (volunteer)
O18 City Task Force on Air and Trees
O25 Sustainability Fair (Fossil Free McMaster used it)
N7 Cootes To Escarpment Group (Conservation Halton, HRCA, RBG, Stewards of Cootes, Halton Green, etc)
Board donation of $400 for land Cootes to Escarpment acquisition
N8 Co-Facilitated Lot M Guided Tour with profs and grad students, plus participants (HCA, McMaster, Community, etc)
N10 Met with Ward 4 Hamilton Councillor Sam Merulla re Street Tree funding
N15 DeGroote Green meeting
N16 Met with David Harris-Smith re augmented reality potential for Street Tree Project
N29 Lot M Meeting with McMaster Biology Grad Student - led to new Turtle working group
N30 + D1 - Guest at 3 CVA CRAFT group meetings - spoke about opirg and ways to bring local issues to us (CEP Working Group resulted)
N30 Battery Recycling - met with students who then formed Battery Recycling working group
D6 Support indigenous Basketball team - met with McMaster Women’s coach to enlist her assistance
- OPIRG donated $100
D9 Art Crawl Display Table
D15 International Tea Day (Fair Trade) Drop-In at MUSC 229
(ongoing) Campus Community Partnerships

Tools & App Use

Toggl
Slack
Trello
Eventbrite
GSuite (mail, slides, sites, sheets, docs, drive, keep, maps, My Business, G+, Youtube, Analytics)
Libib
Hootsuite
Bitly
Twitter
Facebook Page
Facebook Groups
- Volunteers
- Working Groups
- Resource Centre
Blogs (Wordpress, Blogger)
Wiki
Youtube

Social Media

Blog (now part of new website)
Twitter
Facebook Page/Groups/Business Page
Youtube Channel

After Hours Resource Centre

Beginning to promote use of space to working groups in first term
Resource Centre group requested changes to create more dynamic space for working groups (meetings, design thinking, whiteboards) and to thin collection of outdated books to create a mission-centred library around the theme of "organizing" in MUSC 229.

Coordinator of Volunteers Activity Highlights

Term 2

Content Production

Coordinator

First Term Coordinator Highlight Doc (replicated above)
Created How To Video for working groups (new website)
Created Funding Source spreadsheet for working groups
AGM Presentation and slides
Sales form/spreadsheet - (trial)
Created How To video for staff (adding domain emails)
Interactive timeline for Green Roof project
Created How To Video (Wiki for Working Groups)
Took up task of finishing new website (opirgmcmaster.org) with Angela Ma (student staff added bulk of content)
Created Facebook event for board meeting with draft agenda
Street Tree one-page proposal to get board approval to hire a student for Street Tree Project (in it's 5th year)
Year End Report

Volunteers

Created OPIRG LinkedIn Page (Alana Hobson)
Risk It For the Biscuit Podcast - 3 shows
Nine references for volunteers (total 20)

Networking

Randy invited to mentor MacChangers (transportation activism - volunteer)
Randy presented at CCENA forum (introduced as OPIRG, but did not log work time)
Supported Hamilton Youth Poets grant application
Middle School Social Justice class visited and met with Working Group representatives, hiked into west campus, made buttons (met the teacher at December's Art Crawl Table)
Agile event with Mac UTS to learn more about project management (Scrum/Agile)
Randy was a subject (interviewed) for communications student "Internet and activism" research paper
Coordinated with OPIRG volunteer reps for the Air and Tree Task Force (Street Tree)
Cootes To Escarpment Network rep (missed April meeting - got notes on social media)
Met with Professor David Harris-Smith (re Street Tree/Augmented)
Collaborated with Reyna Matties, McMaster Biology (re Lot M/McMarsh)
Met with Professor Bruce Newbold (re Street Tree research)

Working Groups

New Group interviews/approval process (set questions, criteria, coordinated with board)
Orientation for new groups
Working Group Networking Meeting/food and social
Created new Table Booking form for Working Groups
Sent out working group year end report form
Volunteer Appreciation

Projects

Learn how to add working groups to new website and set up domain emails on GSuite (site was behind schedule)
Resource Centre remake - meetings, presentations (scrum)
- Google Doc for open process/sharing with OPIRG Staff and volunteers
- Presentation to Board of Directors (slides)
Hiring and supervision of Street Tree Project (May to June)

Volunteer Events

Used-Paper Book Binding Event in MUSC 229 - volunteer -run
City Council road trip (Passion to Power) - 11 participants met with Councillors
Setting Goals Workshop (Passion to Power)
Poster Design Workshop (Passion to Power)
Volunteer Week drop-in
Volunteer Appreciation (AGH and Dinner)
Volunteer Appreciation gifts

Ongoing

Working Group renewal
Working Group criteria update
Creating newsletter for Clubsfest 2017

Tools & Apps (New)

Started trial with STREAK on Gmail
Facebook Workplace (signed up for trial)
Interactive Timeline Builder (for online project tracking)
Podcasting
Scripts/Apps for automating processes (ex. key booking to calendar, a work in progress)
New Google Sites for interactive Year End Report

(L) Facilitator Rebecca teaching poster design as part of Passion to Power skills workshops

(R) Chelsea, student hired on a grant to work with Randy's Hamilton Street Tree Project

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