Welcoming new rebels

Building Onboarding into your Team

We know that one of the main reasons that rebels stay with XR is that they find a community with us. So how can we ensure that we are as welcoming to as many people, and as many different people, as possible?

The Job of Welcoming

It is an integrator's job to find, contact and induct new rebels into the team. It is the whole team's job to welcome them.

Make Sure:-

  1. a team member steps up to have a 1-1 chat with the new rebel in their first week!
  2. a team member steps up to be the new Rebel's "Point Person" or "Buddy" for their first few weeks, that single port-of-call if the new rebel has any questions; and
  3. the team invites the new rebels to any social gatherings coming up or any activities they may wish to join.
    • (This is especially important if you organise in multiple chats, ensuring they know what's happening)

New Rebel in the Chat!

When a new Rebel is added to your chat (Mattermost, Signal, Telegram...) make sure to say Hi and welcome them. Make sure they know the purpose of various chats and where they can ask for help.

A Rebel's First Meeting

Do:-

  1. ensure that the team has included their roles and pronouns in their screen names or start off with a round of names and role descriptions; and
  2. have a least one person offer to stay behind to check in with the new Rebel, see how they found their first meeting and if they have any questions.

Don't

  1. use lots of acronyms and XR jargon! Try to have someone there to call people out on their jargon and ask them to define things.

This page was written by @Raenyah please contact me if you have any questions or think something needs to be added.

Supporting your new rebels

Access needs

Find out about your new rebel's access needs and any other ways they may need to be kept safe. These may include any disclosed disability that might affect their participation in our community (such as the use of assistive technologies to read emails and the web) as well as participation in events (such as physical access needs, mental-health issues and dietary or other invisible needs).

Gathering this information must always take account of someone's right not to disclose anything, as well as their need of proper support if they do disclose something.

Keeping each other safe

Any organisation needs to keep its members safe, and we need to make sure that we know if anyone in our community might be classed as vulnerable. If you find any concerns related to a Rebel (whether about their needs or about their potential impact on other Rebels), you may need to draw up a support plan so that Rebels can be protected from anyone who might harm them, either deliberately or accidentally. You should draw up a support plan in consultation with the Rebel who is its focus, and assure them what we want them to take part and are aiming to provide them with the support they need to do this safely.

Where else can rebels get support?

Please signpost your New Rebels to the pages How we care for one another? and How we protect one another? in the Rebel Next Steps Pack where they can access information on:

Please check your New Rebels have read How we protect one another? in the Rebel Next Steps Pack and understand the behaviour they are expected to follow.

Inducting your new rebels: Checklist

integrator-checklist.PNG

Checklist template

This checklist template is a tool you can use to keep track of how far through the onboarding process your rebels are and what to give them next. Go to File > make a copy and save a sheet for your team. The stages listed there are our suggested ones but you can make it your own. (Hover your cursor over the headings for more information.)

Key induction materials

1. Volunteer Agreement

This covers our Priciples and Values and Data Protection agreement. It is good to send this early and check the rebel has signed it (digitally), particularly if the rebel is likely to have access to other people's personal details. Ask them to forward you the email confirmation when they've signed it.

2. Rebel Starter Pack

The Rebel Starter Pack is the first resource that can be sent to all Rebels who have just begun their journey with XR.

It's designed to answer questions such as:-

It covers:-

3. Welcome to XR online sessions

introduction to XR sessions FB

These sessions are currently run on a weekly basis via Zoom and are about 1.5 hours long.

Included are:

Use the lnk in the heading above, or register directly via this Zoom link.

4. Rebel Next Steps Pack

This is designed for Rebels who have already begun their journey with XR and are now looking for more detail about how XR works, how they can participate and which trainings might help them.

It covers:-

Inducting your new rebels: Roadmap

1) Contact your new Volunteer (UK, regional and national groups)

These are the people who have applied for your advertised role on the volunteer website or people you find on the database who seem a good fit for your team.

2) Send them some initial information

Not too much! It is easy to overwhelm people at this stage. This is all your Rebel needs at the outset:-

  1. The Rebel Starter Pack.

  2. Volunteer Agreement - ask them to sign digitally and send you a screen shot of the confirmation.

  3. Your Team's mandate.

  4. An invite to your next group meeting.

  5. This Roadmap (optional) - it can help Rebels to see what to expect, where they are in the induction process and to request next steps proactively.

3) First Group Meeting
4) Induction / orientation

Tailored to your team and staggered according to your Rebel. It is best to let them absorb one thing before moving onto the next.

5) Direct them towards concrete tasks

Super important for volunteer retention! People are more likely to stick around when they feel valued and affirmed.

6) Check in, check progress

Try to have a weekly call with your new Rebels.

7) Invite them to a circle meeting (optional)
8) Final debrief / allocation of role

After about a month, most new Rebels will feel like they have an understanding of XR and how things are structured. You have now shared your skills and contacts - this marks the end of your guidance!

Have a meeting to debrief;

Every rebel journey will have a slightly different conclusion; please take some time to reflect on your experience.

Inviting Rebels to the Hub and Mattermost

New Rebels can find out about using the XR Communications Hub here.

Ask the Group Admin (formerly known as Tech Champion) for your group / team to send a Hub invite to your new Rebel member using their personal email address. If you don't have a Group Admin / don't know who your Group Admin is, then please email tech@rebellion.earth letting Tech know what you need, i.e. the name of your Group Admin or your Regional Admin.

If you have more than one new Rebel member, multiple invites can be sent in one go, just make sure you put each new Rebel's email address on a new line in the invite box. You can also add a personal message to your invitees in the Message box. (See image below)

Screenshot-of-Hub-invites.jpg

Here are two short videos to help your New Rebels get onto the Hub and start using Mattermost:-