Recruiting for your team: Volunteer Website

[The Volunteer Website (roles board)]

volunteer.extinctionrebellion.uk

This website works just like a jobs board and aims to help volunteers find roles and groups to find volunteers. Any XR UK group can apply for an account and recruit this way - you just need an official email address. In practice the site is mainly used by UK-wide, national and regional groups which are less likely to find their rebels on their streets or at an in-person meeting.

(On this website we've used the term 'volunteer' throughout rather than 'rebel' as it is better understood by people completely new to XR.)

Setting up a team account

To get started, you will need to get a group account.

1. Go to volunteer.extinctionrebellion.uk/integrator
2. Watch the short (7 min) video which explains how the site works.
3. Scroll down and click 'create group account'.
4. Use your XR group's email to set up an account - this needs to be an email that is checked regularly (please note we can't take personal email addresses).
5. The application comes to the Rebel Pathway team for approval.
6. Once the application is approved, you will receive an email with a link to click on to complete the registration.
7. You are up and running and ready to post roles!

Writing an appealing role

1. De-jargon! Try to look through the eyes of someone who knows nothing about XR. You can explain the ‘correct’ terms for things later if needed but for now communication is key e.g:

☹ Internal coordinator, external coordinator, integrator, regen, rebel

😊 Team guide, team representative, team builder, wellbeing, volunteer

2. Make it accessible Volunteers rarely have both good skills and lots of time. Asking for lots of time excludes certain groups of people and makes us less diverse as a movement. Can you break down the role? e.g. Internal Coordinators often get asked to do everything!

☹ Internal coordinator (hours: full time)

😊 Team guide (hours: 10-15/week). Recruiter (hours: 2-4/week). New joiner support person (hours: 5-9/week). Wellbeing champion (hours: 2-4/week). Secretary (hours: 2-4/week). Admin helper (hours: 2/week). Facilitator (hours: 2/week). Team tech support (hours: 2-4/week).

3. Be clear what you want someone to do, especially in the job title. The more specific you are, the more likely you are to get what you are looking for. However, if you just need more team members and plan to find out what they want to do later that's fine too! If you do this, try to have a few tasks your newbie can help with right away.

4. Include key words in your description. Ask yourself which search words people are most likely to use if they want a role like yours.

5. Consider type of role: do you need a permanent member of the team or could the work be done as a time-limited project? The second of these is likely to attract more people, especially those who are skill-rich but time-poor.

Managing your applications

Keeping up with your account shouldn't be too much of a chore! The website is easy to use and you just need to remember a couple of key things to make things run smoothly and bring new people into your team:

1. Make sure you regularly check the email address you used to set up the account. If you get any applications, a notification will be sent to this email address.

2. Use the 'action' column to let volunteers know what is going on after they apply. Clicking here sends an automatic email. Try to use the first 'thumbs up' when you get their application to tell people you've received it and know they are waiting

3. Contact your volunteers! This is super important; no one wants to offer their time for free and then hear nothing. This might be the first contact they have had with XR and can determine whether they become an enthusiastic contributor to the movement or someone who goes away and complains about us to their friends!

4. Don't be scared to say 'no'. Not everyone is suitable for every role; it has to work out for both the volunteer and the team. Of course you can still say 'no' nicely! If after chatting to your 'applicant' you don't think they are suitable for your role maybe you can suggest some other ways they can get involved in XR. You may not get a new team member but you can still help to grow the movement. (see 'Calling volunteers' below)

5. Make sure you delete or hide any roles you've filled or don't need anymore. This stops the site clogging up with unavailable roles and saves you time contacting people who might apply for them.

   (NB roles time-out after two months and then are hidden automatically. If you want to re-advertise the role you can un-hide it and it will reappear on the site but it will carry its orginal posting date so if you want it to appear near the top you will need to set up a new role)

6. Urgent roles: if your role is genuinely urgent, please email admin support at volunteer@extinctionrebellion.org.uk - we have the ability to bring these roles to the top of the list and give them a yellow highlight so that more people see them.

Searching for volunteers on the database

NB This option is currently only open to UK-wide teams due to data protection. Also, you will usually get a more enthusiatic and committed rebel from letting people apply for your roles. However, if you are struggling to find people and need a search, please email user support at volunteer@extinctionrebellion.org.uk.

If you are in a UK-wide team and are not getting suitable applications for your role, the first step is to do a quick sense-check: is it obvious what your role is and who it is for? If yes, then maybe you want to try a search of the database. Log in to your account and go to 'Volunteer Database' in the lefthand menu. You can search for volunteers by hours offered, prefered type of work, prefered location of work and by any search term you enter (this searches the volunteer's whole profile.)