SCN Operations Committee: New Volunteer Sequence

We appreciate your offer of assistance. The ops team is currently working on its induction methods, working out ways to include new people more quickly and effectively. You may experience a pause in communication while we get ready for you. Hang in there, don't give up. We really do need all the help we can get.

New volunteers for the Operations, aka 'ops' or 'hardware', committee can get involved most easily by following the sequence of steps outlined on this page. Please copy, save, and print this page for your reference.

1. The place to start is the ops volunteer questionnaire page which will send a profile of some of your sysadmin skills to the committee coordinator.
2. Then you should set up a date for an interview with the ops coordinator so we can discover where you will work best.
3. Then, if you are still interested, go to the regular volunteer signup page, print the volunteer agreement, fill it out, sign it, and mail it in.
4. When that is done, sign up for an SCN volunteer orientation meeting with our volunteer coordinator.

You may do the steps in what might seem a more normal 3,4,1,2 sequence if you prefer -
3) signup as a volunteer,
4) go to volunteer orientation,
1) fill out an inventory of your skills,
2) get an interview with the ops coordinator.

However, they have been arranged 1,2,3,4 to let you discover more about your likely fit within the ops committee (2), before going through the general purpose signup (3), and orientation (4). Most technical folk like to know where they are going before they bother with the formalities.

All four of the above steps are required, before we can put you to work. We are sorry it is so cumbersome, but every step has a real and needed function. Since the hardware 'operations' team has its paws in the system, we must qualify each member carefully.

The next phase is get to acquainted with each other. The following steps can be done more or less in order.

• Write to the hardware list to subscribe. In the body of the message type:
  
  subscribe hardware
  
  The list owner will verify, with someone on the team, that you have completed the volunteer process, steps 1-4 above, and approve your request.
• Read the mail that comes from the list for a couple weeks or more. Try to get an idea of who seems involved in which areas of the system, and what level of knowledge they seem to have about it.
• Look at the task list to get an idea of the range of work that needs doing. If you see something that you know how to do, or that you want to learn how to do, write to the contact person for that task. If the task does not list a contact person, volunteer to be one by writing to the ops coordinator. A contact person does not need to do the task. He/she must proactively collect information about the state of the task, and try to get it done, either by recruiting team members to do it, or by doing it with a partner, or, if all else fails, by just doing it.
• Come to the ops meetings to get acquainted and to let us hear what you think should be done, and to get a senior partner for the task(s) you have selected. It is important for new volunteers to team up with an old-timer for a few months. This will give you a sense of how things are done here, where to find stuff, and probably some lessons in Unix unless you are more experienced than we are.
• Do a task or nag your partner into helping you do it.
• Write to the hardware list to ask questions about what you are doing, or to provide support for others who have posted queries to the list.

Remember to discuss major changes with at least one other ops team member before doing them, and to log all changes in the journal.

When you have done all of the above, you will be pretty well integrated into the ops team.
Welcome!

Thanks for volunteering.