[prog] A "Thank You" and a Request to Practice Your Skillanthropy

[Terry]

Hello All,

This is being posted to all the lists with permission.

When I first joined LinuxChix, I joined for the reasons given on the
“About” page - http://www.linuxchix.org/about-linuxchix.html.  In short,
I have a deep and abiding fascination with all things computing and was
scared to death to ask questions on lists and forums because I’d been
slammed before.  And to make matters worse, I wasn’t an official geek.
I had no training and never had a job in computing.  I’m self-taught and
answers like “Didn’t you learn that in programming 101?”  frankly made
me angry.   I had the heart of a geek and a nerd.  Was I destined to
struggle through geekdom and nerddom alone?  It sure felt like it.
Where could I go?

I didn’t know but somehow I found LinuxChix and the first thing I saw
was “Be polite. Be helpful.”   I joined Techtalk, Newchix and Grrls-only
and my eyes were opened. I asked some questions, participated in a few
discussions. People were polite and helpful.

And I was hooked.

Now, because of some things going on in my personal life, I have some
time to volunteer and hopefully, I can use my career skills to help the
people and organisation out that have really helped me out by giving me
confidence in my computing skills, lending an ear and offering me the
opportunity to shout “Me, too!” because I can *relate* - I’ve had that
experience in the workplace or online or wherever.

I think, ultimately, that “Me, too” is the reason I remain.  So a
sincerely, deeply heartfelt thank you to everyone for many more reasons
than what I've listed here.

My decision to volunteer to be the Volunteer Coordinator, I guess you
would call it, is not entirely unselfish.  It's actually very selfish.
I get to:

- interact with new people and hopefully make new connections
- learn some new skills
- brush up on some skills
- help others learn some skills they might not have
- have something to add to my CV
- reconnect with the world
- practice my patience and tolerance
- feel useful
- relate to others
- feel understood

There's a lot more but enough said.

So you're probably wondering what the heck is skillanthropy and why is
she making this request?

The Urban Dictionary defines skillanthropy as a "person or professional
with a skill or skills that donates their time, effort, skills but not
loads of money to a cause for the betterment of not only society but the
world in general."

LinuxChix needs more skillanthropists.  The ones we have do a fantastic
job, but they could sure use some help.

Before you say, "I don't have the time or skills" and decide not to
become a skillanthropist or, if you're currently a volunteer and
thinking of stopping, please read on.  I hope to convince you otherwise.

For me, it's true that I've gotten more out of LinuxChix than I've put
in.  It's also true that now that I'm putting more into it, I know I'll
be getting a lot more out of it.  Maybe that will work for you too.

I'd like to create opportunities for you to practice micro-skillanthropy
with no advanced skills necessary.  For example, the website pages need
to be reviewed.  You can use your skills to review just one page!  No
need to join yet another list, get a Drupal login, etc. Nothing.

Skills needed:
1. Reading
2. Clicking links
3. Sending an email

What we'll give you:
1.  A task list that forms the basis for the task with steps, a generous
time frame for completion, what you need to report on and who you need
to report it to.
2.  No grief.
3.  My undying gratitude.

What the task entails:
1. Read the content.
2. Evaluate the content, including:
   - Are the links valid?
   - Should the page be archived? (ie content no longer relevant or timely)
   - Should it be rewritten? Are there any spelling/grammatical errors?
   - What would make the page better?
3. Email a short report back to.... well, I'm still working on that part.

*****Please note***** While this is a real task that needs to be
performed, we're not quite ready to start it.  I'll send out a call for
micro-skillanthropists as tasks become available.

Now, if you want to be more involved, you certainly can be, and it would
be very welcome.  All I have to offer is my undying gratitude but maybe
I can get some others to chip theirs in as well.  In that case, you
might need to join the project we have going over on Meistertask.com.
Send me an e-mail with the subject "Join Meistertask" and I'll send you
an invitation.

I've already heard privately from some people with questions, so here's
the broad plan:

1.  Conduct an informal "organizational" review to figure out exactly
where we are today. Who are the current skillanthropists?  What are they
doing?  Who needs help?
2. Identify current needs. What needs to be done?
3. Decide where we want to go, who wants to take us there and what that
will look like.

There'll be an email with more about the plan later.

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading.  Comments, thoughts,
ways to improve the process are all welcome.

If you're interested in practising your skillanthropy, please contact me
directly and I'll provide you with some more information.

Also, consider joining the Volunteers list.  Not mandatory for
micro-skillanthropists, but very helpful.
http://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/volunteers

Happy skillanthroping!

-- 
Terry