Proposal:Tags for Volunteers
| Tags related to volunteering | |
|---|---|
| Proposal status: | Proposed (under way) |
| Proposed by: | Junkyard Apple |
| Applies to: |   
|
| Definition: | Tags that are relevant for volunteers and locations/features that have need of volunteers. |
| Draft started: | 2024-06-26 |
| RFC start: | 2024-07-01 |
Proposal
Tags that are related to volunteering. Helpful for people looking to volunteer or locations/features that make use of volunteer labor.
This will likely mostly be tagged for nodes and areas. However, in some cases ways may also be affected as well.
Rationale
Overall these tags are useful for people looking to volunteer to find volunteer options that work best for them. They're also useful for features or locations that make use of volunteer labor to have another method of bringing in new volunteers.
volunteers:accepted is useful for people who might be trying to find someplace nearby to help volunteer some of their spare time. volunteers:accepted=* was chosen over volunteers:needed=* as the latter suggests that =yes would mean some level of urgency. volunteers:accepted=* was also chosen over seeking_volunteers=* as the former maintains the volunteer prefix (helpful for when apps organize tags alphabetically), and seeking suggests some level of urgency or active effort on the part of the facility. It was chosen to ignore urgency for this tag and keep it only to whether or not they're accepted as someone may choose to volunteer at a less urgent location based on proximity to their home, work, transportation, etc.
volunteers:accepted:urgency is useful for people looking to volunteer to help figure out which of multiple locations should be prioritized.
check_date:volunteers:accepted:urgency is useful as volunteer needs can change a bit more frequently so having a way to track how recently that space was updated is useful.
volunteers:signup is useful as sometimes signup sheets are only posted to things like Facebook where it can be difficult to view without an account.
website:volunteers is useful as it can save someone time from having to navigate a groups website which can sometimes be difficult to track. website:volunteers=* was chosen over volunteers:website=* to keep it consistent with other website: tags.
volunteers:benefits and volunteers:benefits:description is useful as some benefits might help push people to volunteer if their on the fence about it. It's also useful information for people who are struggling meeting the needs/wants that are covered by the specified benefit (for instance people who are struggling to meet their food needs might be interested in a volunteer position with benefits of free food).
volunteers:shift_description is useful for people to get some idea of what a typical volunteer shift may contain.
volunteers:information is useful as there can be a lot of information that isn't summarized in the other tags listed here, especially when we consider edge cases.
Tagging
| Tag | Explanation | Common Values |
|---|---|---|
| volunteers:accepted=* | Whether or not this feature or location can accept new volunteers. | Yes: New volunteers would be helpful at this location.
No: New volunteers are not accepted at this time but the location does make use of volunteer labor. Never: This location or feature doesn't make use of any volunteers. |
| volunteers:accepted:urgency=* | Describes how urgent the need for additional volunteers are. Ranging from "We're actually good on volunteers but can always accept additional help." to "We're looking at shutting down due to lack of volunteers." | User defined description. |
| check_date:volunteers:accepted:urgency=* | Indicates when this tag was last updated or checked. | YYYY-MM-DD |
| volunteers:signup=* | Direct link to a signup sheet or description of how to sign up (if signup is done via a physical sheet or texting/calling a number instead) | domain.tld/signup |
| website:volunteers=* | Link to a portion of a website that contains information for volunteers. | domain.tld/volunteers |
| volunteers:benefits=* | Indicates whether or not benefits are available to people who volunteer here. For instance many bookstores, grocery stores, etc. that rely on volunteer labor have benefits such as free products or discounts for volunteers who work a certain number of hours. | yes/no |
| volunteers:benefits:description=* | When benefits are available to volunteers those can be described here. | User defined description. |
| volunteers:shift_description=* | Describes what a typical shift may look like. | User defined description. |
| volunteers:information=* | Space for any other information volunteers may want to know not covered elsewhere in these tags. | User defined description. |
Examples
Good Grocer is a volunteer run grocery store where volunteers get 20% off any foods they purchase. So in addition to the tags already listed on OSM it would also receive:
- volunteers:accepted=yes
- volunteers:signup=https://www.goodgrocer.org/volunteer-application
- website:volunteers=https://www.goodgrocer.org/volunteer
- volunteers:benefits=yes
- volunteers:benefits:description=volunteers who work at least 2.5 hours every 4 weeks get 20% off any purchased items.
- volunteers:shift_description=Front of House Team handles cashiering, bagging, admin projects. Back of House Team handles receiving, stocking, cleaning.
A hypothetical Food Share Box of which the food is stocked by volunteers for free might have the following tags:
- volunteers:accepted=yes
- volunteers:shift_description=Anyone is encouraged to bring high quality shelf stable food and put it in the food box. Removing food that is no longer safe to eat or that has been in the box for a long time is also useful.
A hypothetical footpath which is maintained by volunteers might have the following tags:
- volunteers:accepted=yes
- volunteers:shift_description=Removing debris from the path, especially after major storms, removing weeds from the path and surrounding garden area.
Features/Pages affected
Key:social facility has many different "types" of social facility (listed on the social facility page) that make use of volunteer labor.
Hypothetically any feature could be tagged with volunteers:accepted=* but tagging a for-profit large chain store as volunteers:accepted=never is likely redundant in most cases. volunteers:accepted=never should be used in cases where one might expect volunteer labor to be present such as key:social facility, Urban Farms, Community Gardens, Proposal:Food sharing, etc.
volunteers:accepted=yes can be used anywhere where volunteer labor is used and where they're able to take in additional volunteers. This would include all of the above but also certain volunteer run bookstores, grocery stores, etc.
Ways might be affected if a road or footpath is maintained by volunteers from the community.
External discussions
Announcement post on the forum
Announcement on the talk page for Key:social facility
Comments
Please comment on the discussion page.