What Nabuur can do - and what not: Define Expectations for Local Rep and Village Sign-Up
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One of the things we hear a lot is that some volunteers who join NABUUR aren't sure of what to expect. They're excited at first to have found a network such as this one, but their expectations may not match the reality of what NABUUR has to offer.
If NABUUR is going to cater to its members' wants and needs, and forge long standing collaborations and connections, let's it make it crystal clear from the get-go to about what they can expect from their experience here!
The aim: as part of the sign-up process, every Neighbour and Local Representative should have a clear indication of what to expect when they join NABUUR.
In this thread is where expectations for Local Rep sign-up will be collectively defined.
The idea is to develop some slides on "what Nabuur can do for me - and what not".
This is further an issue of Enquirey especaiily for need to find out if it is possible to seek assistance of Nabuur to help in Fund raising, I have drafta Project Proposal but the amount of Money required is so huge such that If the project is to become realistic alot has to be done, this is s Water Project In Kenya which will Benefit 1.2 Million people living in a Rural environment.
How Can Nabuur Assist me.
W.Korir
Email: Wkorir2000@yahoo.com
Thanks Weldon for your post. It really goes to the heart of he question what Nabuur can do and what not - can it help with fundraising or not?
Is anybody aware of a document that gest into what Nabuur can do and what not?
So far it says on the page where you register your village:
Why would you show your Village on this site?
1. On the NABUUR site you can present your community to the world. People from all over the world can visit your community online, find out about the stories you want to share and perhaps come over and visit in person.
2. You also get access to online volunteers who help solve the problems of your community with their ideas, knowledge, skills and time. Many problems can be solved this way. Click here for some examples (new pop-up)
Important note: NABUUR.com gives no financial support.
There are also two documents about successful and unsuccessful villages (see attached). Maybe we could combine both of them to avoid that LR have to open several documents (which means time and money).
Do you think this is enough, or are there any other points that should be mentioned?
I would volunteer to put them together.
best,
Maria
Hi Maria
There is a little more info on what Nabuur can and cannot do on the About http://www.nabuur.com/en/about-nabuur and FAQ http://www.nabuur.com/en/frequently-asked-questions pages, including a link to some basic guidelines at http://www.nabuur.com/en/guidelines
Hi Weldon
My experience is that Nabuur projects that focus on large-scale fundraising do not succeed. Small projects, focusing on local development and things that the community can do for itself which require only relatively small amounts of outside money are more likely to be successful.
Mary
Thanks Mary.
I thought giving it a start and have put together an outline how a FAQ/Support page would look like. I think there should be a tab for this on the homepage. Please feel free to comment.
Since we also discussed quite a lot of how villages could go first through an easy to establish connect phase with a limited village profile page, and then start a project once they are ready, please find attached a document lining out how this process could look like. I tried to include different elements explaining what LR can expect from Nabuur and what does not work.
Please see it as a start and looking forward to your comments,
Maria
PS: We also need somebody to rework the FAQs - any volunteers????? (I know this has been proposed several times by some of you, and nobody picked it up, but please feel welcome to do it now!)
Maria,
May I point out two minor things from the sign up paper, which seem to very slightly contradict each other. There is no great import to this but I suspect the criteria may need to be tightened a little for the larger Project to be successful.
Early in the text it says-
• The Local Representative is online at least a couple of times a week.
And in the checklist it says
4. I am an active neighbour and can be online at least once a week.
I appreciate these are not wildly different but the point I would like to make is that once a week makes for very slow progress updates from the LR to the rest of the team. Only the LR has the local knowledge to communicate what is happening on site and a 'once a week' update potentially allows the neighbours to get bored with the slow progress and many may (have done in the past!) drop out. I appreciate that there are great cost and availability issues for many villages to communicate more often. But if the updates are not very regular, the project is likely to fail so perhaps this criteria is of greater importance in assessing if the village is actually ready to start a substantial/significant project than the two simple phrases at first imply.
(All Please note I am referring to larger, more complex projects here, not some very simple, minor and probably inexpensive projects. I do not intend to belittle those smaller projects in any way; they are very useful, helpful and should be supported, but there is huge gulf between say providing some books and building a hospital or a school. My comments are very much directed to the latter larger projects.)
For the bigger project to succeed communications probably need to be much more than once a week. In our case, often the LR posting took place virtually once a day! Always better than 3/4 times a week! Certainly, combined with the rest of the team an update, often several updates, took place in a day. It is that level of energy that makes things happen and we should be encouraging that level from the start.
Somewhere else we see that 'what makes a project successful' is regular LR updates. We know this to be true, so may I propose that the wording is tightened 'to several times a week.' I appreciate this may preclude some villages and I feel sorry about that, but I would rather they did not start until they were in 'good shape' than start and fail quickly, which is what we have seen happen so often in the past.
Ron.
Hi Ron,
Thanks for your comment. I totally agree with you that a very present LR is key to a successful project, and would voluntarily go for " several times a week".
The problem we face is how to define criteria for successful projects and at the same time avoid excluding people because of their lack of internet connection.
For now, there is the idea of having two different kind of villages: those where only general discussion takes place, that´s to say villages without a concrete project, but some ideas, and maybe some need for information that volunteers could provide.
And villages with a project that need more volunteer commitment and more commitment by the LR.
What I see now on Nabuur is a lot of villages with huge projects without the capacity to implement them, but also some villages with small projects, that might move slowly but show however some results (for example, provide beds for the kids, etc). Where do we want to handle these small projects - should there be the possibility to adress them as a village without a " real" big project by discussing them in a general village talk - like it is now the case when a village gets online? Would this be a solution?
What do others think?
Maria
Maria,
I drafted the enclosed which shows how I am thinking about these issues and trying to establish some guidelines.
It may be of help in developing a discussion.
Ron
Thanks Ron,
This looks very sensible to me. The question we have to resolve now is how a village can progress from one phase to another if it wishes so and which criteria have to be fulfilled. For example, I think a village where volunteers undertake fundraising needs to be better checked on the ground by peer LR or other organisations, whereas a smaller project might gain enough trust by putting photos, info and good will.
Also it should be visibly clear to volunteers, which village is which - maybe a different frame color, or something similar.
I have to think this through a bit more - am too tired now, but there should be a way that a "discussion" village can start a small or a big project and the procedre is slightly different for villages with a funding proposal and villages without.
By the way, this is a good start to also discuss how Nabuur wants to position itself as regards fundraising, which is as we all know often very crucial.
Maria
Hi everyone,
Can I participate on your discussion. I find interesting reading some of your posts.
Jeremy Ecle
--
..the world will make a way for a man know where he is going..
Hi Jeremy Ecle,
You're most welcome to participate & share your thoughts to help the communities.
Best to all,
Adnan khan.
Hi Ron- I love your mind map. I think it really summarises where we want to be heading. For the first time in ages i can visualise some clraity around the split between really active villages, semi-active and non-active.
Hi Maria,
In FAQ.doc, as we discussed that there should be visibility of two kind of options. Either that is facilitator, LR or neighbor 1) from my country
2) from out side the country
It will be quite helpful, meaningful & effective.
Kind regards,
Adnan khan.
Hi MariaZ,
Greetings,
Nice report you got there.
Jeremy Ecle
--
..the world will make a way for a man know where he is going..
the most important is guideline and let it be simple ,so that people can join in big number without facing any problem when doing the registration of villages
--
we are the voice of voiceless
Hiya.
There is a possibility that new Drupal developers can be linked to Nabuur via Raul in Australia.
If this happens, then presumably there is not going to be the same urgency to spend 10,000 Euros on 8 developers for 4 days.
I am asking for "Insurance for Nabuur as a charity" so that those working here are protected from lawsuits. This is a basic "Public Liability insurance" cover any charity can buy in Europe.
Are there things that would help make your current task easier?
It is worth considering. e.g. What would make inactive nabuur village more active to try and achieve their goals?
would a "small prize giving" at future Nabuur camp for the most active village help to acknowledge the achievements of Nabuur village?
Is it a possible future "training budget" for outstanding village representatives that would help them do their job on grassroot level better?
What would "look after the village representatives" in a way that makes them want to be more active?
Hope this team would consider exploring that.
love
Cecilia