This year, the tech team identified some serious pain points among Greyshirts. Too many volunteers were facing too many challenges identifying operations they could deploy on, service projects in their area they could volunteer for, and in-person trainings they could attend to up their skills and capabilities.
Solving these problems wasn’t considered an overall high-tech priority—Team Rubicon had other applications they wanted tech to enhance and build, say—but it was a personal high priority to a couple of tech team members. So, we banded together and came up with a solution in our free time.
Now, we’re elated to introduce a groundbreaking addition to our volunteering toolkit: the all-new “Find Events” tool, a revolutionary platform designed to revolutionize how you discover and engage with our missions. This innovative tool, powered by Microsoft’s Bing Maps, marks a significant leap forward in enhancing your volunteering experience with Team Rubicon.
How We Got Here
Let’s take a moment to rewind to 2017 when we first launched the Event Calendar in Roll Call. It was a comprehensive platform showcasing a map, calendar, and an extensive list of all our events. While it seemed like the ideal solution, challenges soon emerged.
Extensive user testing shed light on a significant hurdle: frustration among our Greyshirts. Many found it daunting to locate events they were eligible for or could actively participate in. The calendar displayed numerous events that, unfortunately, weren’t accessible due to various constraints. The tool also did not work on mobile phones. This led us on a path toward a more user-friendly, accessible solution.
So, last year, we embarked on a project aimed at creating a tool that would effortlessly guide Greyshirts to events tailored to their eligibility. Prototyping various map tools and actively seeking feedback from a diverse group of users became our priority. Our dedicated product feedback group ensured Greyshirt voices were the guiding force.
Launch of the Find Events Tool
This fall, we launched the brand new events calendar. With its intuitive “Find Events” functionality, Greyshirts can now do exactly that. Instead of scrolling and filtering, Greyshirts can easily find the types of events they want to participate in, in the areas they want to serve. This new tool solves the most important pain point we noticed: how to easily find an event that you are interested in.
This evolution brings forth a tool that seamlessly integrates your preferences. Now, not only can you explore events via an interactive Bing map, you can also filter by services, choosing to display operations, projects, trainings, or engagements.
An advanced filtering option allows you to search operations by skill and even hide events that you aren’t eligible to attend. Click on the “filter” drop-down, and you can show only events you’re eligible for or those with or without an overnight. Narrow it down further and you can see only preferred event subtypes—everything from train-the-trainers to service projects to social events. And the skills filter allows you to display only those events with chainsaw operations, fire mitigation, general debris removal, and light and heavy vehicle operations skills.
The mobile version of the new find events calendar tool enables a distance filter, making it easier to find nearby events from where you are at the moment, while the desktop version lets you zoom in or out of the map to customize the view to as close as your metro or as far away as the side of the country.
This new tool solves the most important pain point we noticed: how to easily find an event that you are interested in. And, to complement that, we made honing in on events even easier by providing at-a-glance refinement: Before Greyshirts even click on an event, they know if the event is already full and will have to join a waitlist; if they are located too far from the event to be deployable for it; and if they must first complete a prereq, or if they can register right away.
Then vs. Now
Seek, Find, Deploy
At Team Rubicon, our commitment to serving more clients drives us forward, and this tool is a pivotal step toward achieving TR’s North Star goal. We hope Greyshirts will now embrace this powerful new resource to elevate their volunteering journey.Experience the power of the “Find Events” tool within Roll Call, today. Discover events tailored to your skills, filter out those you can’t join, and navigate effortlessly through our mission-driven initiatives.
Other Ways to Get Involved
Your feedback fuels our progress. Join the TR tech team’s Product Feedback program at https://rollcall-events.teamrubiconusa.org/account/notifications and be part of shaping our volunteering experience.
Want to be in the next feedback group? Sign up for product feedback here: https://rollcall-events.teamrubiconusa.org/account/notifications
