Published using Google Docs
Playbook short (external)
Updated automatically every 5 minutes

Playbook

This document provides a comprehensive overview of all the information necessary for Community Organizers to keep Queerhoven alive and thriving.

This is a short version for people interested in signing up for organizing :)

Table of contents:

1. What is Queerhoven        2

Vision & Mission        2

Values & Mindset        2

Goals & Actions        3

2. Operational Structure        3

Community Organizers        4

Queerhoven Guardians        4

Queerhoven Agents        6

Volunteers        8

Playbook maintenance        9

  1. What is Queerhoven

Vision & Mission

BY QUEER PEOPLE FOR QUEER PEOPLE

To provide safe Queer spaces, where LGBTQIA+ people can exist in their own skin and experience, without judgement or pressure to hide. These spaces are both literal and a network for the Queer community from Eindhoven and its surroundings and provide opportunities for the Queer community to connect and support each other. The foundation aims to broaden the initiation into queer life beyond the usual nightlife.

Queerhoven brings together like-minded individuals that work on achieving its mission. Our vision is brought to life via unpaid efforts of Community Organizers (continuous) and Volunteers (occasional), with help of external organizations and collaborations when necessary.

Values & Mindset

Code of Conduct provides guidelines for everyone stepping into our online and offline spaces. Community Organizers (who are stable active contributors to Queerhoven activities) are responsible for embodying the Code of Conduct through our behaviors and actions, and dealing with code violations.

To ensure effective and comfortable collaboration within the Community Organizers teams, upon joining, every team member agrees to the Code of Conduct and the below mindset principles:

Goals & Actions

To achieve our Vision and Mission, here are our goals and actions:

Goals:

Actions:

  1.  Operational Structure

As of 02/04/2024, this section is out of date. Updates coming soon!

Everyone in Queerhoven is welcome to join the events and share their opinion/suggestions to make our spaces better suited to the community needs and wants. To keep things moving forward, Queerhoven appoints Community Organizer status to those who are willing to consistently commit their time and efforts to facilitate Queerhoven functioning. Based on the type of preferred activities, there are 2 teams of Community Organizers: Queerhoven Guardians and Queerhoven Agents. Each team comes with its own responsibilities and access rights accordingly. It is possible to be in both Community Organizer teams simultaneously if one has sufficient bandwidth.

For occasional non-structural help, community members can sign up to be Volunteers. They support Queerhoven activities when explicitly requested, based on their preferences and skills.

Community Organizers

Queerhoven Guardians

Team description: People responsible for strategic and operational decisions to keep Queerhoven afloat

Main responsibilities:

Optional responsibilities:

Access rights:

How to be selected:

How to leave the position:

Proactively inform the other team members to find the best suited exit timeline (closing or transferring open projects, finding replacement, etc.)

Number of members: 5 min, 10 max. If the number of team members is below 10, anyone who wants to join the team can be considered. If the maximum number of team members is reached, new members can join only if someone leaves.

At the moment, no maximum term duration is set to ensure continuous operation of Queerhoven. This is to be reassessed after a year, if all spots are filled and more people are eager to join.

Specializations:

Based on the minimum of 5 board members needed for successful functioning, the first 5 roles are proposed to be the main roles that need to be filled at all times. The 6th role is optional and related tasks can be potentially absorbed by any team member if no one specifically is assigned to it (if there are only 5 people).

We need to ensure these 5 roles are assigned, and any extra team members can stay "generic" and pick up any tasks or join as a back-up to share the role responsibilities.

It is not advised to have more than 2 people assigned per specialization. Less experienced/new team members can first get the secondary role next to the current title holder, to get experience first.

The scope mentioned for each role means all tasks related will be automatically assigned to the title holder(s), they are treated as minimum required tasks that we expect the person to fulfill (not necessarily on their own but responsible for getting it done). Tasks can be delegated when needed, and of course the title holder is free to pick up any other tasks or join event organizing activities.

  1. Chairperson: setting agenda for each board meeting, checking with others what topics need to be discussed, leading the meeting and helping keep it on track, main representative face of Queerhoven in external meetings/activities/collaborations.

  1. Vice chair: supporting Chairperson, "2nd pair of eyes" for Treasurer, main representative face of Queerhoven in external meetings/activities/collaborations.

  1. Treasurer: finance management, has to be good at documentation and tracking, approving expenses/distributing funds, involved in any external meetings that concern funding/budget. Responsible for annual budget meetings (agenda, content, presentation) with support of other board members. Upkeep of the "Funding" chapter of Playbook.

  1. Secretary: supporting with clear meeting notes documentation, upkeep of the Drive, email, Notion, notes, meeting invites, anything related to Queerhoven admin. Helping other board members stay up to date and ensure they know how to use all the workspace tools we have. Overseeing updates to the Playbook, making general updates, communicating changes.

  1. Safety, inclusivity and accessibility (SIA) guardian: responsible for driving Queerhoven to be inclusive, safe and accessible (e.g. check event accessibility, help organizers learn about making their events safe and accessible, be involved in setting up the buddy program). Organizers can reach out in confidence if they have trouble with any other members. Upkeep of the relevant content in the Playbook.

  1. Content & branding guardian: responsible for social media presence, messages, external representation, branding and design, website upkeep. Upkeep of the relevant content in the Playbook.

Queerhoven Agents

Team description: People responsible for organizing events for the community and keep Queerhoven thriving

Main responsibilities:

Optional responsibilities:

Access rights:

How to be selected:

How to leave the position:

Proactively inform the other team members to find the best suited exit timeline (closing or transferring open projects, finding replacement, etc.)

Number of members: min 5, max 10 (to begin with, including Guardians who want to organize events)

Specializations:

All Queerhoven Agents are expected to organize events and pick up tasks they’d like if needed. If desired they can have a Specialization title, which is also in line with Guardians roles. Agents with a Specialization work together with Guardians to keep everyone aligned on their respective specialization.

Unlike Guardians, who are directly responsible for their own specialization, Agents with a Specialization hold this role for the purpose of knowledge gathering and transfer.

For example, a Safety Agent is a go-to person for questions regarding safety and accessibility, and informing the team about Queerhoven guidelines. However, each event leader is responsible for keeping their own event safe and accessible up to Queerhoven standards. Therefore, not all tasks related are automatically assigned to specialization holders. Each event lead (minimum 2 people) are responsible to make sure everything is covered.

Similarly, the event lead is responsible to make sure we announce events on Instagram, Eventbrite, etc., but they can ask the Marketing Agent to help them with event description and graphics, or do it themselves.

Multiple people can hold the same Specialization (2-3 max), and they can have a groupchat all together with the related Guardian.

  1. First aid person & accessibility agent (working with the SIA guardian) - someone already known in the community, ensuring we have a safety person at each event, knows people who are trained in first aid.

  1. Budgeting agent (working directly with the Treasurer) - tracking receipts for events, helping budget distribution, has access to Paypal, teaches other members how to report their spendings properly.

  1. Marketing agent (working with the Content & Branding guardian) - ensuring our events are aligned with branding and direction given by the Guardians, has Photoshop/Canva skills to create our Instagram posts, posters, Eventbrite banners, etc.

  1. Designated extravert - rotating responsibility, ensuring warm welcome and introduction to the community for someone who is joining a Queerhoven event for the first time or whoever is more on the shy or reserved side.

*any other specialties can be added

Volunteers

Team description: People who are willing to occasionally help out Queerhoven when requested, depending on task preference if necessary.

Responsibilities:

Be available to help out with Queerhoven operations, incl. but not limited to:

Access rights:

How to be selected:

How to leave the position:

Number of members: No limit

Specializations:*

  1. Buddy - community members who are willing to take new members under their wing and ensure they have support and someone to hangout with, introduce them to the community, answer questions.

*to be set up further by SIA guardian

  1. Photographer - taking pictures during events, must take note of and respect “no photos” stickers

*any other specialties can be added

Playbook maintenance

Queerhoven Guardians are responsible for maintaining the Playbook content by updating it when necessary, to ensure current information for proper functioning. Any Community Organizer can refer to the Playbook at any time and provide suggestions.

Depending on the specialized role, certain Guardians are responsible for their own parts of the Playbook maintenance, however all major changes need to be approved by the Guardian team upfront. When applicable, approval of the Agents team might be required.

The playbook must be reviewed and, if necessary, updated at least once a year prior to the Annual Community Gathering, where we update everyone on what we have achieved and what our plans for next year are. All significant Playbook updates are communicated in this meeting.