From 25637460aa190a0b0b0d5b05a30b2dca891e39a9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Nanda128 Date: Mon, 19 May 2025 02:03:44 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] doc: PRO Handover Docs at 2AM yippee --- Committee/2024-2025/Handovers/PRO.md | 273 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 273 insertions(+) create mode 100644 Committee/2024-2025/Handovers/PRO.md diff --git a/Committee/2024-2025/Handovers/PRO.md b/Committee/2024-2025/Handovers/PRO.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b733480 --- /dev/null +++ b/Committee/2024-2025/Handovers/PRO.md @@ -0,0 +1,273 @@ +## PRO + +#### Nanda Vinayakrishnan + +### Duties + +Your duties as a Public Relations Officer are usually to promote the society and its events. + +As part of this, you might have to take photos at events, reply to direct messages on social media, and post on social +media. + +#### General Overview + +You will need to at least have three of the following things done for **every single** event. +I recommend using a per-event checklist, maybe a Notion page or whatever suits you. + +It needs to have: + +- [ ] Wolves +- [ ] Email +- [ ] Discord +- [ ] Poster (Optional) +- [ ] Social Media + +More elaboration on what each of these sections entails is below. + +Part of your job will also involve delegating some of these tasks to other folks, like your Assistant PROs. +Trying to do everything yourself is a recipe for burnout. + +##### Wolves + +- **Every** event needs to be posted up on Wolves. +- Familiarize yourself with the Committee Panel on ulwolves.ie, especially the "Events" section. +- For each upcoming event, you need to navigate + to https://cp.ulwolves.ie/manage/events/add and fill out the form. +- For the "Description" section, you can copy and paste the email or discord announcement (removing things like the " + ```@everyone```" tag). +- Every event needs to be bookable, so click on the "Book on UL Wolves" radio button in the "Pre-Booking" section. You + don't need tickets (unless its big events like PyCon) or booking notifications. +- Leave all settings as default with respect to bookings, unless otherwise specified. +- (Consult with the Treasurer if you need to charge for tickets, if so, how much, and how to handle the money.) +- Once you've created the event, go to https://ulwolves.ie/whatson, filter by "Computer" and check that the event is + listed. +- Click on the event and copy the link, and put it in your discord, email, poster (as a QR code), and social media posts + and tell people to book on it. +- More people booking on Wolves is better for record-keeping. + +##### Discord + +- **Every** event also needs to be announced on Discord. +- The society usually conducts most communication and activity on Discord, so you should try to point people + to https://discord.skynet.ie as much as you can. Especially in the beginning of the year. +- Every announcement begins life as a thread in the "pro-forum" channel in the Committee Discord. You'll need to create + a new post on the forum with the format as follows: ```YYYY-MM-DD {Event Name} Comms``` with the date referring to the + date of the event. +- For example, if the event is a capture the flag on the 1st of October, the post should be titled + ```2025-10-01 CTF Comms```. +- In the thread, you want to link to the committee forum thread in the first post and any important information you + might need to make an announcement off of. +- Start making a base announcement, there isn't a specific format but usually ours followed something like this: + +``` +Hey everyone/@everyone, + +{Quip about the event} + +We'll be having {Event Name} on {Day} the {Date} of {Month}. +It will be held in {Location} at {Start Time : End Time}. [WRITERS NOTE: TRY NOT TO USE 24HR IT CONFUSES NORMAL PEOPLE] + +See you then! + +Book your slot on Wolves: {Wolves Link} + +[Any other important links] [P.S. Do not use embeds, have the links out there. People wouldn't feel secure clicking on a random link they cant see at first glance in an email] +``` + +- Ideally you want to include more than just the base format, you don't want things getting too same-y +- After making the announcement, put it in the pro-forum thread and wrap it in triple backticks to make it a code block. + This will make it easier to read and copy. (The backtick is usually above your Tab key) +- Post that into the thread, and reply to it with a "@Committee" ping. You will need the assent of at least two other + committee members to post it (one if it's an emergency). +- Being funny in the announcements channel is completely fine, make sure you're not annoying people or making the + announcement difficult to read. +- Don't use the ``@everyone`` tag for stupid reasons, you don't want people to start muting the announcement channel. + +##### Emails + +- **Every** event should also be announced via E-mail. +- It's completely fine to copy the Discord Announcement and paste it into the email, but make sure to fix the + formatting. +- To make an email, navigate to https://cp.ulwolves.ie/mailbox/computer#compose and click on the "BCC {Number}/{Number} + Active Members (who have opted in to emails)" +- You don't need to add any other users to the email, as the BCC will send it to all members. +- Make sure to include the subject line, which is usually the type of event and what event it is. For example, for + events, we'd have the subject as "``[Event] Capture the Flag``" or "``[Event] PyCon 2025``". +- Every time a link is pasted into the email box, select the link text and click on the "Link" button in the toolbar. + This will make it a clickable link. +- The same requirements as Discord announcements apply, make sure the UL Wolves link is in the email, and make sure to + include any other important links. +- E-mails can't be taken back once sent, so make sure to save things as a draft before clicking "Send" and making sure + you have the assent of committee members. + +##### Posters + +- Posters can be a bit time-consuming, so you don't need to have one for every single event. +- You absolutely should, if you can, have a poster for your larger events. +- If it's allowed, you can also use preexisting posters for the event as the poster for the event. +- This poster needs to be uploaded on UL Wolves Event Creation page in the "Image/Poster" section. +- Some Guidelines for Poster-Making: + - Make sure to include the following information: + - Time + - Date + - Place + - Event Name + - UL Wolves Booking link QR Code + - 10-word tagline (optional) + - Make sure to use the UL Computer Society Logo, in any corner, usually the top left + - You can include the Time, Date, Place, and Location in the corner of the poster + - When putting information in the corners, make sure it floats off of the corner to prevent cropping. +- Attach the poster as an attachment in the Discord Announcement and the E-mail. +- Make sure to include the poster in the pro-forum thread + +##### Non-Discord Social Media + +- We have a few social media accounts, but they are not very active. +- We have official accounts on Instagram and LinkedIn, though we usually use the Instagram account. +- People will often try to reach out to us on Instagram direct messages, so make sure to check them regularly. +- You can also use the Instagram account to post about events, but make sure to check with the committee first. +- There isn't an established format for announcing, but since Instagram's visuals-heavy you'd want to only promote + events with posters or good visuals +- Consider handing this to an Assistant PRO, since its really easy to get outstretched with managing insta, discord, and + emails on top of everything. +- LinkedIn has been dead forever, consider not bothering with it or don't, whichever one works. + +##### Photography + +- Take pictures at most, if not all, events. +- CRUCIAL: ASK PEOPLE FOR PERMISSION TO TAKE THEIR PICTURE. IF NOT, MAKE SURE THEY'RE NOT CAUGHT IN THE ANGLES OF OTHER + PHOTOS. +- You can use these in the budget and for insta posts or other archival stuff. +- The Society has its own camera, so make sure to use it. Also use your own phone camera if needed. +- Take a million pictures of the same scene if you have to, you can get a better chance of a good picture if you do. + +##### Registering events on open-governance + +- Another part of your job is to archive events that happened on open-governance. +- What you want to do is clone open-governance to your system, navigate to open-governance/Events/{YYYY-YYYY}/ and + create a new file with the name of the event in the format Semester-{Semester Number}_Week-{Week Number}.md. +- At the top will be a title, with one ``#`` followed by the event name, so "``# PyCon``". +- Then you want to create a table with the date, location, time, type, and lead. +- The type is usually either "Technical" or "Social," and the lead is usually the person who organized the event. +- For the "Lead" section, try to use the forgejo handle of the person who organized the event. +- You can use the following template: + +``` +# {Event Name} + +| Date | {Date} | +|----------|----------------| +| Location | {Location} | +| Time | {Start Time} - {End Time} | +| Type | {Type} | +| Lead | {Lead} | + +## Overview + +{Overview of the event} + +## Requirements + +{Requirements for the event, if any} + +## Promotion + +### Email + +{Email for the event} + +### Discord + +{Discord announcement for the event} + +### Poster +![Poster]({Poster Link}) +``` + +- Upload any posters to the same directory as the event file, and link to them in the "Poster" section. +- Copy the same filename as the Markdown file, and rename the poster to it. + +##### Committee Meetings + +- At every committee meeting, there'll be a section for PROs. +- In that section, you want to ask if the previous event has been archived on open-governance and if not, who'll do it. +- Usually that's you. +- Later down the meeting, usually, there'll be a section for upcoming events. +- There, you need to ask yourself (and maybe the assistant PROs too) the following: + - Is the event up on Wolves? + - Is the announcement ready? + - Is any information needed? + - Is the poster ready? Do we need a poster? +- Don't rely on your memory, make sure to write down important stuff in the minutes. + +#### Flavors of PROdom + +###### Vanilla (Announcement Goblin PRO) + +- Typically, has no assistant PROs or just one semi-inactive one. +- Work on emails, discord, and instagram optionally. +- Reply to Direct Messages on Social Media + - Discord + - Instagram +- Photography + - The Society has a camera, and you can use your mobile phone camera + - Once again: Ask for permission to take pictures of people. +- Posters take a backseat, and you can use preexisting posters for events if needed. + +###### Marble (Announcement Goblin PRO + PRO who does Posters) + +- Person 1: + - Manages Discord and Email +- Person 2: + - Manages Posters and Instagram + +This distribution of labor isn't set in stone, you can shift responsibilities around and add and remove some ones. +This is just a suggestion based on a previous way the society's public relations was done +You want to not overwork one side over the other, since unfair distribution can make people burn out faster. + +###### Neapolitan (Announcement Goblin PRO + PRO who does Posters + PRO who does Social Media) + +- The PRO team has never gone past 3 people and never needed to. +- Having 3 people is nice because you get more flexibility when delegating work. +- Generally, it follows the same distribution as the Marble team, but with a third person who does instagram and can pop + in to help elsewhere like archiving. +- Same as Marble, you can shift things between roles and add new ones like archival, photos, etc. +- This is going to need more management of people, so make sure to ping them to remind them of things and to ask them + how things are going along. + +### Misc/Experience + +The position's really fun since you get a lot more space to just do things you want, but you also get a load of chances +to fumble, especially with things like emails which are hard to take back. +You don't really need to be technical to be a PRO of this society, you can be completely new to everything and still do +a good job. +The committee is also full of helpful people who will help you out if you ask them, so don't be afraid to ask for help. + +One important thing that needs noting is that everyone on this committee is a volunteer, and they are all doing this for +free. +This means that you need to be respectful of their time and effort, and not expect them to do everything for you. +You can't be overbearing, since that's just socially not the done thing, but you also can't be too hands-off that people +forget they're on the committee. + +Golden rule for doing anything PRO-related: **If you can finish the task in the time its taking you to ping someone else +and wait for them to get it done, you can do it yourself.** + +You should also get used to pinging Committee to re-check your announcements. +Always better to have someone get annoyed at you for pinging them than to have a bad announcement go out. + +Also, remember that this is a volunteer position, not a job. +If it starts to feel like one, take a step back and consider delegating more or raising it with the committee. +It's okay to take breaks, and it's okay to drop off the face of the earth for a while as long as you let folks know. +Additionally, if you see someone else getting burnt out, be the first to step in and help them out. +People are more likely to accept other people helping than they are to ask for help themselves. + +### Summary + +The Public Relations Officer is a committee position who's main purpose is to manage, well, the Public Relations of UL +CompSoc. +Your job will be to announce events, keep people informed, maybe promote things, take pictures, and archive events. +Depending on the situation, you might also be the first point of contact for people who want to talk to the society. +You'll need to work with a team, or on your own, but the most important part is that you don't get burnt out. +Being a PRO is almost as much teamwork as it is actual public relations, and just enjoy stuff. + +And of course, the first rule of PROdom: ✨ **Have fun** ✨