New Node Overview

This overview will let you (the new Node Leads and other helpers) know about the process of starting up a new GPN Node, how it might look a little different to an existing GPN Node at the start, and will provide links to other resources you’ll need along your new node journey!

Our goal is to help you get from brand new node to fully fledged self-sustaining node in two years!

But what is GPN?

Here's how your node liaison will help you get to being fully fledged! Timeline of Handover 

Before we get started:

These are the first three steps that we’ll work on together as we prepare to start your new GPN node: 

• Future GPN leaders from the new city will attend an established node (eg. Sydney)

• We will have an agreement with a local university to provide the venue and fund the food/miscellaneous expenses. (Or are in the final stages of getting this signed) 

• You are assigned a node liaison who will help you on your new GPN Node journey over the next 2 years.

Preparing your new GPN Node:

You’ve got everything agreed between GPN and your partner university and it’s time to get your node set up before you can run your first event!

Your Node Liaison will help you get on-boarded onto all the tools and policies you will need for your new role.

Your main job at this point of the process is to help build up the student and volunteer mailing lists! Here are some tips for how to do that: Promoting GPN to Students

Here are the resources you need to be familiar with at this stage:

• GPN Responsibility Breakdown 

• The purpose of GPN 

• Leaders at GPN 

• How to set dates 

• Escalation 

• Community Inclusivity Guidelines 

• Working with Sponsors 

Running your first event

Preparing to run a GPN event normally starts 4-6 weeks out from the date of the workshop. There is a checklist of tasks that needs to be completed in this time. But the first time around your Node Liaison will handle all of these tasks for you!

The most important things for you to assist with in setting up the first event are things that are local to your node. This includes:

• Reading On the Day at GPN Overview so you are ready for what happens at the event

• Visiting the venue to understand the layout and meeting your university contact in person

• Promoting the sign-up pages for students and tutors within your community

• Accounting for any other local factors, like public transport or events that may impact the workshop.
  
  

The Node Liaison will also help you out on the day of the event, but they will be reverse-shadowing you, so make sure that you’re familiar with how GPN runs on the day, and feel free to ask any questions you may have before the event!

Going Forward

Learning the ropes

Over the rest of your first year your Node Liaison will teach you how to use all the systems we use to pull together a GPN event. This will happen in accordance with the Timeline of Handover (as pictured above).

As your node grows and your experience grows you’ll also be able to add on extra features like Computerless Games, Mentor Hangz, and other logistics features. You can see when your node might be ready for or need these different features in the Scaling Nodes page.

In your second year your Node Liaison will focus more on supporting you to be across GPN content and to integrate into the broader GPN Australia network of leaders, who have insights to share from running their own GPN nodes in their city, as well as other GPN points of contact like the Social Media Manager and GPN Australia Content Team. 

Building a Committee

There are a lot of tasks to do to bring a GPN together, and it is not sustainable to have them all done by one or two people in the long run. For this reason it is important to build a local GPN Committee for your node.

Being on a GPN Committee is also a great leadership opportunity for our volunteers, and creating those upskilling opportunities past what happens during the event is an important part of GPN’s mission.

Your Node Liaison will help you out as you go about finding people to join your committee, setting up good communication patterns, and working together as a team to make events come to life.

Here are the resources that you should read to build, nurture and, manage your GPN Committee:

• Committee Development 

• Being on a committee 

• Committee Member Onboarding 

• Committee Healthcheck Ritual