Sandra Maguire, CoderDojo Dun Laoighre - 7 Top Tips for running your Dojo

Sandra's 7 Tips for Running Your Dojo
1. Have a website; put access to your FAQ on the home page.

2. Make it easy for mentors to join (we have an application form on the CoderDojo Dunlaoghaire Website). We invite them to a session before they "commit" to becoming a mentor, at which point we give them a Vetting form to complete, and add them to our Mentors' Google group.

3. Tweak Eventbrite so it works for you - many (most?) dojos use Eventbrite, and it may need a workaround depending on what you do. We now have any questions we might ask parents online (e.g. permission for photos to appear on our website), whereas we used to have them complete paper Registration forms.

4. Have answers to waitlist queries ready in advance; we use Gmail canned responses to save having to think out a specific answer to each enquiry.

5. Give your parents jobs to do - they may not be able to mentor, but there are loads of other things they can help with.

6. Simplify your check in - we have a list of names (sticky labels too), where the kids just simply tick beside their name - we used to get them to sign, but that took ages.

7. Have a few policies/procedures in place for things like mentor vetting or recommendation, advice for mentors on child protection, safety things like people consuming hot drinks and so forth.