SiliconGlades™

This checklist primarily uses the example of CoderDojo in a public library in the U.S., but there may be other programs and locations that can work well for you still using this checklist, because these lessons are transferable. 

• About 2 months before the planned launch, prepare a pre-registration form on mailchimp if your library already uses that, or a simple sign-up sheet to gather interest among your patrons to bring their kids (age 7–17) to learn coding skills. 
  
• Start creating awareness about CoderDojo with flyers or by promoting a video on a big screen display, and facebook, such as the one below (or at https://youtu.be/2l1P5xkH868)
  

• As parents start showing interest, have a separate sign-up sheet for mentors, with name, cell phone, email address, programming skills they can teach, and availability in spells, for scheduling.
• Select your most eager librarian as the ‘Champion’, which means the librarian will be the champion of that particular CoderDojo location and get to evangelize the program to the community.  Ask the champion to sign up and create an account at https://zen.coderdojo.com/register.  This champion may add more champions at a later time.  Send invitations to the mentors from within zen.coderdojo.com and assign them as mentors.
• Hold a meeting with the mentors, and explain the underlying philosophy of CoderDojo – that it’s not a boot camp, not a school, and that the mentors are there only to assist in learning, but not for teaching.  Explain the grandmother’s method, where you stand behind and encourage them.  Explain that CoderDojo encourages and instills a culture of kindness, forgiveness and learning by working through one’s mistakes.
• Assign the meeting room where CoderDojo will be held.  Make sure it has good lighting, power outlets for computers, a strong wifi signal, and an overhead projector with a big screen.  If you have laptops, tablets or other devices, mention that to the mentors and have them ready.
• Set up your event in eventbrite or zen.coderdojo.com and announce the registration link through the library’s regular marketing channels.  Use social media generously to get the word out.  Insist on a parent or guardian being seated with the child during the session.
• On the day of the event, introduce all the mentors, and start the session. Project-based teaching gets the best learning experiences and the best outcomes.  At the end of the session, have a show-and-tell encouraging the kids to show their work.
• Encourage all mentors and parents to stay actively engaged in the CoderDojo Forums. We have used google groups, but CoderDojo’s forums are being updated as I write this.
  
• At every session keep asking parents to spread the word at their place of work to bring in more mentors.  You can never have enough mentors.
• Encourage the older kids to start mentoring the newbies. See a video about how 12-year old girls make the best mentors for newbies ( see below or the one at https://youtu.be/hAUuAeGkGU0) 
  

• Welcome visitors as observers from neighboring towns and counties to visit your dojo and help them start one.
• Periodically, organize a CoderDojo Family Happy Hour, as a social gathering.
• Raise awareness through social media but also woo the local print media and local TV stations.
  

This checklist has been put together by Ramesh Sambasivan of SiliconGlades, the design and innovation firm that focuses on community-building social-impact programs and products known for being elegant in their simplicity.  The checklist uses some of the lessons learned by him in championing several dojos successfully (and some unsuccessfully) across the Tampa Bay Area over 32 months beginning May 2013, nurturing along the way, a joyful community of mentors, coder-kids, parents and librarians as they redefine the area’s economic future and have fun while at it. This checklist is designed to serve as a generic set of to-do’s adaptable by any public library. Thanks are due to the leaders of Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library, Pasco County Library Cooperative and Pinellas Public Library Cooperative in Tampa Bay Area, Florida for welcoming CoderDojo as a citizen-led initiative, creating wealth despite no money changing hands, by preparing the youth as future job creators.  Part or whole of this checklist is expected to be used as CoderDojo’s official guidelines for launching CoderDojo at a public library.  For more information on various social-impact programs that SiliconGlades takes to communities, visit www.siliconglades.com or send an email to support [at] siliconglades [dot] com.