Volunteers: The importance of being, and staying, in the LOOP (and avoiding tumbleweeds)...

I figure as long as I am writing blog posts this week, I should just keep on writing blog posts until everyone gets tired of me and sends me cease and desist vibes (if you have been sending them already, send harder! My network connection is poor).

The LOOP, or Languages Operations Outsourcing Portal if you are not into the whole brevity thing, is a system/platform developed by ProZ.com which allows us to post and coordinate projects. It needs some work to achieve its full potential, and I am working on that end of things, but it also needs-- as with all things ProZ Pro Bono-- YOUR help.

LOOP "talks" to your ProZ.com profile and uses that as a basis for seeing who is available, working in a given language or pair, field of expertise, and sending notifications.

In troubleshooting some issues over the past little while, I have come across many a profile representing a PPB volunteer which is so empty you can almost see, hear, and feel the tumbleweeds rolling past in the wind. Empty! Sometimes not even language pairs have been declared, not to mention more detailed information that would allow a potential client to make a determination of whether to contact you.

So here is my plea to you, as Jared with ProZ Pro Bono, but also with my Jared at ProZ.com hat on for the moment: don't neglect your ProZ.com profile!

It's out there, it's on the internet. Fill it with the basics, which will help systems like LOOP find you and direct the right projects to you. But fill it with the neat stuff too, all of the things that you would add anywhere that you have a professional presence online. First and last name, a professional-looking photo of your face, a compelling bio that tells your story as a language professional-- we can't underestimate how increasingly important it is for clients and colleagues to be able to discern at a glance that we are real, actual, flesh and blood HUMANS. Credentials, continuing professional development, project history-- whatever you have that shows you are a real, actual, flesh and blood EXPERT. Good clients are looking for that, HUMAN EXPERTS, and you have no chance of those clients contacting you if all you are giving them is tumbleweeds...

OK, end rant? Go to your ProZ.com profile updater, https://www.proz.com/settings/ . If you see a bunch of red incomplete fields there, you might have some work cut out for you. But it will be good for you. It will help PPB better connect with you, and it may also help the right colleagues and commercial clients find you as well.

Wishing everyone out there a great weekend!