Evolution of the Reps Program - Proposal

Reps
#1

Dear Reps,

The Council started a process of strategic realignment during the Paris Leadership meetup in February. We shared the documents and the ideas and we’ve been following the conversations and discussions on all the different Reps channels. Now it’s time for the program to go to the next level.

The Council, with help of the Peers, put together a proposal that outlines in broad strokes the evolution of the program. We want to invite you to join us in this process:

  • We want to identify Reps and mentors who are interested in helping us flesh out the details of this evolution.

  • Based on that we will create working groups of Council members, Mentors and Reps that will tackle the details of this proposal.

We are curious to hear your comments and specially questions. In addition there will be a town hall so we can have a more interactive conversation. It will take place next Friday, December 11 at 15:00 UTC and you will be able to follow it live from this link or join the conversation from the MozillaReps vidyo room.

We are very excited about this new direction and we are sure that together we can unleash the full potential of Reps.

##Evolution of the Reps Program - Proposal
###Introduction

Based on the insights generated from Reps Leadership meetings during the past two years the program is ready for the next level. This arises from Reps Council becoming part of the Mozilla Leadership team in 2014, the experience we collected in the past years and the feedback Reps and mentors have provided. We see that the program is ready for a next stage, further unleashing the full potential of Reps. This document outlines the evolution of the program, its main adjustments, and explains their rationale.

###Quarterly Alignment with Participation Team

There is a lack of alignment and clarity on what “impact” the Reps program is having on the overall Mozilla project. This results in Rep activities that are generally geared towards “low hanging fruits” and which have low impact. Going forward there will be a quarterly alignment between the Reps Council and the Participation Team. This enables the Reps program to act on Mozilla’s wider organizational goals. For these reasons there will be increased scrutiny on activities requiring budget which are unrelated to overall Participation goals.

Furthermore our Council members spend too much time handling budget requests. This steers the Council’s attention away from its central responsibilities such as strategic planning, conflict resolution, and program health. It is also an impediment for assuming this body’s leadership position at Mozilla.

###Reps Program with Specialization
Over the years the Reps program has become almost entirely focused on and optimized for events and budgets. This limits Reps’ creative potential to innovate and test new ways for advancing Mozilla’s mission.

Therefore we will create groups of Reps with specific responsibilities:

  • Reps who provide resources to communities (ie. help plan, manage and assess budget/swag requests)
  • Reps assuming community leadership (ie. support, grow and mobilize their local communities)
  • Reps with functional specialization (ie. drive local community efforts around a specific functional area)

We will also update the mentorship structure to provide more coaching and personal development so that Reps get as much support and guidance from their mentor as possible. Lastly, we will establish ways to recognize the impact Reps are having, ranging from the nurturing of a recognition culture of LinkedIn recommendations, for example.

###Conclusion
This is the biggest program transformation since the inception of the ReMo program in 2011. We know that there will be bumps along the way and it might sometimes feel uncomfortable but as in any growing, maturing community, change is not only healthy, it is necessary. Looking back, we have come a long way. We can be proud of everything we have accomplished and excited about the next phase of the program. Together we will make the Reps program more impactful, more sustainable and more fun! We count on your absolute support.

19 Likes
#2

I have few questions.

  • Is it means we are closing Reps SIG ?
  • The Specialization groups you have mentions, I am rolling all of those responsibilities over the last few years for my local community. Will I (or Reps like me) have to roll one specific responsibility or I can roll all three of them. How Reps council will deal situation like this?
2 Likes
#3

Thanks Chris,

I think a change is always good to jump forward.

It would be great to get more details about the three responsibilities.

best
ganesh

#4

SIGs haven’t been active inside Reps for a long time now.

That’s something it will be defined next, with the help of people who wants to help with the process.

Why do you think this is important, how different implementations would affect you?

#5

I am interested to help.

I am thinking as a worst case, which can occur in our local community.

Think I am organizing SuMo KB day; some other reps organizing Firefox Test day. Now we need resources from the community, and imagine the Reps who is/are responsible for that, (s)he doesn’t know any thing about the functional areas. So we have to negotiate with him/her for the resources that we need. Which will be time consuming or in worst case we might fail to make him/her understand what we need for the event. So we have to collect necessary resource what I need ourselves.

Another worst case might be like this, I am recruiting some new people in our community through functional area. Now who will be responsible to support them, mobilize them in community?

1 Like
#6

Interesting, so the problem I’m hearing is that there is (or it could be) a lack of communication/sync inside the community?

#7

Please remember that the Reps Town Hall will start in 1.5 hours and you
will be able to follow it on YouTube
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrG2QgFGGPA) and in the Reps Vidyo Room
(https://v.mozilla.com/flex.html?roomdirect.html&key=RWa4tTy27FSM).

If you’re in Orlando, you can join us in Southern IV!

The Town Hall is a perfect opportunity to ask your questions regarding the proposal and give your input!

#8

That is a great move

#9

I love that revolution of the reps program.

I’ve started this year as a reps and when I talk of myself in events my explanation as representative for my country about Mozilla in few words is like Ask Me Anything.
Actually I’m involved in the budget/swag request and help my community in leadership.

The other, in my case Italian, mozillians are scared about the budget/swag because they are slow and require attention and complete explanation about the events for ask that.
In my case they aren’t interested to join the program but with that evolution in functional group that are over the local community will interested them.
This enable to use to create a Reps group for every local community to organize everything, to have like a Participation Team for our activity.

I think also that because the reps are the more active users (often) maybe they can have multiple specific responsibilities. Myself example: I am a developer, involved in leadership and in events organization/speaker.

PS: I think that evolution meet also the Participation Leader roles because the goal are the same so a joined task force will be not bad.

#10

Hello,

The recording from the Town Hall at Mozlando is now ready at Air Mozilla

https://air.mozilla.org/mozilla-reps-mozlando-townhall/

1 Like
#11

I don’t think It is about communication/sync problem.

#12

Hello there all!
Many changes, however I agree with that changes are needed to improve. I like the evolution of the program, I want to know how I can help? How will you create groups of Reps with specific responsibilities?
Best regards! M.

1 Like
#13

Hi everybody! I like this changes in reps program and I would like help, is interesting…

#14

Check on https://discourse.mozilla-community.org/c/reps to found all the discussion about the proposal and the working groups.