Important Announcement: ⚠️ Decommissioning of the Mozilla Reps Program ⚠️

Dear Reps,

There is no easy way to do this without bits of sadness, but also accomplishments and happiness while looking back at all the things this program succeeded at building. After much careful consideration and evaluation, with the most profound sense of gratitude, we have decided that it is time to retire the program. The Mozilla Reps program was initially built with the aim of bringing structure to the local regional communities and helping people find their way to how they can help Mozilla. In the last few years, we have seen that communities tend to get organized based on products and interests not necessarily connected to each other. We believe that it makes sense to go where those communities are and address their needs and a program that provides a large number of alternative options brings less value.

The Mozilla Reps program has been the beating heart of our community, igniting passion, and driving positive change across the globe. You have championed the cause of the open web and Mozilla’s mission like none other through your unwavering commitment and boundless enthusiasm. From organizing inspirational events that brought communities closer together, to educating on web literacy and digital empowerment, your impact has been nothing short of extraordinary. We are incredibly grateful for the dedication and passion that Mozilla Reps have demonstrated in advancing Mozilla’s mission. We will want to celebrate this remarkable impact of the Mozilla Reps program, through its 12 years of existence, and we will share steps on how to share your stories, memories, and reflections with us. Together, we will create a tapestry of gratitude, honoring the incredible journey we have shared.

We do express our heartfelt gratitude to all the Mozilla Reps who have dedicated their time, energy, and passion to the program over the years. As we say farewell to this cherished program, we want you to know that your contributions have left an indelible mark on the world. Together, we have built a legacy of change that will resonate far beyond the boundaries of this program. The friendships forged, the knowledge shared, and the dreams kindled will forever remain as beacons of hope guiding us towards a more inclusive, open, and safer internet for all.

What Does This Mean for Current Mozilla Reps?

As of 01/09/2023, the Mozilla Reps will be a retired program. We will follow up with all logistics transition and closing during this month but we will consider it close. If you have an activity going on, please close it by the end of the month.

Staying Connected

While the Mozilla Reps program is being decommissioned, we want to assure you that your connections and your direct contributions to product teams stay the same. You can continue your work within Code, L10n, SUMO, AMO, MDN, Thunderbird, Hubs, Common Voice, Connect, and many other projects that we foster under Mozilla.

As we move forward, we want to emphasize that this decision does not diminish the value we place on the contributions of our volunteers. Mozilla remains committed to fostering a strong and vibrant volunteer community, and we will continue to provide alternative opportunities for contribution and collaboration. Its mission remains unchanged. We are still committed to building a better internet for everyone, and we will continue to do so through our other programs and new initiatives. I am more than sure you will champion many of them, with as much impact as you did as Reps. We count on your support as we navigate this change together.

Once a Mozillian, always a Mozillian!

Thank you for all your hard work, creativity, and passion! We’ll be forever impressed by what we achieved as a community!

Ioana Chiorean

Mozilla Reps Module Owner

on behalf of peers, council, and the program.

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Dear @Ioana,
Fellow Reps,

Thanks for the support through all these years. The Reps program has always been dear to my heart.

I went from being a drive-by contributor to a very active and (hopefully) impactful core community member as part of the Reps program. Looking back, it was a great time: MozFestival, Web Literacy, Firefox OS, etc.

Now, it is time to say goodbye to the program.
Let’s stay in touch and keep being awesome!

Mozilliary,
your Henrik
Mozilla Reps Module Peer

2 Likes

Once Benjamin Franklin said “Energy and persistence conquer all things.”

That’s not the case.

This program was very important for me.
I did this year 10 years inside the Mozilla community, also part of that experience was added in my book about contributing to open source.
I was also part of the Reps council for 2 years, and I saw and did a lot of things with Mozilla.

I think that this decision was just a matter of time when the Reps Portal was dismissed, with that the reference for the program disappeared. Also all the layoffs of the lasts years with a lot of community managers from a long time experience and the unclear Mozilla direction about what is doing and what is promoting is part of this.

Years ago we had a lot of projects to promote and campaigns from privacy month to firefox nightly promotion.
Now everything died since 2 years at least, we can see the kind of events in the community platform (excluding the spam) and I am the maintainer of the website…

Instead, right now we have products to promote, I remember the Fosdem this year.
We had stickers of Mozilla VPN and Firefox Relay and promotion for Mozilla Hubs (that I never understood why is not died yet).
When the world still need projects like Mozilla WebMaker.

What are the Mozilla plans for the community? It is unclear since years and I think that will stay in that way with a lot of sadness.

PS: there it will be a way to request swag for the community now that the program is retired?

3 Likes

My appreciation goes to the warm supports related to the Reps program when I requested it on behalf of Japanese community to exhibit booths in events, and other activities.

As Ioana mentioned, some network is built through the volunteer community and some of them remain without Reps program.
Anyway I should accept the end of this program while it is a kind of surprise for me.

I have the same questions that Daniele wrote.
In addition to that, what happens on Reps group on Community Portal? Is it removed?

1 Like

Thank you @Ioana. You’ve been the program’s constant from the very beginning. The fact that it lasted 12 years is an achievement.

ReMo made me feel the most connected with Mozilla and felt that my contributions meant something, especially when I was still in the Philippines.

1 Like

Thanks for posting this, Ioana, I know this was not easy. However I fldo agree that this is the best, as in the past years the program could not live up to its promise and needs within the Mozilla community changed. That being said, I’m very happy and proud of what the Reps program has achieved. I’m still sure Ioana did not have any choice of approving my application given that Henrik and I annoyed her the whole MozFest weekend in 2012.

MozFest is also something very deeply engraved in my brain and I’ve always enjoyed the Reps presence there. And we also did a great job with Webmaker and Firefox OS. I’ve changed regional communities in 2018 so that was also an interesting period. But then for the last few years I couldn’t really say much, given everything that happened and how I did not adapt to that.

Congratulations to all current and Alumni Reps for what we all have achieved together since the program was created. We have moved the needle and regularly even were consulted for Mozilla board hire interviews.

While I think it’s fair to question the future of community involvement at Mozilla, I do not think it’s valuable to do a retro on the Reps program and focus on possible things that were done in the past (such as the community portal replacing the Reps portal) that led to this. There is not a single reason here and we can spend our energy in a better way.

I would suggest to rename to Alumni and also allow previous Alumni into the group.

Reps, I think we can still contribute to Mozilla in different ways :slight_smile:

It’s been a pleasure!

4 Likes

Hi,

I’m sad to hear the news, but I’m continuing the adventure as events and talks are in the pipeline.

but I will continue to participate in projects

to be continued

It may be good to end the Reps program but I can’t find a plan that Mozilla will support and reconnect with local Mozilla communities that are still active and happy to represent Mozilla. Like a Python user group, should the local community still use Mozilla or Moz- something to continue their contribution? This is why I am curious and thinking about what actions I should take after this decision.

Another question that was raised after I read this announcement is, what did Reps lastly elected to Reps Council do [1] ? It seems that they are very quiet but IMO they are representing all Reps around the world. Did they alert the Reps community ? Did they try to help Reps esp. local Mozilla communities to find the way out after they know the program going to the end ? And what is the purpose, Results, (discussions?), actions of latest Reps survey taken this year [2] ? So I got some questions in my mind after I read this announcement.

[1] [IMPORTANT] ⚠️ Council Elections ⚠️ H2 2022 - please read ⚠️
[2] Reps Surveys 2023

https://connect.mozilla.org/, yes?