[IMPORTANT] ⚠️ Council Elections - Autum 2018 - Nominee Q&A

Reps
4

1. What is, in your own view, the Mozilla Reps program’s biggest strength and weakness?

  • Strength:
    The biggest strength is openness as anyone who has a passion for Open source, about Mozilla mission can indulge in the program and be mentored into being the best Rep one can be.

  • Weakness:

The biggest weakness I perceive is the lack of more voices on the communication channels, where we tend to see the same group of “loud” Reps talking most of the time and very little from the “quiet” ones, we should strive for everyone to have a voice and promote asynchronous communication channels a bit more.

Being a part of this program, I still feel that the recognition system was not able to scale & justify with reps program. It’s time to walk ahead from the current ROM system and find new innovative ways to recognize reps for their amazing contributions.

2. Identify something that is currently not working well in the Mozilla Reps program and which you think could be easy to fix. How would you approach a possible fix?

  • This is based on what I got the feedback from the Mozillians around that “ Mozilla changes constantly, there are so many projects that start and then disappears that makes it very hard for us to be up to date&rdquo, and this is somewhere true. We have an information to create new events or to publicize product launches, but, what happens after that? Without continuity we can’t engage or make new active collaborating members.
  • Moreover, communication can become a barrier sometimes when working on a level at which Mozilla works with all its contributors. We need to come up with solutions to smoothen the communication process.
  • We have the “ ROM” but it is only awarded to super active reps and others may or may not be nominated for it. Personal contributions are rarely noticeable so the council should work on new structures where each and every reps can be appreciated for their individual contributions.
  • Having a plan where expectations are established in the short, medium and long term would help us to engage more easily in new collaborators, and establish clear roles to achieve the stated objectives within the planning. I believe, “ Plan is not important, planning is important.”

3. What are the top three issues you want the Council to address in case you get elected? Why? How would you approach these issues?

  • Participation:

With time, we are witnessing a general lack of people’s dedication to the Reps program and to the overall community in general. In the recent past, we have seen many experienced reps voluntarily retire or get into a passive mode.

There is something definitely lacking in the program then. We are somehow unable to keep people motivated.

I know the council is already looking into it. But, according to me, we are currently in a red zone where we need to take actions super soon else we will end up losing a lot more of our dedicated and much-needed volunteers.

  • Contributors Journey, Opportunities & Recognition :

Providing a clear picture from day one to a contributor to make them believe in Mozilla Mission.

Always maintaining a connection and providing diverse opportunities for them to work on. I have seen ups/downs because of which many contributors go inactive due to less opportunity to participate.

For instance: Have a defined SOP for recognition. It can be as small as a “ thank you” but should come in a way that makes the contributor feel special. We are doing good on this part but still, we have to improve to make it more visible.

  • Reps Leadership Training:

This is the part where I would like to lead and make it better. because our reps are our spokesperson to the world. Reps are already leaders/mentors in their communities. But we need to provide them with proper tools and resources so that they can be even empowered more.

I would like to work on its efficacy. In the meantime, we need to be more aligned with the functional teams so that we can have some skill-based training in order to make the Reps program more effective.

For instance: We can hold some online training sessions or lightning talks within organization peers by inviting reps to participate. This way we can encourage them to speak and make them fearless wherever they go!

4. What are the specific qualities and skills that you have that you think will help you be an effective Council member?

If I would like to describe in short then I’m open to talking things out and approachable for all matters, especially those where I’m a part of and If I’m not part of then at least will try to connect you with right group that can help.

And in brief;

  • I follow strategic processes and try to engineer my way through things I need to achieve. I will be happy to work with the council for making the reps program more impactful.
  • I always tried to be innovative and adaptive ad much as possible because one thing I learned that you can’t to talk with the same pitch with everyone, you should be sometimes funny, interactive by the way you can engage your audience. I always tried to get encourage younger generation by sharing my learnings & experiences.
  • I am practical and goal oriented in my approach towards projects and issues. This quality helps me achieve the required goals in time.
  • Commitment where a lot of people can vouch on this for me. I commit to things only when I am sure that I will be able to deliver. I will not claim that I have never failed a commitment, but most of the time, I try and complete the task bestowed on me. I like taking responsibilities but more than that, I would love to complete them!
  • Mobilizing which means - ‘ organize or prepare something’ so It always a challenging task setting up the program, motivating them to carry out activities. Guide them through various set of activities, training them. When you are dealing with a large number of volunteers you come across different mindsets, different ideas, different demands, glad that I was part of such program where I learned a lot. So this experience has helped me to deal with any situation related to volunteers. Thus handling people, motivating them to carry some activity is easily done. The Mobilizing was then continued in the Rust activities, Campus club, Privacy & security and so on.

5. Which of your contributions from the past 18 months had the biggest impact on the Reps program on a programmatic level?

  • Organizer of Maker Fest 2018 & 2017 : Maker Fest is one of the most focus presence since of Mozilla, this is about developing a great maker community where people can learn and share about making. Creators, artists and hobbyist across the country are invited to present their contemporary applications of ideas using the vast ocean of art, science and technology.
  • Organizer of Rain Of Rust: Rain of Rust Campaign, a month-long global campaign specifically focused on the Rust language. It has taken place in June 2017 in collaboration with the Rust community. It was a successful campaign and was one of the featured campaign of the year 2017.
  • Serving as Reps Resource to ensures that resources (budget and others) of the program are used in the most impactful way and according to the guidance provided by Mozilla’s strategy and the Council.
  • Rust Mobilizer: Increasing Rust outreach is one of the focused goal of the program this year. Our recent initiative such as RainOfRust, Rust Hacks enable people to learn, teach & adopt Rust globally.
  • Part of Mozilla India Panning Meetup 2016: The team responsible for making Mozilla India Meetup 2016. This event hosted by Mozilla India Community in India with people from different sub-communities based on gender diversity, regional representation, activities and leadership in community.

Apart from this I have been spoken at many global conferences and represented Mozilla to share their mission and what next we come up with to contribute to open web.

6. Which past achievement as a Rep would you tell your best non-Mozilla friend about?

7. Not all Reps are using the reporting form to report their Reps activities. Why do you think that is?

There can be multiple reasons for the same.

  • Lack of communication from Mentors on reports might discourage them but the continuous conversation between Coach-Mentee will be motivated them to report their activities.
  • Based on my personal experience, many reps are not aware of reporting form.
  • A very common reason, they may forget to fill the reporting form sometime.
  • Being a mentor I have always asked my mentees to reports their activities by sharing their blog reports, sometime I’m commenting on a bug to remind them to fill the reporting form if I was cc’d to the respective bug.

Thank you.
Mehul Patel

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