[IMPORTANT] Council Elections - H2 2020 - Nominees' Q&A

Reps
#1

Hey all,

This is the second step into the Election Process . In this thread, the nominees should post their answers to the following questions . Nominees can additionally attach a very short video of themselves if they want to do so (please keep it under 2 minutes). Candidates have time until September 27th, 23:59 UTC . Note that this is mandatory.

  • Considering Mozillaā€™s recent operational changes (layoffs) and their potential implications on the way Mozilla approaches its communities, what are the top activities Reps should start doing to help Mozilla?
  • How can Reps motivate contributors to get them involved in Mozilla, both in campaigns and also long term?
  • 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?
  • What are the specific qualities and skills that you have that you think will help you be an effective Council member?
  • Which of your contributions since January 2020 had the biggest impact on the Reps program on a programmatic level?
  • Which past achievement as a Rep would you tell your best non-Mozilla friend about?

The list of nominees is:

Thanks in advance, looking forward to your answers!

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[IMPORTANT] Council Elections - H2 2020 - please read
#2

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well during these global pandemic times :smiley:

Iā€™m Bala Subramaniyan from Chennai, India, but based in Hyderabad now. Iā€™m associated with Mozilla over 8+ years and came across multiple positions.

Currently, Iā€™m associated with Mozilla as a volunteer for Mozilla Reps and Reps Resource Member positions.

In the past, I worked as a Reps Onboarding Member, VP of Club Development for FSA Executive Board and Regional Ambassador Lead for Indian community.

Due to Pandemic-Hit, across the multiple organizations started layoffs and unfortunately few of our Mozilla staff members are part of these operational changes (layoffs). But when it comes to open source community with huge volunteers like Mozilla organization wonā€™t affect much.

As a Mozilla Rep, this will be the right time if we utilize by gearing up many activities by laying a bridge between Mozilla staff and helping our Reps to work parallelly with the Moz staff. I would suggest Mozilla organization / Council Board - to bring up remote volunteer intern programs based on the area of interest for our Reps. This approach will help in filling the gap of operational changes(layoffs) and we will be a stronger community in the open-source ecosystem.

From my point of view, If a volunteer needs to contribute for a longer term with Moz activities / Campaigns - The contributor needs to have a clear vision and goals for what they do with proper stats, Weekly meetings, and recognitions.

For Example, If we could take Mozilla L10n and other Support projects - In that we have a proper contribution stats dashboard, regular recognitions, weekly meetings, with monthly updates through the newsletter. This helps in motivating the contributors with regular participation and we can able to sustain them for the longer time period.

And also we need to bring well-structured campaigns/programs for our contributors.

  1. Revamping the Mozilla Reps Mentorship structure, as we recently revamped the Mozilla Reps application and onboarding process that helped a lot for the onboarding team and with actual inputs from the applicants. In the same way - we need to introduce a feedback loop between mentor and mentee that helps the Mozilla Council to review the mentorship process and bring some changes.

  2. There are no Reps gathering events, apart from weekly Reps call. These practices will help to know and interact with many unknown/new Reps. This helps in fixing the lack of communications across the Reps program.

As I mentioned in my introduction, I was associated with the Mozilla program over 8+ years and came across multiple positions and learned many key skills and qualities. I guess my experience, dedication, active communicator, consistency and time commitment with leadership qualities will surely help me to be an effective Council member.

Member of Reps Onboarding Team ( Few months ago, My term ended ): Worked with the onboarding team over 1.5 years and helping them in curating Mozilla Reps applicants.

Reps Resources Member: Associated with Reps Resources program over 2.5 years and helping the new Reps from multiple countries in filling the budget.

And also, in the recent days, I had engaged with our local community, contributing to the Mozilla programs, and working with other fellow Mozillians for innovative programs.

Where ever I go, Iā€™m proud to represent myself as a Mozilla Representative. Mozilla program helped me in curving my career success. Nurtured me in learning new things and provided me an opportunity to work with the global team. We are united globally for building a better Internet alive and accessible for all. Iā€™m happy to share anything about the Mozilla program with anyone easily and always in a tendency for building the community growth.

I am really happy with the Reps program and proud to be a part of it. Now I would like your help our Reps community by being a part of the council member.

I want to thank you for taking the time out to read my answers. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Stay Happy, Stay Safe!

#MozLove :hearts:
Bala

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#3

Hello Everyone! :wave:

Iā€™m Pranshu Khanna (@pransh15) from Surat, India. Iā€™m a Mozilla Rep, and a Resource Rep and I have been a Mozillian for over 5 years now!

Iā€™m a Community Ninja who loves to help people out and Mentor people towards their desired goals. A believer in Work Open Lead Open, I love building Communities! Iā€™m very passionate for the Web, which stays with us in sickness and health. You can check my Profile to know more!

I believe that as Reps, we should start by helping Mozilla build upon helping the Firefox user-base and giving them a piece of what Mozilla is about, a home for so many users who want to feel safe while browsing the world. Helping Firefox with SuMo and evangelism is the best way Reps all over the world can support Mozilla.

I believe that the Council/Staff/Peers have a responsibility to recognize Reps/Mozillians through great initiatives like Rep of the Month, Mozillian of the Month and even through Rep Mentors. Scalable goals for each of those will help Reps get active and work towards goals which can help Reps work towards motivating Contributors. Right now, in all honesty, Reps do not have any incentive to work towards the campaigns unlike Functional areas, which have their different teams and goals already.

I see the Mentorship structure not working well. This was a part of the discussion at Virtu-All Hands, unfortunately it was not pursued with any visible fruition. We can see that not all Rep Mentors are active, for starters. Moving forward, there are no goals, incentives or meetings for them. While itā€™s easy to fix - by removing the old Mentorship structure where everyoneā€™s everyoneā€™s mentor. After this, creating more campaigns where Mentors and Reps work together. This would decrease redundancies and help in creating a more sustainable and accountable structure for Mentors.

I believe that I have a great understanding of Communities. I will be able to bring different approaches when trying to find solutions for things that are not going well. A drive to help people, which helps me empathize and understand peopleā€™s needs better. Being super patient helps me to think farther and make better decisions and bring better inputs.

I have been able to create a Mentor channel for anyone to reach me and simply talk to get inputs and help them in any way possible. Through that, I have been able to help a few Reps and make a significant leap on helping these Reps focus on their local communities and contributing to Mozilla directly.

Making Mozilla Gujarat soar! Iā€™ve been glad to help my local community grow at a scale where we achieved a ton of great numbers - 3 more Reps, over 400+ Mozillians, 60+ Events, 40+ Meetups, 120+ Zoom Calls and have gained impressions over 30,000 people through Hackathons, Events, Social media, Booth Crawls, Talks and whatnot. Working tirelessly to make the Open Web better and how far we have come, and how we look to capitalize on it by making ideas come true is a true remark of my work ethic and instilling that in people around me is my biggest achievement!

Looking into the future, I hope everyone stays safe, and we make the most inclusive environment for everyone to thrive in the Reps Community.

Thank you for taking out the time to ready my answers. Would love to chat about it, if you any feedback! :slight_smile:

Cheers! :beers:
Pranshu

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#4

Hello Everyone!

Mi name is David Antonio Gonzalez Blanchard i am From Nicaragua, I have participated in the mozilla community since 2010 and have been in mozilla reps since 2011. Currently, Iā€™m associated with Mozilla as a volunteer for Mozilla Reps and also i am part of the actual Onboarding team. I lead the mozilla Central America community an the Mozilla Nicaragua community.

I think that with all the operational changes that have taken place in Mozilla, many reps and people in the community have felt like they donā€™t know where Mozilla is heading, in addition to all the problems that exist around the world due to covid is a moment of some uncertainty.

I think the reps could start collaborating on new activities that show what Mozilla is doing and maybe involve them more in staff activities that allow mozilla to improve, remotely if possible.

I think the main reason that discourages collaborators to contribute to mozilla is that they do not know what many of the campaigns or activities are carried out for, and also because they expect some kind of ā€œrecognitionā€ in what they have collaborated on. We could find a way to adapt campaigns and activities to issues related to each region that allow colaborators to feel the satisfaction that they are doing something not only globally but also locally.

Currently I believe that the mentoring program is not working, as the new reps are not being given the necessary follow-up on what they are doing or on how to motivate them. There are also mentors who disappear for a long time and not much is known about them.

One possibility would be to restructure the mentoring program and have a hierarchy of mentoring levels, that after a certain time a normal rep can become a mentor and support a fellow rep with less time in the program.

This means that the reps become mentors after a while, as part of a responsibility.

First of all, I have been related to the computer world for several years and since I was in university I have participated in the Mozilla community in my country.

I have also worked closely with various free software communities and I have also lead various systems development projects, coordinating teams and people.

At my work I always try to find the best way to solve problems and find solutions, I think I could contribute all my knowledge to improve the reps program.

Related to 2020 I participated in the Mozilla All Hands in Berlin in which I gave my contributions related to the community and mozilla reps and I am currently supporting the Onboarding team

Whenever I participate in a presentation, meeting or event I try to mention that I am part of Mozilla Reps and that there is a community that cares about the web.

I helped to create the mozilla central america community with joun countries of the region: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica y PanamĆ” we join effots with different members to help grown the community in the region.

I was also nominated for Representatives of the Month in September 2019 :partying_face:

Since 2016 I have been organizing and supporting an annual meeting of collaborators from different Central American countries and people related to Mozilla to publicize what is new and how to strengthen communities in the region. We recently called this meeting Mozilla Activate Centroamerica.

I hope I have answered the questions in the best possible way, If I become part of this team, I will try to do my best and help improve the Reps program as much as possible.

Thanks for reading me, :smiley:

Cheers. :raised_hands:

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#5

Hello all. My name is Vishal Chavan. I have been a Mozillian since 2013 and a Rep since 2014. Since then, I have had the opportunity to be a part of some amazing initiatives which had a global impact with respect to the Reps Program and the community as a whole.

Some of my previous contributions include being on the Reps Onboarding Screening Team, Mozilla Open Leaders Mentor and an Expert, Regional Coordinator for Mozilla Clubs, Reps Social Media team member.

  • One of the major implications of these testing times were the lay-offs that happened across the globe. The positive aspect can be that it made us perform using bare minimum resources that we had and strive better.

  • Some of the key Mozilla communities have taken significant damage due to the layoffs. The prime examples of this being Latin American communities facing the issue of Mobilization, or the European communities facing the problem of lack of motivation etc.

  • The transition period has given Mozilla an opportunity to change their perspective on the communities and restructure their programs to better fit the current scenario of volunteers and the community as a whole. Mozilla and the Council can also work on designing newer contribution areas which can appeal to every functional aspect of the community to get more participation. Being in the community for this long, I have worked closely on campaigns and initiatives and have a good understanding of what would work and what would not.

  • Another strategy going forward can be to set up regional teams who would work with Council and Staff directly on regular intervals (just like a mini version of All-Hands, but virtual). These teams would get a chance to work on core projects and contribute directly. This will not only help volunteers work on what they love, but also get to know how things go around within Mozilla as an organization.

  • For any family to sustain, the key ingredient is belongingness. The volunteer should feel that he/she belongs to the team. If volunteers are well informed and are directed to relevant resources they have a better understanding about the contribution areas and work associated. To get contributors involved for a long run, Reps can have frequent calls with them to understand their status quo. Get to know what they are doing, if they need any help, if they have any suggestions etc. Also, Communication plays a vital role here. Contributors need to be made aware of newer contribution opportunities, or any news about Mozilla in general, to make them feel involved.

  • Another important motivating factor would be the skills that the volunteers would garner. Skills that would benefit them professionally in their careers as well. Along with this, volunteers, if they got involved, they could be made aware of the Recognitions, Accountability, the impact they could make in the global community etc. These could be driving forces for them to keep contributing for a long run.

  • In case of Campaigns, Reps should be able to identify the area of interest among the community members who would be productive in any said Campaign. This is where we would need to come up with more Campaigns which would be interesting to a diversity of the community. We need to keep a note that not all minds think alike, and then work on designing Campaigns accordingly.

  • Mentorship: I understand that changes are a part of life and are usually for the betterment of the community as a whole. But the Mentorship now is just not what it was 3-4 years ago. This has hampered the Reps program to some extent. Previously, mentees would have their mentors to turn to for any kind of guidance, suggestions, or just plain chat about the community and contribution pathways. I feel this has been somewhat missing in recent times. Mentors are needed to help newer Reps know about the program and understand the principles better. This would also help in keeping contributors involved for a long run.

  • Community Portal: Community portal is great and is super easy to use. Although when the reporting tools would be integrated into the portal, it would make it feel more complete, at least for a Rep. I would suggest we build a mobile app for the portal as well. This would make creating events, campaigns and reporting activities way more easier and faster. Also fetching data from people.mozilla.org would also be useful.

  • Geography : Not all regions around the globe are active. That may be due to any reason such as no communication, connectivity or timezone issues, people not responding, or the people there just not feeling related to the campaigns etc. All the initiatives and campaigns should be planned keeping in mind the geographical diversity and differences in work cultures. Every Mozillian, irrespective of location should be able to relate with the initiatives and should treat them with the same passion and dedication as every other Mozillian around the world. Council can have region-wise surveys / online meetups to know and understand issues and differences in communities. This will help them reach out to communities on a more personal level and people will feel more involved.

  • Experience : I have been a part of the Mozilla Community for more than 7 years now. During this time, as an active contributor, I have learned and grown as a community member and as a person. I feel my experience with Mozilla and a general understanding of the councilā€™s way of working with OKRs and MDM is an asset and would help me to strategize and plan solutions to key issues not just with the community, but also with various contribution and focus areas.

    It is time to look forward and find our way in the new Mozilla community structure. As an experienced rep (who has not served in the council but has vast experience with communities worldwide) I stand in a unique position to contribute with new ideas and clear milestone approach to achieve the goal of reps being the primary mobilizers in the new community structure.

  • Community Building and Mobilizing : To build a community means dealing with a group of people having different perspectives, mindsets and ideas but having the same passion towards a common goal. Building and mobilizing communities throughout has been a challenging as well as a learning experience for me. This experience has helped me to contribute to various initiatives such as Open Leaders, Take Back The Web Campaign, FirefoxOS promotions, Mozilla Clubs, Webmaker, Privacy Advocacy to name a few.

  • Coaching / Training : Being involved with the Reps program, Mozilla Open Leaders and other significant campaigns for a long time, I have led many training workshops and sessions whose major focus was on spreading web literacy and the importance of online Privacy, to the general audience. I have had the privilege to mentor and encourage other Mozillians to spread knowledge and train others.

  • Insights within Mozilla : Being associated with Mozilla for this long, I am fairly accustomed to how Mozilla works and its guiding principles. Also being a community member, I am well aware of which areas of the program and community needs consideration. I also am connected to many grass root volunteers working on key Mozilla focus areas.

  • I can say that this year has been kind of a roller coaster for me both professionally and personally (for all of us, really), I was not a part of any initiative since January which would have a direct impact on the Reps Program. I have although been contributing as a Mentor for the Mozilla Open Leaders program for 2 years now.

  • Apart from that, I have been a part of Reps Onboarding Screening Team, Mozilla Open Leaders Mentor and an Expert, Regional Coordinator for Mozilla Clubs, Reps Social Media team member. I have also worked closely with Mozilla Foundation on their key activities such as Webmaker, Take Back The Web Campaign, Teach The Web etc.

  • Privacy Month Campaign : A Global campaign which focuses on educating people about the importance of online Privacy in their daily lives, and why it matters. This campaign has a great online presence on social media reaching out to millions of people around the world. Started in January 2016, this campaign still has significant involvement within and outside the Mozilla community. I was a part of the initial team for this campaign.

  • Featured Rep Of the Month : Contributing to the above campaign, I was featured Rep of the Month in February 2017.

  • Mentorship Opportunities : I have had the privilege to work as a cohort member and also as a Mentor and Expert for Mozilla Open Leaders Program on multiple occasions. Previously, I have worked with MoFo on their key activities such as Webmaker, Maker Parties, Take Back The Web Campaign, Teach The Web etc as a Mentor.

  • Net Neutrality Campaign : This was a crucial campaign at the time, because there were plans to introduce certain services into the Indian market which would violate Net Neutrality. Mozilla Reps had an active part in encouraging people to raise their voices and sign petitions towards the government.

We do not know what the new community structure is going to look like and hence there is a lot of opportunity for innovation and cadence for Reps as Motivators, Coaches and Mentors.

Thank you for going through the answers. Please feel free to connect anytime if there is some clarification needed or just plain feedback or suggestions.

Be Safe and Take Care !!

Vishal

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#6

Hello everyone,

I am Lidya Christina from Jakarta, Indonesia. I joined the community in the middle of 2016 at SUMO localization activity. I started my journey as a contributor to Localization for Bahasa Indonesia in 2016-now, Mozilla Reps in 2018-now, part of the resource team, and review team members.

Iā€™m also taking part to help running the Mozilla Community Space Jakarta handling the operational and assist the events along with other 8 dedicated volunteers.

Hereā€™s my thought about the Reps community and leadership questions :thought_balloon: :thought_balloon:

Community is one of forces that drive Mozilla forward. As we slightly refocus to few stuff in this transitioning period, I think we could support this changes with:

  • Be the main channel to gather feedback from the community for the Mozilla development team. Well-curated and clear goal for the event which is not limited to size and attendeeā€™s satisfaction oriented but more into what kind of feedback to deliver

  • Keep and encourage the Reps event as open as possible. The possibility of collaboration should be more open than before to make the better internet in real and tangible together.

In campaign point of view

  • Enough understanding and preparation of the activity : The campaigns which accommodate enough resources from clear goals, steps by steps, basic tools/resources to use, and someone/contact/group to get in touch for a further question will play an important part to calling Reps to involve also attract contributors with the activity.

  • Everybody loves swags or free beverages, and itā€™s also important Reps to know they have access to resources (ofc following the budget/swag request) - well preparation in a timely manner to request those resources are necessary to have.

Underlying causes - long term

Be an example not only worked in CPG but also applicable to attract new contributors and also keep community motivation at a healthy rate.

Nourish the root and measure the progress, I think those are important things to have a fruitful tree. Leadership sharing session and skills training, I think crucial to add to keep the Reps motivation up high.

Reps work recognition:

One that I highlight, the Reps of the month - I think the process needs lil revamping because itā€™s quite subjective especially with the voting process which not all reps watching this particular Reps activity closely and if featured, they have to write about themselves after to be published in reps-portal.

I think it would be better to be nominated supposed to be a ā€œsurpriseā€ feeling because I bet so many Reps working closely in our campaigns or did amazing works but they donā€™t have enough confidence or in short just need help to be recognized.

Our communities are well-distributed across the world, I think there is a chance to be closer to each other as Mozilla Reps. Cross-countries sharing session in campaigns or event will benefit us to have better recognition internally, stronger relation across countries reps (which maybe never have a chance to be meet in person in a global gathering yet), and gain the talk experiences/skills :slight_smile:

  • Dealing with a budget and a supportive team leader
  • Expertise on the ground with local communities and grassroots efforts
  • Enormous empathy with critical thinking

I took a chance to be part of the review team in 2020 (joined the resources Rep in 2019) and support all past campaigns in 2020.

In 2020, itā€™s quite challenging for the Mozilla Indonesia team but I am glad be able to work together with other Reps ID teams to support and run more events in Community Space Jakarta.

Supporting tens of events in Mozilla Community Space Jakarta for the past 3+ years. Being part of the inspiring Mozilla Indonesia team, which always has my back whenever I have questions or issues regarding the community, has been part of a huge learning phase for me to exercise my leadership and experience in my first global open source community.

Iā€™ve been helping Firefox Lite research team gathering ideas in Indonesia, also as one of the Mozilla Indonesia teams which supported the on-ground Firefox Lite marketing activities from planning to execution.

Joined the Review team and did well on my first review activity which supported the Srilanka community to do an amazing event on their campus.

Featured Rep of the month in 2019

Last but not least, I hope these little thoughts would quite add some values to whoever elected to make this program be more awesome and would love some feedback and/or support if these concerns also relatable enough with you, all awesome Reps!

Stay safe and sane, yā€™all~

Over and out,
Lidya

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