[IMPORTANT] Council Elections - H2 2021- 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 October 7th, 9:00 PM UTC . Note that this is mandatory.

  • 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 in 2021 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!

PS: to all others, please engage and add more questions!

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[IMPORTANT] Council Elections - H2 2021 - please read
Reps Council Elections H2 2021 Result Announcement
#2

Hello Everyone! :wave:

I’m Pranshu Khanna (@pransh15) from Surat, India. I’m a current Reps Council Member, and a Resource Rep and I have been a Mozillian since Jan 2016!

I’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! I’m very passionate for the Web, which stays with us in sickness and health. You can check my profile to learn more about me.

I have served one term in the Council and I’m looking for another term to continue working on initiatives and getting our community to it’s very best.

I believe that this is the correct time to reunite Reps and communities in order to motivate them and find their direction in the coming years. Most of our communities have flattened quite a lot with activities in the previous year and how much ever we have tried to support it, it has proven to be massive effort to get it working and back to where it was. During the previous OKR and activities call, I have been happy to pitch in with a few ideas and am really excited to work on them to get our Global community to it’s glory.

There is a lot people want to learn, and do, we can provide it to them with the OSS resources and knowledge that we have. I believe it’s time we bring it together with a reunion for communities and support them from that moment forward.

Inactive Reps are a huge factor in the Mozilla Reps program not working at-par. In most cases, the relevant resources and knowledge does not reach communities due to the inactive Rep. In fact, most inactive Reps have not moved to Matrix or created a Community Portal account, that are essential to our operation right now. I would propose a simple solution here to move to a reporting-based system where we ensure logging activities for Reps and if a Rep hasn’t reported at least 4-6 activities(could be anything - contribution, event, attending Reps call) in half-a-year, they would be moved to Alumni. We all understand that this is a voluntary position, and these guidelines help a Rep to stay active only when they can instead of staying in the program and ensure active Reps in that region. This is essential to create more Reps and if an Alumni wants to enter back, they can work as a Mozillian for 6 months and re-apply like everyone.

I’m great at designing activities as well as, building and scaling communities. With the Mentor-Mentee model in MozGuj, I was able to achieve new levels of activities in the region, more outreach for the program as well as creating more leadership roles in the active Mozillians. I ensured that there is no vacuum for leadership in the region and empowered responsible Mozillians who moved to becoming a Rep in the next year. This helped create 4 active Reps in that region which created more support and outreach, and that I believe was needed in order to operate well in the region.

One of my contributions in Reps Pilot Program will have the biggest impact on the Reps program, in my opinion. We are starting to see it pickup, and I’m hoping to see Reps and Mozillians respond in great ways.

I’m so happy with the ways Mozilla has recognized me throughout the years. In 2019, the answer would have been meeting Mitchell Baker at Mozfest. In 2020, it would have been getting featured on the about:credits page. Now, in 2021, this has become my favorite Mozilla moment of all time, when I was one of the Reps featured in the 10 years of Mozilla Blog. You should read my interview and see where I come from and where I see the Reps program going. :rocket:

I’ll be happy to answer any questions or entertain any feedback here.

Cheers,
Pranshu :beers:

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#3

Hello everyone :wave:t5:

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 review team members, and served as one of Council member for 2020-2021 term.

I’m also taking part to help running the Mozilla Community Space Jakarta handling the operations and assist the events along with the other 13 dedicated volunteers.

Here’s my thought about the Reps community and leadership questions:

  • Share the values and engage them with activities and support
  • Knowing how new and long-time contributors differ in motivation will help to discover how to support the contributor even better, i.e. to attract and retain new contributors, who might become the future workforce, Reps could offer workshops with tangible recognition (like attendance e-certificate/certain badges), fun, kinship, and learning, which are particularly relevant for young contributors —and to retain experienced contributors, who tend to be core members or maintainers, they might more value when they can have chance to help other contributors and their work being highlighted in community platform, etc.

Gather feedback especially for campaign and/or activities - it’s great & really helpful to have all necessary things to do the campaign, but I think it is still necessary for reps to report what is going well and what is not working well after that. I think it can be as a short-form report, or sharing post on Discourse/ sharing session in the Reps call.

  • I am adaptive, practical and goal-oriented in my approach towards projects and issues
  • Have been on the ground with local communities and grassroots effort
  • I was involved to review and modify the Reps onboarding document which has been placed in Teachable and also support some of the campaign events for the Indonesian community.

Feedbacks and swags are always welcome :))

Over and out :checkered_flag:
Lidya

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#4

Hi Everyone,

I am Ruwan Ranganath, a Mozilla Rep from Sri Lanka, A Resource Rep and NewsLetter Team member.
As my career I work as Lead - DevOps and Cloud Security where I worked in various such as platform connecting more than 100 telcos worldwide, Financial platforms, Manufacturing as well as Fortune 100 companies.
From my education, I’m a Computer Security graduate, and Security Engineering Postgrad,
I have been an Open-Source Advocate for almost a decade from my University time and Actively Joined Mozilla around 2014 with the Firefox 29 release as an Organizer and Speaker on Mozilla Projects, Same time we’ve re-established the Mozilla Sri Lanka community with Reps,
Then, I have joined the Firefox Student Ambassador Program as Regional Ambassador Lead to enable Firefox Clubs Programs, as well as SUMO L10n to,
With the Firefox Student program, I’ve enabled more than initially 10 Major Universities in LK, and Also become Mozilla Rep around mid of 2016.

Since then with numerous events, Grooming new Mozilla Reps In the Community, and
Also, Bring back foss.lk ( Free and OpenSource Community LK ) , Joining as a part of Mozilla.lk ,
We have almost all the major universities established Mozilla Campus Clubs which they organize more than 10 university-level events every week, Build an eco-system community to run it a long time as a sustainable community even without Reps Involvement, Today we are one of the most expanded, self-sustained, largest community network in Sri Lanka which I see as one of greatest achievement I have dedicated my time into along with other LK Reps,

Given my experience in the past building a large network, What I think is continuous connecting , Recognizing work, Share Open Goals with them, Provide Clear explanations in what need to achieve , and Understanding how much capacity an individual can put vs a team can achieve, as major key points when involving contributors with the community, Swags / Budgets should not mandatory to in each step, a sort of Onion Layer model by phases.

Reps need to understand what is Mozilla goals and should be mentoring, guiding, and designing programs that reach local communities strategically, many people would love to contribute to OpenWeb, OpenSource programs, Reps will need to play a major role of build this into functional contributions with all the support they can have. because when people understand the true potential of what they do they will contribute will so much effort.
again, What I usually think is “How this program sustains without me or Reps” and build the path on it.

In my opinion, one of the key Point is Proper Sync and Evaluation of the Reps Program, As we all aware Reps plays a major role in building the community and contributions, I’d say the majority of Reps need guidance in sense of sharing their updates and giving feedback to them, at least once a while if not regularly, We expect Reps to work there on own,
but it is nice to have a portal updated with something like sprint planning for Reps, become a contributor is one thing, but applying for becoming a Rep needs to take as a bit serious work even though volunteering.
mentors can plan with their assigned Reps for the next sprint giving attention to how their local community behaving and maybe provide better support with program ideas, online workshops, or other things,

continuous communication, and regular updates are key points to take away, plus we have a lot of inactive reps now, I suggest this is a good time to governance ,

Given my experience from building communities, I possess a severe understanding of People, Processes and Programs,
What I will bring into the Council is , Building Strategic Initiatives , empathize leadership to programs, sharing my view of process flows improvements, the Research capacity of Mozilla Goals and how to achieve them, as well as Mozilla Reps other functional areas, Help enabling global Rep activities , Strategic budget /swag management planings ideas for current situations. along with Trend analysis to see where we can connect and what needs to prioritize attention.

By 2021, We were able to Build more 20+ Major University Mozilla Campus Network along with FOSS Communities with it, Build Teams to overlook multiple areas, from Social Media and Blogs, Event Planning, Mozilla Clubs Initiative teams to Program design teams, By today Mozilla.lk / foss.lk and its network host many events from 50 - 1000 people events including Software Freedom Day (more than 1000 viewers this year) , Hacktomberfest, Mozilla Events,
There are hundreds of Undergraduates and other contributors who put their time to shape up MozillaLK at the moment without expecting any advantages but sharing their contributions, because they have seen how their work impacting others, and the recognization they are receiving. With a well-established community, I am now again planning to groom and bringing new faces to Reps to taking up charge and leadership for the community.

Be a Resource Rep and NewsLetter Team, which feels more involved with Mozilla, I can take part in global scale,
Event Speaker for Wider Community
Event at University
Localization Event with Mozilla Staff
Arky on Twitter: "Let’s translate now! Mozilla Localization event in Columbo, Sri Lanka
Firefox 29 release event
Firefox launch party and Mozilla Sri Lanka community reestablishment - YouTube
Maker Party
NSBM-Mozilla Firefox Maker Party 2015 - YouTube
presentation at Software Freedom Day
SFD-2021 - Ruwan Ranganath

And Most Importantly, Revamping Mozilla Community in Sri Lanka, Building a large network of communities which took years of dedication but well sustained.

Thank you, everyone, took the time to read my reply, and I’m more than happy to share my insights on specific areas if anyone has questions,

Best Regards!
Ruwan Ranganath

2 Likes
#5

Hola! My name is Yuli from Mexico. People know me as @tuxxy. I’m frontend engineering, I joined as Reps in 2016, I have been a volunteer since 2014. I participated as a TechSpeaker, Reps Resource and I’ve participated in some firefox campaigns, with my local community. I am part of Women Who Wode Mexico City, where we create activities so that more women get involved in STEM.

You can see my profile in Communities Portal yulireyji

How can Reps motivate contributors to get them involved in Mozilla, both in campaigns and also long term?

Onboarding sessions to new volunteers so they can know the mission / manifesto of the community and they can feel identified to start collaborating.

In Reps we had a “Mozilla Rep of the month” program. An incentive within the activities could be a form where they can send appreciations to the most active community participants, and it can be shared on social networks.

Share the information of the active campaigns, ask for help from people who have contributed before and they can do sessions where everyone can participate, and, if they have questions about it, at that time they can solve them. At the end, the participants might be able to contribute to the campaign on their own.

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?

One of the major changes I have seen so far is the migration to the new community portal and the communication from Telegram to Matrix. Also, there was this part of the site where you could update the data of your event / session / campaign objectives and a metric where you could report if the objectives had been met or not.

I have seen that much of the documentation can be found on the wiki or in Discourse. This could be solved by centralizing the documentation or links to it in Discourse for example, where the representative can have it at hand when necessary, such as the post from weekly calls.

Reps meetings have an extra 10 minutes or a separate session, this time could be used to solve doubts about how to use the communication channels, if they have had problems with migration, listen to their feedback about the program, or if they feel they have missed something. If the sessions between Reps are not feasible, this issue can be supported with the Mentors program where they can back up their mentees and let them know about the information updates.

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

  • Process for resolving conflicts

  • Mentor: I have good ability to listen to people, guide them and help them find solutions to their problems, if I do not have the experience to solve it, I know I can guide them with the right person, because I know that the main thing is collaboration and teamwork.

  • Mobilizer: I like to interact with people, organize activities with the community where I know we can reach more and I love creating alliances with other communities with wich we can work to achieve objectives together on technical or social issues where Mozilla strategically tries to work.

Which of your contributions in 2021 had the biggest impact on the Reps program on a programmatic level?

Yesterday, Alex Mayorga and I gave a workshop about the localization project. Our main goal was to attract new people to the project. After 3 hours of explaining the project, showing the Pontoon platform and explaining to the participants how they can contribute, interact with them and see different points of view about the Mexican Spanish language, the Firefox Relay Add-on project was located. Here you can see the event CCOSS Event

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

Create the community of Rust in Mexico, help make the community visible, make the first big workshop and part of the core team de rust was present, now the community of Mexico is a big community and active.

1 Like
#6

I am Mukesh Pathak from Bhopal, India and I joined the community in the middle of 2014 at the SUMO localization activity. I started my journey as a contributor to Localization for Hindi India in 2014-Sept, Mozilla Reps in 2016-Sept, I am core-contributor of the WebVR India Community. I have learned a lot from Mozilla and I also teach my juniors.

Q. 1 How can Reps motivate contributors to get them involved in Mozilla, both in campaigns and in also long term?

Ans. I believe that the Council/Reps Mentors/Reps 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 that 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.

Q. 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?

Ans: Somehow, we are lagging behind to measure the success metrics of the events happening. Numerous Reps are organizing events at various corners of the world, but we are not very sure about the impact of those events. In short, we can work on measuring impacts so that we can properly channelize the resources and efforts.

Q.3 What are the specific qualities and skills that you have that you think will help you be an effective Council member?

  • Mozillian since 2014, I find myself among people who laid the foundation of Mozilla India.
  • A proud and experienced member serving Mozilla representative in Sept 2016 and played a significant role in as Mentors for the local community members.
  • Had worked with multiple Project Teams inside Mozilla and am familiar with diverse & global communities and understand their challenges and pain area.
  • Active communicator committed & passionate towards Mozilla and Communities.

Q. 4 Which of your contributions in 2021 had the biggest impact on the Reps program on a programmatic level?

  • In 2021, I had engaged and keep connect reps and core contributors in India.
  • Collaborated with community reps to understand challenge statements and create a long-term strategy to define a flexible model to accommodate different functional groups and help them to succeed.

Q. 5 Which past achievement as a Rep would you tell your best non-Mozilla friend about?

If it is a matter of telling my friends who are not in Mozilla, then I will tell them how I started my journey and I am able today to give information about WebVR, rust, web development, and coding technology. I am going to other events, How am I confident about my information and And how I tell my juniors to contribute to Mozilla.

#7

Thanks @mozmickyfor the answers. Unfortunately they are more than 4 days late. The deadline, as mentioned in the original post was l October 7th, 9:00 PM UTC . Note that this is mandatory .
I did send reminders to all candidates before it and also tried to contact you here on discourse.

#8

Thanks so much for taking the time and reply to this Q&A. We registered 4 valid entries from:

We will be back with next steps during today.

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#9

Hi Ioana! Is there any update about this process?

#10

thanks for the ping @yulireyji - we did reach for a status and will share it soon!