What is, in your own view, the Mozilla Reps program’s biggest strength and weakness?
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Our diversity is our strength. Millions of Users, thousands of Mozillians, hundreds of Reps and many other from across the globe collaborating together for a healthy Internet.
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We need to make sure we’re all working together in the same direction to embrace Mozilla Mission. It’s not our weakness but we are still learning and growing in this area. We need to work smarter as to how we can bring everyone together under one umbrella, parallely allowing every individual to work in their own way.
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?
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Though our diversity is our strength. But we still need to work on the balance between different parts of the world. Have thousands of people from one area is good but if we are not able to get even hundreds from another area means something is not right from our side. We have to keep updating and make a ecosystem which can sustain diverse group of people from diverse region.
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There is no easy fix but it’s an ongoing process. Creating a special group of Volunteer and Staff to study the ecosystem of regions which lakhs representation can help to better support them. Council can play a big role in this to under regional diversity and can encourage volunteer Leadership.
What are the top three issues you want the Council to address in case you get elected? Why? How would you approach these issues?
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To establish a balance of volunteer representation from diversion region :
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As i said above there is no easy fix but it’s an ongoing process.
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Creating a special group of Volunteer and Staff to study the ecosystem of regions which lakhs representation can help to better support them.
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Council can play a big role in this to under regional diversity and can encourage volunteer Leadership.
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In strengthening local/regional community :
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Managing small local/regional community is more effective.
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By encouraging regional leadership and initiatives which aligns with Mozilla goals helps to get better outcome from small group of people.
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If we focus on strengthening local/regional community it will automatically help in strengthening bigger communities and become self sustaining.
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It will help to get away from resource(Budget & Swag) dependency.
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Contributors Journey, Opportunities & Recognition :
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Providing a clear picture from day one to a contributor to make them believe in Mozilla Mission.
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Always maintaining a connection and providing diverse opportunities to them to work on. I have seen ups/downs because of which many contributors go inactive due to less opportunity to participate.
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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.
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What are the specific qualities and skills that you have that you think will help you be an effective Council member?
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Experience in the key which help in solving any complex problems. I have been working with diverse group of people and understand their needs from last five years. It will helps me to better understand my fellow Rep.
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Being a good listener help me to think deeper and understand the situation.
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Being adaptive makes me comfortable in updating with the situation. It allows me think from different perspective.
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Being a risk taker allows me to experiment and evolve. Sometimes to progress in a new direction for the betterment of a program we have to take risk and become adaptive to change.
Which of your contributions from the past 18 months had the biggest impact on the Reps program on a programmatic level?
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India Local Gear Store Maintainer : An initiative started in 2016 to locally produce and ship gear(swags) required for Activate Mozilla Workshop/Hackathons/Events in India. From Volunteer perspective this is helping in reducing the overall time to process the swag requested by Reps. From Reps Program perspective it helped in reducing the international shipping and gear production cost to Reps program. We are experimenting on International shipping as well.
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Organised Mozilla India Meetup 2016 : An 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. This event was mainly focus on developing options for the direction, vision, strategy and roadmap of the Mozilla India community for the year 2016-17, and undertaking detailed planning, structure and workflow of the contribution pathways.
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Organising Team 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.
Which past achievement as a Rep would you tell your best non-Mozilla friend about?
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Becoming a Mozilla Rep is an achievement in itself. But being a Reps i can say that being part of Mozilla Reps Council which is the governing body of the Mozilla Reps Program where I helped leaders(called Reps) become better more than leaders. I help them master their strengths, improve on their weaknesses and give feedback on their efforts in the community.
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Working with diverse people in All Hands and other events.
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Managing & Organizing :
Not all Reps are using the reporting form to report their Reps activities. Why do you think that is?
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There can be multiple reason for the same. It maybe that the limited time a Rep have is dedicated to activities they do and when they are done they move on to next activity.
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Reporting sometimes becomes a boring job to do as its again filling up a form.
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Mentors can play a big role in helping their Mentee with Reporting. If they have regular conversation and provide feedback about their initiative/events then the Rep will be motivated to write and fill the report.
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For example I always talk with my mentees to see how they are doing and what help they need. Providing them feedback and asking them to share the report helps to activate them to complete the reporting part.