Reps Council Elections Fall 2019 - Town Hall 2

Reps
#1

Hi Reps

The second Reps Council Elections Town Halls is coming up tomorrow, Thursday, October 3rd 2019. We will meet at 19:00 UTC. This will replace the Reps call which would usually happen before that time.

Please attend, and ask your questions. We will also go through the questions that were asked on Tuesday, so everyone can answer those as well. If there shouldn’t be enough time, we will also provide the opportunity to answer them here on Discoruse once the notes are posted.

Zoom: https://mozilla.zoom.us/j/505669458
Air Mozilla: https://onlinexperiences.com/Launch/Event.htm?ShowKey=44908&DisplayItem=E342614
Agenda and Notes: https://pad.mozilla.org/p/reps-council-elections-h2-2019-town-hall-2
Reps Event: https://reps.mozilla.org/e/council-elections-fall-2019-town-hall-2/

You can find the notes from the previous Town Hall here: Reps Council Elections Fall 2019 - Town Hall 1

See you soon!

2 Likes
#2

For India, it’s on Friday. Right?

#3

If my math is right, that would be 00:30am Friday for India, yes. The Town Hall on Tuesday was better aligned for the Asian timezones.

1 Like
#4

Yes! Your maths is perfect. :v:

#5

Attendees:

  • Michael Kohler
  • Bala Subramaniyan
  • Bhuvana
  • Mayur
  • Md Manzar Hasnain
  • Leye Odumuyiwa
  • Shahbaz

Notetaker: Mayur, thanks very much! :slight_smile:

General Elections Intro - Michael

  • 8 nominees, 5 candidates
  • Questions on Discourse - until October 6th
  • Voting starts on October 7th
  • Voting closes on October 14th

Full timeline on https://reps.mozilla.org/e/council-elections-fall-2019-town-hall-1/

Quick round of introductions by the nominees (30 seconds each)

  • Felipe from Jaboticabal - Brazil, Mozillian since 2014, Rep and Mozilla Tech Speaker since 2017 (I’m adding in advance because I’m on the mobile connection, maybe it’s pretty unstable at the time of the meeting.)
  • Bhuvana from India , joined FSA program in 2014 and became a Rep in 2017 ; My contributions are mostly on evangelising Firefox Reality and Mozilla Hubs. Apart from this I am trying to revamp the Womoz(to bridge gender gap or gender bias) in India. I am also an OL7 grad and Wrangler for MozFest 2019.
  • Bala from Hyderabad, India. Joined Mozilla as a FSA in the year 2012, then worked with FSA Eboard. Later applied Mozilla Reps program in 2014. And rendering his regular contributions to Mozilla. Currently he is working with Reps Resource and Reps onboarding program.

Questions for the nominees

  • If selected for the council, what do you think your first task would be?

    • Felipe: I would love to help with onboarding tasks, Mozilla Activate or with actions related to community health in general.
    • Bhuvana: I want to work on the strategy development in communities on what is going well and what is not in 3 parameter of time (present, past and future).Strategy for all communities. Reccomendation is needed to shape it with the needs of the communities.
    • Bala: Bringing new changes in the Reps Mentor strategy, helping in activating Reps across the program. And changes in the criteria for Reps Application process.

  • What do you think Reps can do to surface amazing contributions from Mission Driven Mozillians?

    • Felipe: We can use our social networks to promote contributions from Mozillians, I also like the format of the Mozillian of the month, I believe it’s a good way to surface those contributions.
    • Bhuvana: There must be a sustainable record performed by the contributor for atleast a due course of an year along with follow-ups and outputs so accordingly these contributors must be recognised apart from the monthly recognitions. Rep of the year recognition after recording performance of the whole year.
    • Bala: Apart from Moz Activate programs, Running special campaigns will make communities active.

  • What are your thoughts about reactivating people to Reps?

    • Felipe: In my opinion it’s a good idea, I know a lot of people who did an amazing job as a Rep before, if they are interested in come back. I believe it’s always a good thing.
    • Bhuvana: We can make them as experts or advisors and ask them to share their thoughts over our weekly Reps call or ask them to be a Point of Contact for the on-boarding reps.
    • Bala: Reps mentor will be responsible for this, mentor should take care of mentee needs and supporting in all the aspects. This will help them get involved in the activate campaigns and helps in reactivating people to Reps.

  • Should we change the onboarding criteria?

    • Felipe: I don’t see a problem with the onboarding criteria, I need more information on that to give a solid opinion.
    • Bhuvana: The vouch system could be enhanced a little more, like how do we ensure that they will keep up to the promises they make. Retracking the vouching system to see if everyone is updated with what they have mentioned.
    • Bala: My answer would be yes, As I work closely with the onboarding team. I found couple of issues and that needs to be fixed for bringing out qualified Reps in our program.

  • Do you think the people applying to the Reps program have a complete knowledge about Mozilla and its mission?

    • Bala: Not everyone is aware about Mozilla and its mission. People just apply before getting aware about how community works without making valuble contribution to the Mozilla program. Both Reps council board and Reps need to provide proper knowledge tranfer to Mozillians before applying to the Reps program.
    • Bhuvana: Volunteers need to be made aware of how much responsibilities need to be taken in order to be a rep. We need to make these things transaparent to avoid the confusions. Clear understanding about the program must be educated to the fellow Mozillians to know the challenges of the program.
    • Felipe: Agrees with last answers. There are issues even inside Mozilla, employees sometimes don’t know what Reps do, in general improvement needed in terms of awareness. If we work close with new Mozillians, we can solve that.

  • Do you see Communication as an issue in the Community today? If yes, how do you plan to streamline it?

    • Felipe: We improved a lot our comunication in my opinion, we have good channels to keep in touch with the program. But I believe sometimes Mozillians in general don’t know how they can keep in touch with news from Mozilla (as general). We have to promote our channels and keep people update with the communication channels available.
    • Bhuvana: There must be an official channel for the communities to discuss and standard etiqutte must be followed throughout these channels.(multiple platforms creates chaos)
    • Bala: We already have so many communication channels. But still someone faces issue with the communication, not everyone is active on each channel. We need to figure out how we can share information across multiple platforms which reaches out to everyone.

  • How do you want to reactivate inactive mentors, how will you support them in their task?

    • Felipe: First of all, we need to know why they became inactive, maybe we can find an unsolved problem or a space for improvement. After that we can think about reactivating inactive mentors, if we understand why they leave in first place we can help them to stay
    • Bhuvana: To ask them about what time works well which they can devote for their mentees. Focus on what projects would they be interested in contributing. Once when we know how many mentors are inactive we can assign new mentors to the mentees.
    • Bala: Bringing new strategies in the Reps mentor program. Monthly reports would help in understanding the mentors activities, based on that proper guidance should be passed to the inactive mentors and recognizing them just like ROM.

  • How do we bring in new Mentors?

    • Bala: Mentors is a open process and subject to the Reps interest. During processing we should check the mentoring qualities, past activities of the person who wishes to be a mentor.
    • Bhuvana: Arrange a call and ask the mentors to present their mentor skills and teaching/guiding methodologies over a particular subject which will help in figuring out who suits the program well.
    • Shabaz: We can ask the Reps of the Month, giving them the opportunity as they have done good work and they have some experience. They can share that experience.

  • Do you see the current Contribution Channels as dormant? Should there be more opportunities to Contribute for Mozillians/Reps?

    • Felipe: Yes, I belive we can improve the contributions, maybe build something in the Hacktoberfest style but for contributions to Mozillians/Reps. Some regular events to keep people engaged with the program.
    • Bhuvana: Mostly from a local/regional community aspect, there is not a proper platform for the code contributors. The resources should be enhanced. More code related contributions should be added in the Activate campaign. Bridge the gap between the staff and the volunteers for easier output extraction from both sides.
    • Bala: We are good. one major problem in the community is that we dont have stable contribution areas. People are switching contributions areas, they should focus on one stable contribution.

  • What do you think the Community needs today? New Leaders from within the Community or onboarding new Mozillians?

    • Felipe: Both, but I’m answering that by a Brazilian point of view, we are a few right now and we lost contact. I believe we need new Mozillians to keep things running, but I also believe we have to help leaders to emerge from our community.
    • Bala: Proper trainings about the Mozilla programs and new people join they don’t have guidance from the mentors. Onboarding new Mozillians with proper recognition.
    • Bhuvana: Strategy structuring is needed. There are lot of communities/ community members who are unware about structure of the program.These strategies would stay as a guideline.

  • What is missing for Mission Driven Mozillians in the Reps program?

    • Felipe: In my opinion more collaboration between Reps and Mozillians, we have to strength our relations :slight_smile:
    • Bhuvana: Funtional areas needs to be updated in the reps program with respect to the updations in Mozilla’s project areas or research. Code of conduct needs to be implemented. Everyone needs to follow it.
    • Bala: if you taken any program, Analysis is a key part. Reps program is missing that, It will help in launching new activities. Local gatherings are very much needed inorder to reactivate every community. Traning can be done in those gatherings.

  • Why should a Mozillian be a Rep?

    • Felipe: I see the action of becoming a Rep as a next step in your colaboration as a Mozillian, we learn more about the structure of the community and we can help other Mozillians in their contributions (and maybe one day in becoming a Rep also)
    • Bala: Will be acting as a POC for the local community. Adds advantage to the Reps program and Reps get easy access and permission while hosting different events in there region.
    • Bhuvana: Rep is a person who is going to voice out community queries. It can deliver opinion from the volunteers to the program. Also the Rep will stand as the point of access and be accountable for developing/ restructuring the community’s protocol.

  • What according to you is the best thing about this Global Community?

    • Felipe: Diversity for sure, we have a lot of different people with different visions of the world, differente concerns and habilities.
    • Bhuvana: Got exposed to the global community. I try to learn new things which I can implement in my local community. Knowledge sharing. People are driven by a common goal. This is helping me being a part of this community. The networking is a great benefit. Also the localisation missions/programs which is essential to be part of the huge community where knowldge is crowd sourced. The community is welcoming for people from different and diverse backgrounds.
    • Bala: The best part of our community is the global community and working together in achieving the same goal. Firefox lite is a best example of how community members can help to promote the product. In global communities there are lot of opportunities.

  • A concern from a Community member the other day was, “I don’t feel like joining the Reps Program because of the highly inactive current members and misuse of resources, I don’t feel included or privileged to be a part of the Reps right now!” What do you plan to do about that?

    • Felipe: I don’t know if privileged is the right word, I don’t see being a Rep as a privilege, but another level/type of contribution. I believe that sometimes we can improve the info about what is a Rep and what a Rep usually have to do. This is a good start to solve misunderstanding like this one.
    • Bala : When I joined Mozilla Reps program in the year 2014, during that period limited set of application were processed and high quality of evaluation is carried out. Most of the applicant will be having at least 1+ years of regular contribution. That time we had limited reps and no resources were misused. But now we have more reps and misusing is happening more. That’s the reason Mozilla Reps program introduced Resource Reps program in monitoring the budget regionally.
    • Bhuvana: I felt that the right ones must be thrown light and show right examples about the successful program that current/past Reps have done. Speak more in detail to the Community member to know on what exact note the person had to say the statement and it could be supported with some examples. Once the detailed response is known there can be a call (say during our weekly Reps call) and lets do a training session like Good Vs Bad leader and how Reps are to responsible for setting out best examples.

  • For Bhuvana, I see your engagement in the Reps Program answer from the nominee page and see only Speaking and Evangelism. Can you help me understand your involvement within Reps in the last few months and how do you plan to take it forward in the new region you’re in i.e., Bangalore?

    • Bhuvana: I have already mentioned that I have been doing evangelism as it is a functional area and also its my passio. I do focus on Firefox Reality and Hubs because I learnt and expertised myself on AR/VR application development . I have recently moved to banglore. I wish to support the program activities happening in the city. The volunteers number is good in banglore so to guide them over what Mozilla rightly has to give for them will be my focus. Revamping of the program is needed specially when there Being in Bangalore has leveraged up my opportunities to help in Campus clubs across Institutions here and also I am observing the other Open Source communities around which can be implemented in our program(like Wikimedia, Google Developers and BangPypers).

  • For Bala, Since you have taken up more responsibilities recently, what do you think is missing from the Reps Resources and Onboarding Program and your impact on these two responsibilities?

    • Bala: I was associated with Reps resource and Onbarding program. I feel there is a conflict in the resouce reps earlier. Few months back we have added more resource reps, that helped in taking care of raising budget request. During onbarding process, I noted they are not providing all the details about their past 6 months contrubution. I have a clear understanding on what needs to be done in the Reps program.

  • For Shabaz: what is the most appealing point about the Mission Drivens Mozillian Project for you?

    • Shabaz: It gives access to the mozillians to be the champ in their community. They can choose any contribution area. Because of this it gives power to these volunteers.