[Mageia-dev] "Job offer" : mentoring program coordinator

Sat Jun 18 15:03:28 CEST 2011

On Sat, Jun 18, 2011 at 2:55 PM, Samuel Verschelde <stormi at laposte.net>wrote:
+
+> Le dimanche 12 juin 2011 15:27:59, Samuel Verschelde a écrit :
+> > Hello to everyone,
+> >
+> > I'm sure there's someone among you who wants to help Mageia but hasn't
+> > found yet the good way to do it. Today is your lucky day, because there's
+> > a job that's available and can be really useful and interesting:
+> > coordinating the packagers mentoring program.
+> >
+> > You know that one key point of success for Mageia is in the ability to
+> > welcome new packagers. The better we will be at it, the better the distro
+> > will be. The packagers mentoring program has been created for that reason
+> > and several packagers have been or are being mentored. But we have some
+> > difficulty knowing who is being mentored by who and who hasn't found a
+> > mentor. And we need also to find more mentors and more apprentices.
+> >
+> > During a packagers weekly meeting, misc invited us to read the following
+> > article about mentoring programs in open-source projects:
+> > http://blogs.gnome.org/bolsh/2011/05/31/effective-mentoring-programs/
+> >
+> > I invite those who haven't read it yet, to read it. I'll quote one of the
+> > mentoring best practices that were given: "In bigger projects, keeping
+> > track of who is a mentor, and who is mentoring who, and inviting new
+> > mentors, and ensuring that no-one falls through the cracks when a mentor
+> > gets too busy, is a job of itself."
+> >
+> > I'm looking for someone who could fill that "job".
+> >
+> > Description of the job:
+> >
+> > - keep track of:
+> > -- who's being mentored by who, how well it's going
+> > -- who needs a mentor and hasn't found one yet (this is one of the most
+> > important parts: no volunteer must be forgotten, volunteers are too
+> > precious !)
+> > -- who can mentor more apprentices (and sometimes convince packagers to
+> > become mentors or accept one more apprentice)
+> >
+> > - be available for questions from apprentices or mentors, by mail, and if
+> > possible, to be present on the IRC channel #mageia-mentoring on freenode
+> >
+> > - help mentors with gathering "junior tasks" (bugzilla is a never empty
+> > reserve that can be used for that. Maybe ask the bug triage team to help
+> > identify such tasks. Maybe a "junior task" keyword in bugzilla would do
+> the
+> > trick)
+> > -- small bugs to fix
+> > -- new small packages to import in the distribution
+> > -- backports
+> >
+> > - promote mentoring (empower users into contributers. Working with the
+> > marketing team would be great I think):
+> > -- make the mentoring program known (MLs, forums, web, etc.)
+> > -- look for new apprentices
+> > -- look for new mentors
+> >
+> > Some useful skills:
+> > - be autonomous (ie no need to check that you're doing the work)
+> > - good written english (communication is very important in this job)
+> > - knowledge about packaging is a plus but not mandatory (the key aspects
+> > can be taught to you)
+> > - being or having been a mentor, or having been mentored would be a plus,
+> > but not mandatory
+> >
+> > More information about the job:
+> > - does not require a big amount of work, but real committment to the task
+> > and regularity
+> > - remember that you have a coordination role, not an authoritative role.
+> > The difference in that is that you're not here to give orders but to
+> > facilitate the mentoring program.
+> > - you don't have to be alone to do this job if it's too much for one
+> > person: you can find other helpful people wanting to help you if needed
+> > and rely on the other teams (but finding them *is* part of your job ;) ).
+> > -  this "job offer" concerns everything that revolves around the
+> mentoring
+> > of new packagers, but if it's successful maybe other teams can follow the
+> > same approach (i18n, QA, etc... ).
+> > -  depending on your level of confidence, experience and will, you could
+> be
+> > helped in your work. Maybe someone from the council can supervise and
+> help
+> > you at least at the beginning; or, if no one steps up, I can help you
+> > bootstrap and organize your new "job".
+> >
+> > So, who's in?
+> >
+> > Samuel Verschelde
+>
+> Hello to all,
+>
+> First, thanks to those to offered to help.
+>
+> We had 3 candidates, plus one who offered help whoever will be in charge. 2
+> candidates were retained (Kharec has too many duties already to take the
+> job),
+> who I interviewed on IRC to try to see who would fit best.
+>
+> The 2 candidates were good, which complicated my task because I had to make
+> a
+> choice, but I finally came to a decision : I propose andre999 as a
+> mentoring
+> program coordinator (or facilitator, if you think it fits the job better).
+>
+> What made me choose him over Daniel Kreuter (whose candidacy was good, I
+> repeat it) is the fact he already showed interest in this subject before
+> the
+> "job offer", has been mentored (even if the mentoring has not been
+> completed
+> for now), and I already had enough occasions to exchange with him in the
+> past
+> to think that he will have the required communication skills and diplomacy
+> to
+> do the job.
+>
+> Now, it doesn't mean he has to be alone, so I hope than magnus will help
+> him,
+> for example to bring an IRC presence at hours where André is not available
+> due
+> to his timezone, and if Daniel is still interested in helping for those
+> tasks,
+> I'm sure André will be glad to receive his help.
+>
+> If you have any questions or remarks, don't hesitate to comment.
+>
+> To ennael and misc : do you want to take part in the boostrapping of
+> André's
+> work ? I think it could be good to avoid any misunderstandings and be sure
+> we
+> set the good direction.
+>
+> Best regards
+>
+> Samuel Verschelde
+>
+
+Congratulation andre999 for the job. If you need my help feel free to ask
+me.
+
+
+
+-- 
+Mit freundlichen Grüßen
+
+Greetings
+
+Daniel Kreuter
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