[fama-mentors] Improving Ambassador Mentoring process

[Clint Savage]

Hi all,

Welcome to the new fama-mentors mailing list. I've created this list
to help us communicate as Fedora Ambassador mentors. I hope this list
can be used to help improve processes, communications and anything
else that might make it easier to do ambassador mentoring.

I'd like to start this mailing list off with a bit of a conversation
started. In last week's FAmSCo meeting, I brought up a few changes to
the process in the open floor. Most of the changes were well received.
I'd like to reiterate them here and get input / opinion / consensus on
the changes.

First off, the current process needs to be defined. It's clear from an
ambassador candidate what the process should be. It's pretty well
defined at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors_Join_start.

However, the process for the Fedora Ambassador Administration (FAmA)
administrator (me) is not as well known. I got a lot of this
information from Joerg Simon in an email when he passed me the torch
to take over FAmA. So here's that process, with the ambassador
candidate steps.

An ambassador candidate gets a Fedora Account from FAS

The candidate is then invited to create their personal wiki page and
explore Fedora

The candidate is then directed to apply for membership in the ambassadors group

At this point, the FAmA administrator (me) will be notified by email,
along with any other sponsors, that a new candidate needs sponsorship.

The candidate is then invited to contact a mentor to get started. If
the candidate is aggressive, this could be fairly quick.

On each Sunday, I go through the list of new candidates as compared to
those in trac, and create tickets for all of the new tickets for the
candidate.

Once created, the mentoring process can be commented on, deadlines set
for mentoring, etc.

Upon approval from the mentor, the candidate will receive a 'mentor
thumbs up' in the mentor status field of the trac ticket.

On the following Sunday from the mentor's approval, I go through and
find tickets with 'mentor thumbs up' statuses. I then approve them as
an ambassador in FAS, update the ticket with congratulations, and
close it with a 'SPONSORED' status.

If the candidate fails to meet the mentor's requirements, or does not
contact a mentor after 4 weeks, I will clean up these requests in trac
and remove their request for sponsorship in FAS.

------------------

There are other things that get done by the FAmA Administrator (me),
that happen in the middle of the process, but don't affect the process
above. The most common one is processing the mailing list requests. I
again perform these tasks on Sundays. Most of the requests are spam.
If the candidate has requested membership, I approve the mailing list
requests. If I can't find a trac ticket, I reject them with a friendly
message to apply.

-------------------

Okay, so now that I've long-windedly explained the current process as
it sits, I'd like to explain the changes I'm suggesting. They are
rather simple. I will also give good reasons for making the changes
and ask for any input from you. This idea, as I have stated
previously, has been vetted a little from FAmSCo and others before I
proposed it here.

The changes I'd like to make effective June 1, 2013, are the following:

Change #1: Instead of having the FAmA administrator file the ticket in
trac, I'd like to have the mentor file the ticket.

This will allow the interaction between the mentor and the candidate
to happen as early as possible. It's also useful to have the mentor
file the ticket which provides the mentor the ability to control the
process a little more, pretty much right from the beginning.

One idea was suggested was to have the candidate file the ticket in
trac, but this will cause more problems. There is a specific process
and format when filing tickets. Having several mentors follow
instructions will be useful. Having to train hundreds of candidates,
who may not have interacted much with Fedora or its processes, will
likely cause much more pain.

Much of the goal here is to simplify the process and remove the FAmA
administrator as a bottleneck from the process where possible.
Allowing mentors to take over the ticket creation process allows
candidates to contact mentors and have tickets to track their progress
more quickly, rather than waiting for the next Sunday.

Change #2: Provide the mailing list moderation password to the
mentors, to approve their candidates when they give them the 'mentor
thumbs up' status in trac.

As above, removing the FAmA administrator from this process will
improve the ability of candidates to more quickly get involved with
Ambassadors. Even if the candidate is not approved for Ambassadors
yet, they can still participate in mailing list discussions once the
mentor feels they have met the appropriate requirements.

A couple things to note.

Sponsoring / Rejecting candidates will still happen on Sundays due to
constraints in FAS. I'd like to start small with trac tickets before
granting sponsorship rights to all mentors in FAS.

FAmA reserves the right / privilege to modify any ticket or reject any
candidate with good reason. I don't see this happening very often, but
if a mentor isn't properly performing their duties, there should be
corrective action. It's probably even a good idea to define a process
for helping mentors if any issues arise. I don't see this ever really
being an issue, but I just want to put it out there so everyone is
prepared for such possibilities.

Thanks for reading my long introduction email, and especially for
feedback. I expect the discussions to be lively, friendly and in the
goal of bettering the mentoring process.

Cheers,

Clint Savage (herlo)
FAmA Administrator