Request for comments on changes to the Ambassadors program

[Jared K. Smith]

As an elected representative on the Mindshare Committee, I would like to
kick off a discussion on behalf of the whole committee about our
Ambassadors program and how we can improve it. We encourage you to read the
plan below, make thoughtful comments or suggestions, and help us frame the
plan going forward.

Fedora's Mindshare Committee represents the outreach leadership in Fedora.
Mindshare aims to help outreach teams (such as Ambassadors, marketing, the
websites team, etc.) work better together by providing them with a way to
unify around Fedora’s core messages. The Mindshare Committee contains
appointed members to represent the various outreach teams, as well as
members elected from the community.


TL;DR:

* Let's clarify our focus on editions and objectives
* Let's make it easier to hold small events like Release Parties
* Let's get more people involved by creating Fedora Advocates
* Let's help ambassadors gets more done by easing some the administrative
functions and putting them on Mindshare and FAmA
* Let's make budget requests more predictable
* Let's let people step back when they need to by creating Emeritus
Ambassadors

First, let me state on a personal level how incredibly impressed I've been
with the Ambassadors during my time in the Fedora community.  They do
incredible work, and I want to see that great work continue.  At the same
time, I've seen common "pain points" too. The Mindshare Committee is
proposing the following changes -- not as something set in stone, but as a
way to start a discussion about the overall Ambassadors program. We hope to
spend the next few weeks listening to your feedback and incorporating it
into the plan, with the goal of having the plan solidified in place by May
10th so that it can be voted on by the Mindshare Committee before the end
of May.

The following list helps to explain and what we expect from our
Ambassadors. This shouldn't be anything new or surprising to our
ambassadors, but I include it here as a reminder.

An Ambassador should:

Be an active contributor to the Fedora community.
* Show a basic level of knowledge about Fedora and its key marketing
messages (as shown through a mentorship program).  Know the teams,
subprojects, working groups, and special interest groups, to help guide new
collaborators to areas of interest.
* Lead public-facing events with a Fedora presence, and request reasonable
funds to support such events. Be able to work in a Fedora booth and both
represent the Fedora community, but also demonstrate Fedora in a way that
attracts new users and contributors to the Fedora Project.
* Be available for contact from new users and contributors who need help
getting started in Fedora.
* Understand Fedora's limited resources (volunteer attention, time, and
budget) and uses them efficiently and effectively.
* Communicate with the rest of the community, and stay current on
developments in Fedora

We think it is important to note that an Ambassador may not do all of these
things personally all of the time. In particular, an Ambassador should be
willing to sponsor the attendance of others at events to speak or work
booths where their specific expertise is valuable. For example, sending
someone from the Kernel team to a kernel conference to represent Fedora may
be a better use of our resources than sending an Ambassador who is not a
kernel expert. This is a great way for us to address audiences with
specialized needs that Fedora can help but for whom we may not have skilled
ambassadors.

It is also important that ambassadors are communicating with related
groups. For example, communicate with the Join SIG if you're focused on
being available for new users and contributors or communicate with the Rust
SIG if you are going to attend a Rust event.

== Messaging ==

As the public face of Fedora at many events, we expect Ambassadors to be
aware of the areas of focus that have been set forth by the Fedora council.
The primary focus for ambassador messaging at this time should be on the
three editions (Desktop Edition, Server Edition, Atomic Edition) plus the
three current Council objectives (Modularity, Fedora CI, and Internet of
Things).

The editions and objectives represent the goals and overall direction of
Fedora. We want to communicate the exciting things that make Fedora unique
from other distributions and projects. Ambassadors are the communicators of
these goals and direction.

== Administrative Functions ==

It has been my experience that our ambassadors really enjoy sharing the
Fedora message to those they come in contact with. However, when it comes
to administrative functions such as budget allocation, many of our
ambassadors are less eager to participate.

Therefore we suggest that the regions and individual ambassadors, as much
as possible, be relieved of the administrative functions (approving budget
requests, and so forth). We propose to split the administrative roles
between the Mindshare Committee (budget approval, driving conversation,
etc.) and FAmA (FAS group management, administrivia, etc.).

The purpose of this change is to enable Ambassadors to focus on the details
that matter most: finding meaningful events that align with Fedora's goals
and initiatives and how to deliver the messaging. Mindshare wants to
support and enable Ambassadors to succeed at messaging. Mindshare, with the
help of FAmA, also wants to alleviate the burden of administrative work,
and provide greater transparency into budgets and the decision-making
process. More information about FAmA is below.

To this end we are going to make budget requests more predictable. See
below for details about Release Parties and the new Advocates. Requests
that don't fit in those categories will come to Mindshare (or a later
designated group) for approval. The goal is not to centralize control, but
is instead to get a way of thinking about the impact of each request
relative to its budget request. The council has indicated that local events
are better than large events. This doesn't mean no large events, but it
means we need to understand why flying people around the world is better
than having them advocate on a regular basis in their own "backyard".

Continuing with the theme of predictable budget requests, we would like to
make things as streamlined as possible. Mindshare will try to work in
tickets as much as possible. A request can be approved by a variable number
of Mindshare committee members. Tickets will stay open for some time as
well to ensure consensus.

* Budget requests of $250 or less require two Mindshare members to +1 and
must be open for a week.
* Budget requests of $500 or less require three Mindshare members to +1 and
must be open for a week.
* Budget requests of more than $500 require a majority of Mindshare members
to approve and will typically be brought up in a meeting.

== Advocates ==

We would like to create a new "level" for people who want to be advocates
for Fedora, but aren't yet willing to go through the formal Ambassadors
mentorship program. While this is a bit of an experiment and may need to be
changed over time, we hope that having a new "lower friction" process will
help future Ambassadors get started. Unlike Ambassadors, the Advocates will
only be able to request up to $100 in budget for a particular event. While
we haven't decided on the exact mechanism for allocating budget for
Advocates, we anticipate it will be similar to the low-friction process for
Release Parties (see below).

== Low Friction process for Release Parties ==

We are proposing a new low-friction process for funding release parties.
Anyone (not just Ambassadors or Advocates) can request up to $100 USD in
reimbursement for a release party. The general stipulation will be that the
person requesting the funds must provide some critical pieces of
information both before and after the event, to ensure the event meets with
Fedora's release party guidelines. Only $25 USD of the release party budget
may be used for transportation costs, and a limited amount of swag
(stickers, buttons, pens, etc.) will be sent to the organizer.

The idea is that if someone wants to get a reasonably sized group of people
together to celebrate the newest release, we'll happily buy some
chips/sodas/pizzas/snacks and send a small bit of swag.

=== Before the event ===
Open a Mindshare ticket with the following information:
* Time/Date
* Location
* Expected number of attendees
* Expected cost

=== After the event ===
Update the Mindsare ticket with the following information:
* Actual number of attendees
* Photos of the event
* Actual cost
* Any lessons you learned from the event, or tips for other events to help
them be successful
* A link to your blog post, ideally in the Fedora CommBlog, or on Fedora
Planet about the event

=== Other notes ===

* Costs (up to $100 USD) will be reimbursed after the event. We will not
send money before the event. No more than $25 can be spent on
transportation. No money may be spent on swag.

== Becoming An Ambassador ==

In order to make this easier, we'd like to unify the processes, where it
makes sense, around the world. Ambassador's time is a precious resource and
having it spent on administrative processes or unnecessarily duplicative
onboarding is not a good use of it. Similar to today, Ambassador candidates
need to be mentored. Ideally a mentor is someone familiar with the
candidates location who can provide guidance, however any mentor should be
able to mentor any candidate. Once a candidate has met the goals of
mentorship (see below), they get made an ambassador after a ticket is filed
in FAmA and an announcement is sent to the ambassadors mailing list. This
isn't to trigger a vote. Instead this is an announcement to ensure there
are no concerns. Typically this ticket is assumed to be ok after a week (a
bit more time is appropriate if there are lots of holidays during the
week). Objections aren't automatic "failures" they just lead to discussion.
Where needed, Mindshare will help with guiding the conversation and getting
us to a decision.

The goals of mentorship:
* Ensure the candidate knows about Fedora and is active as a contributor.
* Ensure the candidate understands the role of an Ambassador.
* Help the candidate generate ideas for their first two events.
* Ensure the candidate understands how to request assistance, file tickets,
and knows what is expected of them before and after an event.

A mentor should expect to be a primary point of contact for the candidate
for some time, including after the candidate becomes an ambassador.

== Becoming a Mentor ==

In the same way that we'd like to clarify how to become an ambassador, we'd
like to also make it clearer how to become a mentor. In general, a mentor
needs to:
* Ask to become a mentor.
* Demonstrate their ability to meet the goals of mentorship by specifically
describing how they are going to do it.
* Acknowledge they have the time to be a mentor.

Similar to the Emeritus ambassadors below, mentors will be surveyed yearly.

== Emeritus Ambassadors ==

We are also creating an "Emeritus Ambassadors" level for people who were
Ambassadors at one time, but are no longer actively engaged in the
ambassador efforts. This is a way to publicly recognize them as a former
Ambassador and thank them for their work, but they will not be actively
listed as an Ambassador so that new contributors do not continue to contact
them.

Annually, we will contact every ambassador and ask them if they want to
remain active. This is based on the idea that stepping back because of burn
out is hard for many people. However, when asked if they want to continue
many people will feel more comfortable with saying they are ready to take
some time off. The goal is not to encourage people to step down.

However, we also recognize that we need active, responsive ambassadors.
Every year will also survey our ambassadors about their activity. This will
be combined with the above request. In general, we'll assume they are
active an only ask what they've been doing if there is question. This way
we don't wind up with ambassadors who receive requests from the public and
never answer them. It also answers the questions about title-seeking that
have been raised in some areas. There is no minimum threshold of activity,
just that ambassador activity is happening.

== What about FAmA? ==

The FAmA group remains an important administrative body. The goal of FAmA
is to help the Ambassadors drive administrative functions. The FAmA group
will consist of 2-4 people elected by the Ambassadors.  Members must be
either current Ambassadors, Emeritus Ambassadors or a current member of
Mindshare. People serve a two release staggered term and are able to be
re-elected as long as they remain qualified to stand for election.

The positions in FAmA are administrative. They are not in place to serve as
decision makers but are more focused on helping administrative requirements
get met and to make sure that things that need conversation get surfaced.
They help ambassadors succeed.

Initially they will probably focus on:
* Maintaining the Ambassadors Contact List.
* Maintaining the FAS groups.
* Moving people, upon their request, to the Emeritus group.
* Moving people from candidate to ambassador as they finish their mentoring.
* Maintaining the list of approved mentors.
* Surveying ambassadors yearly about their continuing desire to be active.
* Helping make sure budget entries get made in support of treasurers/card
holders.

We plan to keep regional card holders in place to help with managing
reimbursements. We'd like the regional treasurers to shift to supporting
the card holders, FAmA and Mindshare.

Surfacing conversations that are needed, for example, candidates that want
to become mentors about whom there are concerns.

--
Jared Smith