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

[Daniel Kreuter]

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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