To better serve the community and the Community Team, @devinmaeztri and I are working to improve our current Mentor program. We believe this project will help get rid of gaps in our current roles and create a smoother functioning Community Team with room to grow.
An Overview
- End date: 31 March
- 4 Issues addressed in this post
- update or create role information and tasks
- add in new Mentor roles to help our growing community and team
- retire the “Deputy” title
- build for the future
- 3 Discussion Posts planned starting with this one
The Main Elements
Craft More Accurate Role Information and Task Lists
The project will start by looking at where we are and end with clearer information about new and existing roles.
- Evaluate the current roles and their descriptions, qualifications, and expectations.
- Evaluate the current assigned tasks and see if they need better descriptions or adjustments to make them more manageable to accomplish.
- Create descriptions, qualifications, expectations, and clearly described tasks for any new mentor roles added.
For reference, find the current roles and expectations on the Community Team’s Team Projects page.
Add in Meetup Mentors and Mentor of Mentors
Meetup Mentors: We currently have a group of Meetup Reactivators that we would like to invite into the Community Team to continue their meetup outreach. If our meetups are the heart of what we do, then having a group and system in place that provides regular check-ins should help keep them strong. It also provides a nice first level of activity for new members.
Mentors of Mentors: These would likely be our current Super Deputies with opportunities to promote other veteran mentors as they qualify.
Mentors of Mentors would continue to support our other mentors and have responsibilities within the Community Team around nurturing growth. They could also mentor WordCamps as they choose.
We would continue to have the existing roles of WordCamp Mentors and Community Deputies/Community Mentors with similar responsibilities to what they have now.
| Current Contributor Roles |
| WordCamp Mentors Community Deputies Super Deputies |
| Future Contributor Roles |
| Meetup Mentors WordCamp Mentors Community Mentors Mentors of Mentors |
Change the Community Deputy Title
The word “deputy” has two significant drawbacks.
- It’s difficult to translate in some languages while in others the word doesn’t even exist.
- In the US, it’s a term used to describe enforcement which does not represent the nature of the role well.
Our deputies are already mentors who are working to nurture the community, often in more technical ways, but still interacting with the community.
Because of that and the reasons above, we suggest changing:
- Community Deputy → Community Mentor
- Super Deputy → Mentors of Mentors
The responsibilities would be similar (with some refinement) to current duties, but we’d have names that fit a more global community and better reflect what the Community Team is trying to accomplish.
Build a Foundation for Future Growth
A Single Unified Application: Along with refining the names, descriptions, and tasks, we also plan to create a single unified application and onboarding process as well as a clear contribution ladder. We think this will provide a smoother introduction to the Community Team and give contributors goals to grow towards.
A Removal Process: With onboarding, we’ll also need to create a path for removing inactive contributors as well as people who end up in the wrong roles. Not everyone fits every role. Let’s create other opportunities where contributors can make the best use of the skills they have instead of being stuck in a role that doesn’t fit. Maintaining a healthy community requires attention to this aspect as well.
Overall, we’re hoping all of the changes mentioned in this post create one solid foundation for the future of all of our programs.
The Community Team’s Role
We want to work alongside the group as a whole to refine our Mentor Program to better benefit us all. In order to do that, we need your support and feedback.
Please comment below your thoughts regarding the project, and particularly about some or all of the following:
- Changing the name of Community Deputies and Super Deputies.
- If it’s too confusing to have all roles under the Mentor heading.
- What current tasks function effectively, and which don’t.
- New tasks you think it could be useful to add.
- Adding in a Meetup Mentor role.
- Adding in a Mentors of Mentors, and if the name is a good fit.
This post will close March 3.
#meetups, #community-team, #mentors, #mentorship-programs, #wordcamps