I would like to discuss how we could implement the WP Contributor Mentorship Program in the Support team.
Mentees
Anyone can apply to join the program via this form. If you know anyone who would be a good candidate, please encourage them to take part. In my case, I have reached out to all the people I met during Contributor day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. at WCEU and let them know about the program.
Materials
We will need a set of materials for mentees to go over as part of their onboarding. We can of course point them to get Getting Started section of the Handbook and we also have a Support Table for Contributor Day doc we can share but I would like to know what other existing resources you can think of.
While drafting this post, I took a look at learn.wordpress.org and noticed how we do not seem to have any videotutorials specifically for support. We should explore the possibility of creating a simple “Getting Started with Support” video tutorial to facilitate the process.
If you have some experience recording these type of videos (and even if you do not!) please consider recording one. Please share you thoughts and suggestions in the comments.
Mentors
One of the most powerful ideas in this plan is to connect mentees to seasoned mentors who can reply to their questions and guide them through their onboarding. This should not require a lot of time but we do need to know who is available and would feel confortable doing that.
We are considering the possibility of holding “welcome” video calls as part of the onboarding. Aside from replying to practical questions, the goal of these calls would be to create personal connections between mentors and their mentees. Ideally, we should try and hold at least two different calls at different times in order to accommodate for mentees across time-zones.
Please note how there are several ways you can contribute to this initiative, but you do not need to commit to all of them:
- Encourage mentees to take part
- Recommend existing materials
- Create or record new materials.
- Volunteer to act as mentor
- Host one of these “welcome” calls.
If you are an experienced contributor and would like to volunteer as a mentor, please leave a comment or swing by the #forums channel in Slack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..
Timeline & Next Steps
The first cohort is schedule to take place between July 12th and August 9th. We have two weeks to put together some basic curriculum and designate mentees, let’s make this happen!.
View upcoming meetings