Proposal: Add All ProgCode Members to ProgBot with Opt-out Option

[PamelaJohn]

This is a proposal to retroactively add all ProgCode members to ProgBot, the anonymized Member/Skills directory, with ability or members to opt-out. We welcome your discussion and feedback!

Problem

Rising membership numbers, increased number of projects and channels as well as a decreased number of staff volunteers have contributed to a decrease in community engagement due to information overload, overwhelming number of channels.

One of the most frequently made suggestions for improvement of community engagement from Slack members is "some kind of member directory" which allows dev teams and volunteer contributors to find one another.

In the past, ProgCode's community values of member autonomy have presented a hurdle to solving this dilemma given that staff are reluctant to impose on member autonomy by pinging members when projects matching their skill sets are available for contribution. Conversely, volunteers do not always feel comfortable pinging team leads. This is especially true when "intimidation factor" of new code contributors or devs who have never worked on OS repos before is taken into consideration,

Benefit

ProgBot solves the problem by providing a member skills list, an active project list and ANONYMIZED messaging system which connects project teams to volunteer contributors and allows members and project leads to respond to invitations to contribute when/if they are available to collaborate.

Plan

• [x] Discuss proposal and its merits/any community concerns at 2/19/2018 Operations Meeting
• [x] Vote on 2/19/2018 on consent to continue the discussion in Slack and development of an opt-out process for the two week period between 2/19/2018 and 3/5/2019
• [ ] If consent to continue the discussion is granted on 2/19/2018, request community discussion via Zoom call noticed in #team-announcements, #discussion and Action Network email to membership
• [ ] Following community discussion period, place this item on the 3/5/2019 agenda for consent to implement and community vote in accordance with the rules of the Change Process.

Decision Making

• At 2/19/2018 Community Operations Meeting, discuss pros and cons of proposal and vote on consent to continue with further discussion and development o an opt-out process.
• If 2/19/2018 vote on consent to continue is passed:
  • Notice community discussion via Zoom call in #team-announcements, #discussion and via Action Network email to members.
  • Place this Issue on the 3/5/2018 Community Operations Agenda for discussion and consent to continue with community vote.
• If 3/5/2018 motion for consent to continue with community vote is passed, schedule and notice a #community-vote for consent to implement.
• Discussion period is 2 weeks. Final decision on community vote is 72 hours from the time the vote is noticed.

Reference link(s)

Change Process Previous issues re: Member Engagement

• 2/16/2017, Issue 69: Member Updates on Airtable
• 3/11/2017, Issue 110: Optimize Volunteer Distribution to Increase Partner & Volunteer Engagement

[PamelaJohn]

Consent to continue discussion of this issue for a period of two weeks was granted on 2/19/2018. Remaining tasks to do:

• [ ] Notify the community of the GitHub issue and major change by posting in #team-announcements pointing to the #discussion channel to commence 2 week discussion period.
• [ ] Create an email for the entire membership explaining ProgBot and notifying them that there is a vote open to "opt-in" all members anonymously and that they will have an opportunity to opt out as well.
• [ ] Send the email to the entire membership.
• [ ] At the end of the 2 week discussion period, open a vote in #community-vote.
• [ ] Notice the community via #team-announcements, #discussion and #community-vote that the vote is open for a period of 72 hours.
• [ ] At the conclusion of the 72 hour voting period, consent to implement the community's decision (yea or nay) will be granted.