Sketch out a long-term mentorship or limited term contribution accelerator program.

[sparklingrobots]

Based on concerns raised re: Dries' blog post on contribution demographics, we had a few ideas in the channel:

• [idea] . Re: code contribution. I know that some of us know/are contributors to the project, whether core or contrib. And I know many of us are interested in contributing despite fears that we aren’t welcome/not knowing how to join. Could we pair established maintainers/contributors with mentees?
• [idea] Totally off the rails here, but could we (not we as DD&I but we as Drupal community) have a seasonal "accelerator" group or something? Group of people that get paired with established maintainers or contributors to learn/grow. And then we can cycle the group?

@rachel_norfolk (not on github? diff username?) said that some of this work is already happening in Drupal Mentoring, which I had no idea about. Let's use this issue to find out what's already happening and sketch out some next steps for a program like this!

[sparklingrobots]

Tagging @rachellawson @sugaroverflow @alisonjo2786 @agentrickard

[alisonjo315]

Also..... I wonder about connecting ppl who are participating in issue threads with self-identified "Mentors" on the spot. idk if this should be part of the same task, or if it's too different, so, just saying it "out loud" for now.

[sparklingrobots]

Sounds like this work is happening on an ad hoc basis right now (per @rachellawson in the channel).

Things I'd like to consider:

• Who could be a mentor?
• Who could be a mentee?
• What term-length would be useful?
• How do we get a light-weight version of this off the ground to verify if it is useful?

[sugaroverflow]

• who will run this

If it's a community based operation, I don't know if it'll get the same attention and impact as what we'd hope for it.

It's also something that might be out of scope for DD&I to manage - but is an idea we could promote as a recommendation (though the others on leadership may have different thoughts).

[alisonjo315]

• stated goal of this effort

[sparklingrobots]

• what are we asking of both mentors and mentees
• how do we judge success of the effort

[alisonjo315]

Sharing a message from a DD&I member on slack earlier this afternoon (with their permission), that I found inspiring wrt mentorship needs/potential -- i.e. direct impact that mentorship could have on mentees, AND indirect impact of (1) more individuals making code contributions (2) greater diversity of code contributors, ergo more "role models who look like me" etc etc:

One of the biggest barriers that I feel personally is that I’m not sure if my opinions and contributions to the community are valued as much as people who are in the club, like on top contributor lists, because not only is that group quite homogenous, but I never hear them indicating that they have any problem with that status quo. I assume I will be perceived as disruptive by my very presence. So as embarrassing as it is, I think Dries and other leaders need to make some very baby steps just to show that they do welcome people with different backgrounds and ideas from theirs. It will be a while before I am convinced of that.

[alisonjo315]

(possible goals, without digging into measurement yet :) )

• more code contributors
• greater diversity of code contributors

[sparklingrobots]

Benefits to a project like this (related to stated goals, maybe not exactly the same)

• It’s one thing to get mentored/mentor at a sprint, but a long-term, one-on-one relationship would be a HUGE step-up for someone looking to get into contribution
• it gives established folks a direct way to make an impact on D&I goals, which I think has a lot of positive impact on its own (e.g. you move from feeling bad about it to knowing you are helping)

[sugaroverflow]

Benefit to community:

• Grows the overall contribution pool because we're easing people into it and giving them more of a chance to learn and grow.

I know some people struggle with contributing even though they were mentored at a Drupalcon or camp because it all happened so fast and they weren't able to feel comfortable enough.

[sparklingrobots]

@sugaroverflow totally agree. And it's easy to feel burned out post DrupalCon. Also, not everyone has access to DrupalCon and mentored sprints in the first place.

[sparklingrobots]

Just as an fyi to everyone here: I cross-posted a little blurb about this in the #mentoring channel just to let them know about what we're up to. @ekl1773 also expressed some interest in this concept and is also involved in core mentoring.

[rachellawson]

I might have to spell this out but you do realise that mentoring already takes place not just in code contribution but even here in the DD&I group? Plenty of you have stepped into contribution here and been guided by @drnikki and others. You have grown into those roles and are now doing good things. Mentoring is taking place here, now, in front of you. You are already part of it.

[sparklingrobots]

@rachellawson Not enough +1s in the world for that reminder! <3 <3 <3

[gapple]

A lot of module maintainers are probably in the position of only being able to minimally maintain or improve their module with their available time; what's needed to help them be active and regular mentors in that time instead?

Are there things from the Google Summer of Code program that could be re-used to create an ongoing mentorship / accelerator program?

[agentrickard]

@gapple the challenge there is getting maintainers to think like Project or Product Managers. Views and Panels went through this transition successfully. If we can provide some templates or models for how people might manage such things, that might help.

The key is writing feature criteria and then coaching people through how to do it. Here's a sample, perhaps. https://github.com/agentrickard/domain/issues/159

[rachellawson]

There are movements to try and bring Gabor's excellent Rocketship tool and a whole bunch pf PMs into the equation. Make it available as a resource for more maintainers and initiative leaders. I think Sharon Vettes wants to sprint on this at Vienna.

[agentrickard]

FYI -- https://www.drupal.org/project/rocketship powers http://drupal8multilingual.org/

[gusaus]

Couple quick thoughts on how DD&I could interface with the Drupal Dojo and related community mentoring groups

• create a Diversity & Inclusion group on http://drupaldojo.com/ -
• use Drupal Dojo tools (Twitch.tv, #drupal-dojo Slack, websites, drupal projects/issue queues, etc) to run coding sprints, online training sessions, podcasts, and more
• help Drupal Dojo and related events and projects be diverse and inclusive as possible

As a community run platform, members of this group could play a key role in helping use the Dojo to follow through with many of the next steps here - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qNbZYRBuSVfxuyF9G6r3YTMcVFj9TCqoe3Bpegk5hKw/edit?usp=sharing

Many of which are already shared goals and objectives.

[sparklingrobots]

I tried to sum up what we've talked about here in this Google doc (editable by anyone).

I am copy/pasting the contents below so you all can see the work but let's keep working in the google doc. (Is there a better way to handle this? I'm newish to GitHub.)

I think we could come up with a basic plan of how this could happen, and then assess whether it should happen and who wants to be involved. How does that sound as a more defined goal for this thread?

---doc contents below---

Stated Goal of this effort To increase code-based contributions from individuals from under-represented groups to the Drupal project.

Benefits to the Community Drupal will have more contributors. Drupal will have more diverse contributors. Mentees will improve their skills and community connections. Mentors will have more help with the work they maintain.

Concerns Who will run this program? Are there existing groups we can connect with, such as DD&I, Mentoring, DrupalDojo, Google Summer of Code? The Panels and Views teams? Sharon Vettes? Rocketship? How will we find mentors and mentees? A lot of module maintainers are only able to minimally maintain or improve their module with their available time; what's needed to help them be active and regular mentors in that time instead? Are there things from the Google Summer of Code program that could be re-used to create an ongoing mentorship / accelerator program? How will we measure success? Can we get support from higher in the Drupalverse?

[sparklingrobots]

Update: There is a new #ddi-contrib-team channel in slack for any interested parties to discuss this project.

[sparklingrobots]

There's a new google doc for ideas about the theme folks are considering building: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12IsWjp8VYFlp5B4rUBg86_qEuZOjkhYkWTkEaTR_CRU/edit

[drnikki]

@sparklingrobots would you like a drupaldiversity repository to store your work in, or are you okay with the google doc?

[sparklingrobots]

@drnikki Thanks for the offer! For now we can stick with google docs but we'll talk about it in our meeting later this week and see if folks prefer something else.

[sparklingrobots]

@drnikki That said--if there is a way that it would be helpful for us to organize our work so as to not clutter up what everybody else is doing, let me know and I'll make it happen.

[sparklingrobots]

@drnikki Can we please have a drupaldiveristy repository after all? I think most of our project work will live on d.o but we need a home for the meta-info of organizing the mentoring program itself. Thank you!

[drnikki]

@sparklingrobots with pleasure - https://github.com/drupaldiversity/contrib exists and you're an administrator and so can proceed as you wish. Thank you for everything that you're doing with this. It makes a big difference. <3 <3 <3

[sparklingrobots]

@drnikki Thank you thank you thank you!! I am happy to be doing it and the team that has coalesced here is amazing.

[sparklingrobots]

I'm going to go ahead and close this issue since we are getting rolling a) with our first groups and b) in our shiny new repo.