Reps/SOPs/Mentoring

Warning: With effect from 1st September 2023, the Mozilla Reps program was closed and activities ended.

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Mozilla Reps recognizes that our primary goals are best reached through the support, encouragement, and empowerment of community through mentorship. Mentoring is a process for the informal transmission of knowledge, made possible through regular and supportive interaction.

Being a Mozilla Reps mentor requires a familiarity with different tools and processes that the Council has put in place to better streamline the way Mozilla Reps can document their activities, request budgets for projects, order swag and interact with other Reps. A mentor also serves as a coach, dedicated to helping their mentee’s personal development. This includes the following responsibilities:

• Be available for their mentees in a timely manner
• Organize regular coaching sessions with your mentees
• Be available for other Reps for coaching sessions which fit your specialized skills
  • Example: If a mentor has a great experience in Goal Setting activities, other Reps might approach this mentor to learn more

We encourage mentors to be as open to learning from their mentees, as they are to teaching, for the benefit and growth of both individuals and the program as a whole.

How to Become a Mentor

Any interested official Rep can take the Coaching Training and complete its requirements to be accepted as a mentor.

Please note: we are currently updating the Coaching training. If you wish to become a Mentor please email the Council so that we can keep track of those that are interested.

Mentors Role

The Mentor role is one of support. This involves a number of responsibilities, such as guiding new Reps within the Program, offering advice and encouragement to their mentees and supporting them in staying active and engaged withing the Reps Program.

Mentors Activities

• Mentors should have a general idea of how their mentees are doing and offer support as appropriate. To this end:
  • Mentors should aim to organize at least one meeting a year with each mentee to touch base with them. This meeting could be used to discuss the plans of the mentee and also to establish what kind of support they need. A template for this meeting can be found here and here you can find more detailed suggestions on how to carry out the meeting.
  • Mentor should carry out regular communication with their mentees as established in the yearly meeting.
  • Mentors should be available to support their mentees with specific issues when they arise. The mentee should be able to reach their mentor through an agreed upon communication channel, and receive timely support.

• Supporting new Reps: Mentors have a very important role in supporting new Reps. New reps need more frequent guidance than other reps, a meeting at least every three months (and possibly more often) is advised. You can find more guidance on how to conduct a first orientation call here.

• Mentors support the council in relating information about changes and important events in the Reps program to their mentees. You are encouraged to establish what are important updates that need to be communicated, but a member of the council will post in discourse and communicate during the mentors call if there are important updates we would like the mentors to pass on to their mentees

N.B. These are not information that are given uniquely to mentors, but we need mentors’ help to make sure that important information reaches their mentees.

Communication Channels and Tools

• People.mozilla.org. All mentors should have an updated profile and be in the Mozilla Reps Mentor access group

• Community Portal: all Mentors should have an updated profile and be in the Mozilla Reps group.

• We have a special Discourse category for mentors. Make sure that you have access to it and that you are watching it.

• Mentors matrix room: all mentors should have access to it. This is the place to talk with other mentors and ask questions.

Changing your mentor

Normally the commitment for the 1:1 relationship is done for one year. After that year, the commitment can either be extended or the mentor can be changed. This allows to continue fruitful coaching sessions or to be assigned to a new mentor with a different skill set to broaden the horizon and skills of a Rep. If a mentor becomes inactive, mentors can be changed disregarding the 1 year commitment through the Reps Council.

For more details about changing your mentor, check the Reassigning a Mentor page.

Mentor Assessment

There is a yearly feedback round for both mentors and mentees. This allows to identify strengths and weaknesses we can improve upon. This highly improves the quality of the coaching relationships.

Resigning

If a mentor can no longer fulfill his/her duties as a mentor, the mentor must send an email to the Council or any of the Council Members to resign and recommend a new mentor to replace him/her.

List of Mentors

You can find the full list of mentors on the Community Portal.

Council procedure

The mentor onboarding require a Council member that follow the various steps:

Assigning

• Add new reps looking for a mentor to Coaching Open Assignment document
• Contact the Rep about the mentor that accepted to have him/her as mentee for an approval

Prepare mentors

• The wannabe Mentor need to write to the council an email about the finished course on Teachable

 Note: The council is currently working on updating this procedure

• Start with the training https://wiki.mozilla.org/ReMo/Coaching/Practice_Week