This year ‘s Virtual All Hands (aka VirtuAllHands) was different from any other.
Some things were also familiar: plenaries, plenty of interesting conversations, new things to learn, and yes, even a bit of exhaustion. It was even possible to meet and chat with other people, even if using your avatar using MozillaHubs! All in all, as we were assured by a Mozilla Rep veteran of numerous All-Hands, that although virtual, “it really feels like a real All Hands”.
During the VirtuAllHands, the Mozilla Reps program organized four meetings each led by a Reps Council member. These meetings focused on a review of history, and future challenges for three central issues: communication, ‘activities & campaigns’, and mentorship. The meetings uncovered many challenges, but also successes and progresses.
Two meetings were focused on communication – the first led by Felipe and the second by Tim. Felipe and Tim spoke about the Reps Council’s existing work to improve communication and then led a discussion on the main communication challenges within the Reps program. The importance of clarity on communication tools and the location of information emerged, as well as a need to centralize and summarize information. The reps also underlined the importance of having clear mechanisms through which information and communications can flow between the organization, the reps and local communities.
Our third meeting was led by Shina and Shahbaz and dealt with “activities & campaigns”. Shina led us through a presentation that can be used by the reps to guide community members on activities and campaigns available, then opened the floor for discussion. The conversation on the engagement of communities in activities and campaigns, shone some lights on the issues that reps often front. Reps talked about the importance of having locally relevant campaigns, challenges in keeping contributors engaged after a campaign has ended, as well as the need to improve the widespread communication of campaigns, and challenges in setting up events.
The last meeting was led by Faisal and focused on mentorship within the reps program. Faisal presented a brief history of the mentorship program, and led a discussion over its issues. Again the need for clarity emerged, as the reps discussed how mentors role and activities should be better defined and, in some areas, re-defined.
Thanks to you all for taking the time to participate, lead and organize these meetings. All the feedback collected during these discussions will be of crucial importance to focus our work going forward!
On behalf of the community development team:
Francesca and Konstantina
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