[Eg-oversight-board] More details on Outreach Project for Women

[Kathy Lussier]

Hi all,

I'm sending along an update on this program since the deadline for 
committing is approaching. We currently have five possible projects 
listed at http://wiki.evergreen-ils.org/doku.php?id=opw. I plan to only 
move forward with projects that have at least two co-mentors. At this 
time, we only have two projects with two co-mentors, but I have some 
solid leads, giving me confidence that we will have two more eligible 
projects by early next week.

The vote was to "to allocate community funds to sponsor one intern 
through the Outreach Project for Women if there are strong projects and 
committed mentors." Do you all feel comfortable now with moving forward 
based on the project ideas and mentors we have? I would like to notify 
OPW by the end of the day today, Monday morning at the latest. I'm 
feeling fairly good about the current state of our potential projects.

Thanks!
Kathy

Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
(508) 343-0128
klussier at masslnc.org
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier
#evergreen IRC: kmlussier

On 8/21/2014 2:01 PM, Kathy Lussier wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I wanted to send along more details on the Outreach Project for Women 
> and what I'm proposing before today's EOB meeting. The idea of 
> participating in the Outreach Project for Women first came to the 
> Board in November 2012. At the time, we needed to make a quick 
> decision, and it didn't seem doable to raised the required funds in 
> time for the deadline. I would like to see if there is a way the 
> community can participate in this round, which had a deadline for 
> September 8.
>
> In the previous discussion on this topic, I think Lori Ayre best 
> described the reason for doing it when she said: "As a woman-dominated 
> profession, I think it is important that we facilitate the growth of 
> women developers of Evergreen." Overall, I think it's important that 
> we grow the body of contributors to the project, and I think there are 
> many places where an intern could make a difference, not just in code, 
> but in documentation, user interfaces, etc.
>
> The details on the project are available at 
> https://wiki.gnome.org/OutreachProgramForWomen/Admin/InfoForOrgs. As I 
> mentioned in my previous e-mail, the intern can make contributions in 
> the areas of coding, user experience design, graphic design, 
> documentation, web development, marketing, translation, or other types 
> of tasks to help sustain a FOSS project. A sponsor would need to put 
> forward $6,250 to sponsor one intern. If the project were to use 
> community funds for the internship or pulled together contributions 
> from multiple organizations, then Evergreen would be listed as the 
> sponsor on the OPW page. If one organization or company put forward 
> the funds for the sponsorship, then that organization/company would be 
> acknowledged as the sponsor.
>
> I think the next steps are to see:
>
> 1) if there is any will among the EOB to fund a sponsorship. Ideally, 
> I think it would be a good use of the community's funds, and, if the 
> project were successful, we could potentially use it as a target for 
> fundraising for future rounds. We have about $29,000 in community, 
> which is about the low point we typically see being between two 
> conferences.
>
> 2) If the EOB is willing to use community funds for the internship or 
> perhaps partially fund it while seeking sponsors for the remainder, we 
> would then need to reach out to the community to see what we might do 
> for potential projects and if there are any mentors willing to work 
> with the interns. In talking to the OPW folks, mentors typically spend 
> up to 5 hours per week working with the intern, though the hours tend 
> to be higher (sometimes up to 10 hours in a given week) during the 
> application period.
>
> We can continue discussion at the meeting. See you in a few minutes!
>
> Kathy
>
>