[RFC] - Mentoring program

[Scott Kitterman]

On Friday 08 February 2008 17:32, Mathias Gug wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 08, 2008 at 04:46:43PM -0500, Nicolas Valcarcel wrote:
> > On Fri, 2008-02-08 at 12:56 -0500, Scott Kitterman wrote:
> > > I would go a bit further and suggest that while a mentor can help their
> > > mentee get changes sponsored (where this is relevant), they may not
> > > sponsor themselves.
> > >
> > > This enourages integration with the team and avoids putting mentor in
> > > the position of having to say no to ther mentee and potentially harm
> > > that relationship if they are unable to sponsor.
> > >
> > > Scott K
> >
> > This idea has a +1 for me, but i want to add some comments about. The
> > new contributors (people who start contributing) most of the time are
> > exited to start helping and they want to start NOW, no after reading the
> > minimal documentation needed, so the mentors should limit themselves on
> > putting goals to their mentees, and show them where to find the
> > documentation about what they are trying to do, not just saying what to
> > do and think for them or do for them. The mentors should just be with
> > the mentees and help them to find his/her way, not to walk with them by
> > the hand.
> >
> > About what Scott mentioned there should also be a policy of the mentors
> > to not sponsors their mentees work, first for the thing he has said, and
> > second because most of the time the mentors help the mentees to make the
> > patches/fixes so they can not recheck they mentees work thinking that
> > he/she has made exactly what they have been told to do and the correct
> > way, so there can be little errors or mischecked changes uploaded.
>
> That raises the point of being reactive at the very beginning. The first
> impression counts. So I'd suggest that the first (and second ?) upload
> should be done by the mentor to get things going. It also removes the
> need to read about the Sponsorship process - understanding the whole
> packaging environment is already complicated.
>
> Once the first upload is done, the mentor should redirect to the
> sponsorship process and the MOTU ressources for further help.

Sounds reasonable to me.

Scott K