In the past times the Fedora Ambassadors Program had some issues, which made the Ambassadors Team feel disheartened and discouraged. This caused the Mindshare Committee to step up and to gather community input to improve the Ambassadors Program, which gave birth to the Fedora Ambassadors revamp proposal and to create a temporary taskforce which would work on the plan of action in the proposal.

If you would like to apply to volunteer, you can comment on the Pagure ticket with your FAS ID.

Summary for the Fedora Ambassadors Revamp Proposal

I’ve prepared this proposal as a result of many public discussions around the state of the Fedora Ambassador Program. After hearing you loud and clear, I have attempted to create a new structure that includes ALL the roles that previously existed, without removing any. The proposal includes a plan on how to get us from where we are currently to where and what we could be. I have attempted at every turn to simplify, and to make use of what we already have in place.

The main change the proposal makes is that CommOps will be reinvigorated as an umbrella organization for Advocates, Ambassadors, and Ambassadors Emeritus. These groups are all focused on Community Outreach, and as we all know, the overlaps can be frustrating. The refreshed CommOps Team will encompass all of these groups to ensure we are working together in a smart and efficient way moving forward.

Change is hard. Let’s take all the energy we have over the frustration and point it at this evolution. Let’s embrace that we are a community that welcomes change and we are able to overcome the growing pains. I have put a lot of my own energy into this proposal, and had a couple folks give some bits of first feedback so I don’t eat dirt after publishing it. Please read it with an open mind, and hopefully you will be as excited as I am about the future!

Marie Nordin (riecatnor), FCAIC

Ambassadors history

Historically, the Fedora Ambassadors program has been very successful in creating awareness about Fedora Project and ensuring the public’s understanding of Fedora’s principles and the work that Fedora does.
As the program has grown, it caused some issues which had it’s effects on the project. This has resulted in the Ambassadors Team to feel disheartened, unappreciated and discouraged.

Beyond the history, COVID-19 is changing how the world works. We would like to embrace and potentially lead on digital advocacy as we move forward.

Why the change

We want the Fedora community’s most enthusiastic contributors to feel empowered to represent the Fedora project in their local communities and online, proactively recruit new members, and enjoy a sense of camaraderie with similarly enthusiastic contributors.

We hope to reinvigorate the program in a modern way and inspire new forms of ambassadorship in the larger FOSS community.

Task force for the change

As the change is taking place we have a plan of action in place. We are organizing a Temporary task force under the Mindshare Committee. Ideally, the team would be made of 6-10 folks. Members should dedicate 2-3 hours a week (1 hour for meeting, 1-2 hours for work) around 6 months. Tasks will include:

• Identify active and inactive Ambassadors by following the process outlines that will be provided by the Mindshare Committee
• Clean up membership by moving inactive members of the Ambassadors group to Ambassadors Emeritus status. This allows us to have an understanding of the current state of Ambassadors
• Create handbooks for each role within the CommOps team that can be updated and improved in the future
• Update, formalize, and document process for the 3 seats on the Mindshare Committee.

To volunteer for the task force, The Mindshare Committee has a ticket active for people to apply to volunteer. The Ambassadors Revamp Proposal can be found on the wiki.