RepsNext - An idea for medium and medium-short grants

Reps
#1

Hi Reps,

The RepsNext is full steam ahead and I want to seed an idea for something that the previous (current?) Reps program can’t account for. I will divide this post in two sections, I will start with the context for this idea and then move on to how I believe we could have it at Mozilla.

Context

I have friends at the Wikimedia community and wikimedia foundation has more variety of ways to support their volunteers and projects that what Reps currently contemplates. Among their various processess, the grant process is something that I think we should implement.

In this process, volunteers who have a long term relationship with the foundation can apply for a grant to conduct a project. This is separate from events budget financing, these grants are made to be used in short/medium term projects, stuff lasting six months for example.

An example of this is type of project, check out wiki loves earth.

What we need at Mozilla RepsNext

Historically, the Reps project had ways of funding events and talk/workshop gigs. During the Reps Innovation Fund Process, there were ways of funding cheap hardware for very small projects. Those are all awesome but there is no way to conduct and finance longer projects, the Reps project is not only prepared for this type of task but the Reps themselves receive no training on how to conduct long/medium term projects.

We are very good at events, may they be talks, conferences, meetups, workshops, etc. Those are all very short, even when they last a week. We receive training on how to do all sorts of activities regarding this type of actions, both when the target audience is internal to the mozilla community and when we’re talking to the larger world. RepsNext is categorizing Reps into different slots (mostly mobilizers and functional-doers) and will provide better attention and care suited for each type of Rep, but we still don’t have a way of doing lengthier projects.

We need training for medium term

Reps need to be prepared to conduct longer projects. Mobilizers need to learn how to plan and act with coherence to a plan. We need to move beyond doing strings of unrelated events and punctual actions. Planning for medium and long term goes beyond doing OKRs and being accountable for receipts and social media posts and photos. We need new ways of mentoring and accountability if any form of long term is to be achieved.

We need procedures for medium-term grants

It is not feasible to think that we can treat medium-term projects with the same SOPs we treat event budgets. We need new methods and processes for applying, using and being accountable for grants.

We need to move beyond events

We need to start working on new kinds of projects beyond what can be collectively classified as events. Lengthier projects have a potential for more impact as we establish more meaningful relationships both internally in the community and externally in our regions. They also enable us to tackle harder problems and challenges, which is where I believe Mozilla is in a unique position to be awesome as no other entity covers so many topics online as we do (from advocacy, to browser engines).

I would welcome hearing what you think of this idea.

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#2

Oh my… amazing post! I completely agree with you on basically everything you said! This is IMHO definitely something we want to talk about for the future of Reps. Right now we are quite busy with getting “RepsNext” done, but this feels like the evolution of this idea. I would love to catch up on this idea once we are ready to implement more future ideas.

I’d love to hear what everyone else thinks right now though :slight_smile:

6 Likes
#3

Very informative @agarzia

1 Like
#4

Here is what I hear:

  • We need to support medium-term projects.

I like this! And I’d like to say:

  • Unfortunately, this sounds like a solution. What’s the (set of) problems we are trying to solve?
  • What makes you think that this wouldn’t be possible right now? Do we have evidence of budget requests for medium-term initiatives being rejected? To me (as a Reps Peer) it seems that our program would currently allow for such initiatives.

Once more, thank you @agarzia for raising this. That’s exactly the type of conversation we need to move the Reps program forward.

Onwards,
Henrik

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#5

I really like this post, thanks @agarzia :slight_smile:

I would like however to point out that we had and have a lot of campaigns in the past that we have supported on the mid long term. Just giving an example @biraj is doing a children literacy series of events while @prathamesh and @dvigneshwer with a lot of other folks are organizing the #RainofRust campaign.

So before as @hmitsch mentioned move to a solution let’s first identify the initiatives that are being blocked by our current system and how can we enable them.

Again thanks @agarzia for initiating this, I would love to hear other’s Reps thoughts as well.

3 Likes
#6

I don’t want to talk for Andre, so please don’t take my statement here as his reason.

IMHO this is completely possible nowadays in terms of Budget. We even have a 3rd bucket in the budget allocation to support this. However, I don’t think we have the resources to support Reps in succeeding with these kind of projects apart from the budget. We had a Business Canvas Model in use for Connected Devices community initiatives, but apart from that we are IMHO lacking resources to provide.

1 Like
#7

Friends,

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement and please forgive my future typos as I am writing on a mobile device.

As @mkohler said, I don’t believe the core of the problem is the budget allocation part but the peripherical activities that come along a longer project.

It is not about giving money. It is about the following items:

  • accountability. Longer projects need different forms of accountability in terms of processes, metrics and assessment of impact.
  • grant usage. Larger sums of money used for longer periods need different set of rules than what we have now. Ways of check and balance need to be in place if longer projects become more common.
  • project management. Reps need training for longer projects that are not tied to events. This alone is a great leadership path.
  • research. We need a way to survey and metrify impact on these projects that is more “storytelling” than “spreadsheet of data” where we can surface the human stories touched by a project.

It is not that it can’t be done now or that there is no Reps involved in longer term projects. This is a thread making a case that if we build a better framework for such projects, one that reduces friction and improves workflow, there projects will become more common.

And by reducing friction I don’t mean making it easier or reducing paperwork, I mean reduce confusion, making it easier for the Rep to have access to all materials for his training and a cohesive framework for conducting longer projects that are measurable, impactful and humane.

1 Like