Mentoring has always been a big part of the OpenStack Community and the time has come for changes. Historically, the Women of OpenStack have owned and run the mentoring program that our community offers to new comers. However, in order to reach a wider audience and to remove any thoughts that the program was women only, we are looking to move the Long Term Mentoring program out from under the Women of OpenStack to a new home. Potential groups that already exist that could own/help manage it are: First Contact SIG or Diversity WG.
In addition to a new overlord, the format of the program itself could use updates. Previously, there was a 1 mentee to 1 mentor ratio that would often struggle for want of a defined goal and slow downs when the mentor would switch jobs or be on vacation. The proposed new format will use cohorts to mentor community members and help them to would require fewer overall mentors helping mentees work towards a defined common goal.
So what does this mean for you? We need one or more volunteers to help get the new program off the ground and oversee the new mentoring program. To be involved from the ground up- helping design what it should look like, what goals are, recruiting mentors and mentees- and continuing to support the program into the future.
