# FMS 2025 Meeting Notes

> **GitLab Repo for FWD**: https://gitlab.com/fedora/dei/fedora-mentor-summit
>

---

## 2025-04-24

### Attendees
- Jona Azizaj
- Sumantro Mukherjee
- Akashdeep Dhar
- Luis Bazan
- Eduardo Javier Echeverria Alvarado
- Justin W. Wheeler

### Agenda

#### Mentor/Mentee Lunch Matching
- Following up on the action items from the previous week
- Need assignees for following up with the Fedora Localization folks
- Could be a good addition for FAQ
- https://matrix.to/#/!AvdNDVFawURfYTcTCi:fedoraproject.org/$MgYwiWSYd0bQO_AhBjVCSkMuj0K3q9Al3F2kuLHJujM?via=fedoraproject.org&via=fedora.im&via=matrix.org
- [@echevemaster assigned]

#### Social Networking at the Evening Social
- Following up on the action items from the previous week

#### Contributor Recognition Event
- Following up on the action items from the previous week
- Collaborate on the nomination process and timeline
- [@lbazan assigned]
- [@amitasharma assigned]
- Eligibility section needs attention for review
- [Everyone assigned]
- @everyone Names
1. Aurelien B. <I&R>
2. Kamil P. <Quality>
3. Ankur S. <Join>
4. Joseph G. <Marketing>
5. David C. <FESCO>
6. Madeline P. <Design>
7. Fabio V. <Packaging>
8. Petr B. <Docs>
9. Jona A. <DEI>
- Reaching out the names picked to check on their capacity
- [@gridhead assigned]
- @jonatoni We would like for the board to change going forward
- @gridhead Not a big deal observed if some folks are selected and some are not
- 16th May 2025 - Flock - Announcement for this
- Reach out to Aoife for a slot in the Fedora Linux 42 Release Party
- [@sumantrom assigned]
- @sumantrom Proposed timeline
- [30th May] Circulate the form
- [16th May] Close the nomination
- [26th May] Decision by release party
- [XXth June] Announce in Flock

---

## 2025-04-17

### Attendees
- Akashdeep Dhar
- Eduardo Javier Echeverria Alvarado
- Sumantro Mukherjee
- Smera Goel
- Jona Azizaj

### Agenda

#### Mentor/Mentee Lunch Matching
- Announcement has been posted and shared
- https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/mentor-mentee-lunch-matching-fedora-mentor-summit-flock-to-fedora-2025/148855
- Jona - We need to share this event more by having conversations around it
- [Everyone assigned]
- Jona - We need to discuss FAQ around the events so that we can clear confusions
- If it is in-person or open to virtual attendees?
- Timing? First day of Flock intended but can be expanded
- During the lunch time is intended
- Which areas are a part of this? Open to all topics?
- People can add multiple topics (for which they can be mentors or mentees)
- People can approach this as teams (but are at the liberty to go beyond it)
- [Akashdeep assigned]
- We are aiming for the visibility here among the community of contributors
- Reach out to the Fedora Design team to include guidelines / regulations as a fancy menu card thingy
- [Smera assigned]
- Eduardo - Can we share it beyond the Fedora Project channels?
- Jona - Yes, but the in-person presence is required
- Description for the schedule needs to be drafted
- [Eduardo assigned]

#### Social Networking at the Evening Social
- Fedora Design team has been reached out to by Akashdeep
- They have the capacity and the requirement has been specified
- https://gitlab.com/fedora/design/team/requests/-/issues/77
- Keep posted at the Fedora Design ticket and provide reviews as requested
- [Everyone assigned]
- Jona to JWW - How are timing blocks assigned to the Fedora Mentor Summit?
- We need to have a Fedora Mentor Summit visible on the Flock schedule
- Description for the schedule needs to be drafted
- [Akashdeep assigned]

#### Contributor Recognition Event
- Sumantro has reached out to Dorka
- She is travelling for an event organization
- We expect to hear back from her soon
- Akashdeep - How do we review the draft by Sumantro?
- Sumantro - Feel free to make in-place changes
- https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Sumantrom/Draft/FMS:Annual_Nomination
- Eligibility section needs attention for review
- [Everyone assigned]
- We need to be able to state how people can rate themselves (on self-nominations)
- Sumantro - How does the board evaluate which contributions are more valued as compared to another?
- Jona - It is favourable to not restrict folks to a certain area of contribution
- Akashdeep - We need to anonimize the board and should hail from different areas
- Sumantro - We might wanna have someone who does not necessarily hail from the Fedora Project?
- Jona - We need to restrict to just one person so as to ensure relevance
- Sumantro - Take odd number of members on the board to ensure that a tie does not ensue here
- JWW - Instead of people from teams, we should have people from varied skillsets / backgrounds
- Which teams or SIGs to get board members or nominations from?
- Akashdeep - Infra & Releng? Quality? Docs? Design? Packaging? Spins? Marketing?
- Sumantro - Favourable number is SEVEN - Including the DEI advisor and that leaves six places
- Akashdeep - We need not go to weeds of the evaluation and have folks nominate someone from their team
- Jona - Like Fedora Project Appreciation Week - People can nominate multiple and self
- Jona + Akashdeep - We should use a form instead of a wiki page
- Jona - We would rather not have the nominations public to avoid mishaps
- Akashdeep - There are possibilities of overriding edits - Bad concurrency
- JWW - Extra time might be required to learn LimeSurvey if we want to use that
- Akashdeep - Google forms might restrict folks who do not have a Google account
- Create a Google form for submitting nominations from the Fedora Wiki draft
- [Sumantro assigned]
- Deadline for the form?
- Sumantro suggested that we debut the form at the Release Party
- Liaison for collaborating on the schedule for Flock To Fedora 2025 with Aoife
- [Sumantro assigned]

---

## 2025-04-10

### Attendees
- Jona Azizaj
- Eduardo Javier Echeverria Alvarado
- Amita Sharma
- Sumantro Mukherjee
- Akashdeep Dhar
- Justin W. Wheeler
- Smera Goel
- Luis Bazan

### Agenda

- Eduardo needs to be added to the document
- PROPOSAL. Open up the document for viewing - Restricted editing
- +1 Eduardo voted
- +1 Sumantro voted

#### Contributor Recognition Event
- Jona and Justin discussed about the budgetting for the giveaways / swags
- There is no separate budget for this - Zero budget
- We need to get creative with the giveaways / swags
- Short timeline for the announcement of the winners
- AGREED -> Amita suggested the use of Fedora Badges for the winners
- AGREED -> Amita suggested that the winners to facilitated on the stage
- Jona mentioned challenges with respect to people being present in person
- AGREED -> Sumantro suggested for a magazine post for the winners
- +1 Akashdeep voted
- +1 Luis voted
- +1 Justin voted
- +1 Jona voted
- +1 Amita voted
- Sumantro worked on the contributor award drafted
- https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User:Sumantrom/Draft/FMS:Annual_Nomination
- To include examples of community achievements in the draft
- ACTION ITEM -> Review the draft that Sumantro worked on and provide feedback
- [Everyone assigned]
- Eduardo suggested to use the Flock page to promote the winners
- Specifically faces to recognize the winners per year
- -1 Luis voted
- ACTION ITEM -> Work on deciding the timeline for the nomination voting
- [Amita Sharma assigned]
- [Luis Bazan assigned]

#### Social Networking at the Evening Social
- For the people who are interested, what can be the stickers?
- Do we have something already or something that we need print separately?
- Amita suggests that the printing could cost extra budgetting
- +1 Akashdeep voted
- Justin mentions that there is a small budget for swags at Flock
- Pretty similar to the one at CHAOSScon EU
- Unpersonalized stickers (Non-Fedora specific) could help save costs
- Discussion with the design team is required by the NEXT TWO WEEKS
- Someone needs to collaborate with the design team on this
- Sumantro suggests the use of a sticky note with a certain word
- Personalized word + Lanyard color could define matching
- Assuming green lanyard havers would wanna interact with folks
- Jona suggested that we would prefer not to do it at registration
- TODO -> Akashdeep wants to take up the collaboration with the design team
- [Akashdeep assigned] -> INFORM BY THE WEDNESDAY NEXT WEEK
- We have the assets ready for the likes of mascots like Colur,
- JWW: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/_attachments/brand-book-revised-2024.pdf
- JWW: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/design/resources/
- Raffle arrangement (Could it be possible?)
- Jona suggested the use of 3 (or 5) distinct items that people can win
- This has to be exclusive but not something that is given to all attendees
- Could be Red Hat swags as well
- TODO -> Get in touch with Dorka with respect to the availability of swags
- [Sumantro assigned]

#### Mentor/Mentee Lunch Matching

- Drafts available for the post and guidelines
- Jona suggested going through the draft during the meeting
- Akashdeep worked on Discussion post
- https://gitlab.com/fedora/dei/fedora-mentor-summit/-/issues/14#note_2443798350
- Akashdeep worked on Regulations for matching
- https://gitlab.com/fedora/dei/fedora-mentor-summit/-/issues/14#note_2443798848
- Smera worked on Guidelines for event
- https://gitlab.com/fedora/dei/fedora-mentor-summit/-/issues/14#note_2444589193
- Suggestions
- For Akashdeep
- Jona suggested moving down the group selfie part from the regulations
- Jona suggested shortening it down to bullet points for readability
- Eduardo asked what if someone who is experienced wants to be a mentee?
- Jona suggested that we would want to have interested topics for folks
- The interested folks can be grouped together using these topics
- The photography parts are suggested to be excluded + WE NEED DEADLINE
- How do we collect their email? Photography preferences can be in DMs
- Jona suggested the creation of a Matrix room for collaboration
- ACTION ITEM -> Send the final draft over to Signal
- [Akashdeep assigned]
- ACTION ITEM -> If finalized, post the draft on Discussions
- [Akashdeep assigned]
- ACTION ITEM -> Help Akashdeep cross post the Discussion
- [Eduardo assigned]
- Deciding on a deadline for the collection of names
- Jona suggested the mid of May (eg. 16 May 2025)
- Sumantro suggested the first week of May (eg. 7 May 2025)
- AGREED - Initial deadline is 7th and next deadline is 16th
- ACTION ITEM -> Review the guidelines by Smera
- [Everyone assigned]
- Sumantro suggested that we talk about our efforts during F42 Release Party
- +1 Jona agreed
- +1 Akashdeep agreed

---

## Mentor / Mentee Lunch Matching

### <Le Announcement>

Flock To Fedora is all about contributors coming together - sharing ideas, collaborating thoughts and building connections in the community. As a part of the Fedora Mentor Summit 2025 proceedings, we are organizing a Mentor/Mentee Lunch Matching session. Participants can avail the chance to share delicious meals and interesting stories with other mentors and mentees of the community.

#### Before the event

- Interested folks are encouraged to comment below so that they are added to the participant pool
- Let us know about your interested role (mentor or mentee) and your topics of interest for matching
- Please take until 09th May 2025 to let us know about your participation preferences in comments
- Communicate your social preferences to organizers privately (Eg. conversations, photography etc.)

#### During the event

- We will create groups with equal numbers of participants in mentor and mentee roles for meals
- We will try to achieve the best possible matching but it can be changed if requested in advance
- Participants are encouraged to be open to changes in role (mentor or mentee) for equal matching
- Sharing and gathering of experiences is encouraged with other participants over at the table

#### Why to participate

Staying true to the friends foundation of the Fedora Project, the Mentor/Mentee Lunch Matching provides you the chance to walk away from the dining table with an eager mentee to share ideas with and an inspirational mentor to learn things from. Not just that, if you share a group selfie with the folks you are dining with - you can also get yourself a shiny Fedora Badge to commemorate the event!

### <Le regulations>

- Interested participants are to comment under the discussion thread with their preferred role
- Participants might be moved over to another role to balance the count of mentors and mentees
- Interested participants are suggested to be open to conversations and photography in the event
- Share the group selfie with (Akashdeep, Smera, Eduardo, Nikita) to avail the Fedora Badge
- Attempts would be made to make matchings across disciplines and regions to enhance experience
- In case of an unsuitable matching, please connect with (Akashdeep, Smera, Eduardo, Nikita)

### <Le guidelines>

- Smera Goel assigned

## 2025-04-03

### Participants
- Jona Azizaj
- Sumantro Mukherjee
- Luis Bazan
- Akashdeep Dhar

### Agenda

#### Contributor Recognition Event

- Luis' idea for
- https://gitlab.com/fedora/dei/fedora-mentor-summit/-/issues/16#note_2421304667
- Sumantro onboarded onto the idea by Jona after being added by Akashdeep
- Mentors do not have to be official mentors and can be folks from Join SIG etc. too
- TODO - Devise on a criteria to decide who gets the award and how many folks to recognize
- Luis Bazan assigned
- Sumantro Mukherjee assigned
- Akashdeep suggested the name "Friends Award" for awarding mentors but might be too general for just mentors
- Jona suggested that people can use a form to nominate folks where folks can also nominate even themselves too
- Sumantro suggested that we should let Aoife know if we want to use the Elections platform for nominations
- Luis mentioned that it can difficult if we let FESCo, Council or Board decide on who gets selected
- Sumantro suggested that we can have one nomination from every SIG and subteam as mentors are everywhere
- Jona mentions here disagreement as there can be times where a certain team can have repeated awardees
- Jona suggests having either a Wiki page where people can nominate folks + REASONS and a board can give points
- TODO - We need a guess-timate of budget before we can propose the award offering to provide folks
- Jona Azizaj assigned
- Sumantro recommended Plaque can be provided to folks (More quantity means less amount) that win
- +1 Akashdeep voted
- We can also create a virtual badge on the platform - Depends on winners or runner-ups
- Akashdeep suggested that we can maybe use Discussion thread for proposals and use reactions
- Sumantro mentioned that the previous one year of active participation is mandatory for nomination
- Akashdeep suggested that we should have different badges for folks who are runnerups + winners

### Social Networking at the Evening Social

- Luis suggested that we can have during the all four days of the total conference
- Increased reach by providing folks with stickers when they register for the Flock event
- Jona to meet with Justin in regards to the what themes to pursue for the networking
- Akashdeep asks - How is this any different than the hallway track?
- Jona mentions - Conversation is exclusive to folks with the same sticker
- Not with anyone that you choose
- The way it was done in GitHub Maintainers Social was two folks with the same sticker would head to the registration
- Sumantro mentioned stickers are to be provided to folks with GREEN color in it - i.e. they would be willing to talk
- We have to probably excluse the RED color i.e. they are not willing to talk but have a tolerance for the YELLOW / ORANGE
- Guidelines are to be mentioned about the willingness to interact - If YELLOW / ORANGE folks decline it, people gotta understand
- The event draft needs to be edited to include folks from GREEN, YELLOW and ORANGE - barring the RED folks only

### Mentor/Mentee Lunch Matching

- Akashdeep has added a draft
- https://gitlab.com/fedora/dei/fedora-mentor-summit/-/issues/14#note_2432645102
- TODO - Help devise the way the mentors and mentees are found and matched
- [Akashdeep assigned]
- Jona suggested to have it instead a form - We could use Fedora Discussions
- Areas of interests to be listed which can be helped for matching of mentors/mentees
- Participation role has to be exclusive
- In case we have one more than the other
- Sumantro suggested that we have primary / secondary role
- TODO - Devise guidelines with the mentors and mentees can share conversation
- [Smera Goel assigned]

---

## 2025-03-19

### Participants
- jona azizaj (chair)
- amita sharma
- akashdeep dhar (secretary)
- eduardo javier echeverria alvarado
- smera goel
- nikita tripathi

### Meeting Agenda
https://gitlab.com/fedora/dei/fedora-mentor-summit/-/issues

1. Mentor/Mentee Lunch Matching [Eduardo, Akashdeep, Nikita, Smera]
2. Social Networking at the Evening Social [Smera, Akash, Eduardo]
3. Contributor Recognition Event [Amita, Luis]

### Minutes
- general
- we have proposals for the fedora mentor summit track but not as many as before
- how do we prefer to have to meetings - do we wanna have one call for all or divided?
- !AGREED to have one meeting for all topics due to the overlap of topics
- 20 minutes assigned to each part - 60 minutes in total
- three kinds of sessions - we would like to have
1. Mentor/Mentee Lunch Matching
- make use of the presence of fedora mentoring alums
- division of groups can be discussed later on
- one mentor and one mentee pairing should be ideal
- we can use a wiki page for collating mentors/mentees
- but that has to be done in advance for participation
2. Social Networking at the Evening Social
- inspired from the github maintainers social from fosdem 2025
- different stickers were provided to attendees in the event
- similar stickers decided the matching in a social event
- people are encouraged to meet new folks and exit comfort zone
- we want to have this kind of connection within fedora project
3. Contributor Recognition Event
- inspired from gnome thanks award
- encourages people and incentivizes mentors to contribute further
- we can have a nomination period like a couple of months before
- we can have a board of folks who make the selection happen
- !TASK visit https://gitlab.com/fedora/dei/fedora-mentor-summit and add your ideas/proposals
- jona
- discussed with justin in the fedora mentoring issue tracker
- we would like to have a workshop like approach to take advantage of the in-person nature
- we need to have at least a couple of folks per session for participation
- the first call is for ensuring that we have assignees per event that we planned
- !TASK one hour long call in a weekly cadence
- eduardo
- would the division of mentor and mentee for the matching be decided in advance?
- by when would the final ideas would be decided for the fedora mentor summit?
- volunteering for mentor/mentee lunch matching and social network at the evening social
- amita
- how do we choose people to award during the contributor recognition event?
- how many folks do we plan on recognizing during the third event?
- volunteering for the contributor recognition event
- akashdeep
- participation for mentor/mentee lunch matching and social network at the evening social

### Open floor

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