Over the past months we have extensively worked on the future of the Reps program – called RepsNext. In several working groups we worked on proposals to improve the Reps program, keeping up with the Mozilla’s and our Reps’ needs. Following the RepsNext Introduction Video this blog post provides a broad overview of the various focus areas and invites further conversation.

RepsNext – The Visual Structure

Here is a visual overview of the RepsNext structure:

With RepsNext there will be three different tracks to be specialized in:

Functional Goals

Leadership

Resources

The Functional Goals track is still work-in-progress, so we cannot provide a lot of information yet. We believe this will be a group of Reps who are heavily engaged in Mozilla’s functional areas.

Reps from the Leadership track support other Mozillians and communities through their broad knowledge. Reps in this track will regularly exchange information among themselves, creating alignment among the various functional goals in the Reps program.

For all resource requests there is a dedicated Resources track which is specialized on increasing the program’s impact. The Review team, which is part of this track, is responsible to review budget requests.

Finally, every Rep will have a coach who has strong leadership skills and can provide guidance on Reps’ personal development.

Through this structure Reps from all specialization tracks can work together towards the overall Reps and Participation goals, each Rep contributing with their particular strengths to advance Mozilla’s mission.

What are we going to improve in the Reps program?

Let’s compare the current state of the Reps program with the proposed improvements.

Area Current Future Alignment with Mozilla There are no formal alignment processes with the Mozilla organization The Reps Program is aligned with the Participation team’s OKRs. Council members participate in important planning and strategy meetings Budget Request Reviews All Reps can submit budget requests, leading to a lot of ping pong when reviewing those Reps can specialize on “Resources” and file requests aligned for impact. This leads to faster reviews Reps Activities Reps are mostly focused on running events in their communities Reps will be able to specialize in a certain topic (Resources, Leadership, Functional areas) Mentoring Mentors are busy with Budget Request reviews Mentors will be focusing on personal development, no need to do budget reviews anymore (but you can be part of the Resources track) Leadership Leadership has been part of Reps since its very beginning, it was not formally nurtured very well With the Leadership track we enable Reps’ personal development and develop their leadership potential for them to expand impact on their fellow Mozillians

Moving forward

We plan to go into more detail for each of the above mentioned areas in future blog posts. In order to prioritize and invest our (volunteering) energy in the most impactful way, we need your help: Which of the above areas are you most interested in? Where do you want to hear more in the next blog post? Which concerns do you have? What do you find intriguing?

Please let us know in Discourse and we aim to come up with an article answering to all your questions in a timely manner.