This page describes the key phases of the Ambassador life cycle from the moment an individual applies to become an Ambassador to the moment they leave the program.
This is when a person applies to join the program and fills out the Ambassadors Application Form.
The applicant receives an automatic email response upon submitting the form informing him/her that a member of the A-Team will get back to them within the next 72 hours. Internally, a member of the A-Team is assigned to review the application.
Q & A:
How do we determine who is assigned to review the application?
Andrea administers the applications and assigns to an A-Team member based on his region (eg. if applicant is from Asia, application will probably be assigned to Charles or Jian)
The application review can take up to 1 week. A member of the A-Team carefully reviews the application and can consult with the A-Team for feedback or guidance. Once the assessment is made, the reviewer contacts the applicant for a short interview.
Q&A:
How do we determine who from the A-Team should review and follow-up with the applicant?
person reviewing application is also person follow-up with applicant
Is 1 week enough time or too long?
we first start with 1 week to review, and we will decide if this is appropriate moving forward based on feedback from reviewers
Once the application has been reviewed and the applicant is considered to have enough experience and the right motivations to become an Ambassador, the A-Team sets up a short interview where the applicant is asked a set of questions, mostly technical, on ONOS and CORD, depending on the applicant’s areas of focus
Q&A:
How long should the interview be?
recommended length of interview is 15-30 min but it ultimately depends on interviewer. What is most important is that interviewer gets to ask the necessary questions to make a sound decision afterwards.
Should the interview be by video conference or by instant messaging?
video conference is strongly recommended
How many people from the A-Team should be interviewing an applicant? One? Several?
1 person interviewing is enough, for now. We can always revisit this later .
Once the interview is over, the A-Team deliberates and decides if the applicant should be accepted into the Ambassadors Program.
Once a decision has been made, the A-Team contacts the applicant to inform him/her that they have been accepted into the program or that they have NOT been accepted into the program in which case they are encouraged to re-apply once they have more experience in the project
Q&A:
What criteria should the vetting of the applicant be based on?
The criteria should be as detailed on the wiki :
1) passionate about the ONOS project
2) knowledgeable of the ONOS mission and computer networking in general
3) keen to engage with and inspire new people to contribute ONOS
4) Applicant has expressed a strong willingness to learn and acquire new skills
How long does the A-Team have to decide on whether to approve/reject an applicant
Suggested time to review and make a decision on an applicant is 5 days.
If rejected, how much time should an applicant wait before re-applying
An applicant should wait 2 months before re-applying, which gives him/her enough time to brush up knowledge of ONOS/CORD
How is the decision made ? Using what tool?
if interviewer wants to reject an application, he/she needs to write a short summary of interview and share with A-Team so it can vote via a Slack Poll. The A-team has 72 hours to vote.
Should there be a unanimous vote from the A-Team? A majority vote?
Vote should be a majority vote (ie. at least 4 votes favorable).
Can an applicant appeal the decision? If so, how?
Applicant can appeal by sending an email to the A-Team and the A-Team has 1 week to re-assess the decision.
Once the Ambassador officially joins the program, that’s when the fun begins. A “mentor” is assigned to him/her for a 1 month onboarding period during which a mentor is on point to help the ambassador become familiar with the program and their responsibilities, but also provide any type of guidance and support necessary.
During the onboarding phase, the new Ambassador must create his/her profile page and go through some mandatory training and reading, as advised by his/her mentor.
Q&A:
How is the mentor selected?
Before assigning a mentor to an Ambassador, the administrator of the program should consult an A-Team member to see if he/she is OK to mentor.
Is a mentor assigned to a Ambassador indefinitely?
A mentor is a mentor for life :-)
Is one month of onboarding enough?
1 month of onboarding is the recommended duration.
Are the readings and trainings for the onboarding mandatory?
The mentor needs to strongly encourage the ambassador to go through the list of required readings and turorials that all ambassadors need to go through once they have joined the program
Once the onboarding period is over, the Ambassadors is expected to fly with his/her own wings and start fulfilling their four core responsibilities as Ambassadors:
represent the ONOS team locally/regionally
promote the ONOS project and our mission
inspire, recruit and support new contributors
document clearly all his/her activities
As a way to ensure that the Ambassador is effectively supported and that the A-Team has full visibility on the Ambassadors’ activities, needs, and concerns, a monthly check-in is held between the Ambassador and his/her mentor.
Q&A:
How frequent should the check-in be?
Monthly check-ins seems to be an appropriate frequency
What is the minimum accepted level of activity of an Ambassador?
The ambassador needs to have accomplished at least 1 activity that touches on one of the four areas of responsibility (as described on the Ambassador wiki) every month.
What happens if Ambassador has not been active since the last check-in?
If an ambassador has not been active in more than a month, his/her mentor needs to send him/her a gentle reminder to be active. If after two reminders, Ambassador is still not active, then he/she should be removed from the program. Of course, if an Ambassador anticipates that he/she will be inactive for a while, he/she should notify their mentor.
There are two scenarios whereby the Ambassador leaves the program: an ambassador can either voluntarily leave the program at any time or be asked to leave the program after an extended period of time of inactivity. In case of the former, the Ambassador needs to formally inform the A-Team by email that he/she wishes to leave the program.
In case of the latter, the A-Team needs to inform the Ambassador that he/she has been inactive for an extended period of time and therefore must be removed from the program.
Q&A:
How do we define “extended” period of time?
If ambassador has been inactive for 3 months without providing any explanation to A-Team then the ambassador must be removed from the program.
Can the ambassador appeal the decision?
The Ambassador can appeal the decision to remove him/her and the A-Team has 1 week to re-assess its decision.
What if an Ambassador plans to be inactive for say, 6 months, but then plans to return
This is an edge case and will be decided on a case-by-case basis by the A-Team
Once the Ambassador has left the program, does his/her profile page remain but clearly shows that he/she is no longer active or is it simply removed ?