[REPORT] Community Development

[Ross Gardler <rg...@apache.org>]

Status report for the Apache Community Development Project

Project Status
--------------

The Community Development Project is starting to ramp up again after the 
Google Summer of Code efforts. We have merged the
women@a.o list into the dev@community.a.o and are commencing work on 
rolling out the mentoring program.

No issues require board attention at this time.

Community
---------

The women@a.o mailing list has been closed and an autoresponder inviting 
people to post to dev@community.a.o has been set up. The vote to merge 
the women@a.o list was passed unaminously. One, previously unknown, 
community member voted -1 (non-binding). However, the owners of the 
women@.a.o list reassured the ComDev PMC that the list had been largely 
unsuccesful in meeting the  defined objectives and welcomed the 
opportunity to work with the ComDev PMC in ensuring that the successes 
of women in the ASF are duly recognised.

The local mentors program and local speakers program both continue to 
grow. We now have 53 local mentors, and 27 local speakers. If 
discussions on them on foundation-wide lists is anything to go by, they 
continue to be of use!

Interest is growing in the mentoring programme with a number of 
enquiries to the development list. Ross Gardler reports that there will 
be between 10 and 40 students approaching the ASF for mentoring as part 
of their formal education in September. The draft process is already 
[defined|http://community.apache.org/mentoringprogramme.html] and will 
be refined during August in consulation with interested PMCs.

There was one appeal from a GSoC student that failed in the mid-term 
evaluation. This was examined by both Google and the ASF admins. It was 
felt the mentors decision was fair and that our selection process was 
not at fault. A minor tweak relating to the communication of our 
expectations to the students has been implemented. Full details can be 
reviewed at http://markmail.org/thread/dsn6v2dagrm5nv7q

Objectives for next period
--------------------------

* Gain support from at least 5 PMCs for the mentoring programme
* Launch the mentoring programme in September (no press at this stage)