Effective Communication

[Lawrence Kisuuki]

It is so sad that up to now, we are still making abrupt decisions and we
don't inform the people affected. We put time into what we do, so please
make an effort to inform us in advance. Some of these decisions affect our
planning, they tarnish our names and are draw backs.

Not to start an argument but this is something we all really need to think
about. Thanks.



*Regards,*

*Lawrence*
*Lead MozFestEA*

[Benjamin Kerensa]

+1 more transparency in decision making would be great but don't just
inform us make us a participant in the decision making.

It seems like decision making has become less open and less radical since
CBT disbanded.

Just saying.


On Mar 28, 2015 8:29 PM, "Lawrence Kisuuki" <lawr...@mozilla-uganda.org>
wrote:

>
> It is so sad that up to now, we are still making abrupt decisions and we
don't inform the people affected. We put time into what we do, so please
make an effort to inform us in advance. Some of these decisions affect our
planning, they tarnish our names and are draw backs.
>
> Not to start an argument but this is something we all really need to
think about. Thanks.
>

> Regards,
>
> Lawrence
> Lead MozFestEA
>
> _______________________________________________
> Community-building mailing list
> Community...@mozilla.org
> https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/community-building
>

[Elio Qoshi]

Is there any< specific event which made you think that? Just to have some background info.

Elio Qoshi

Founder at ura
Board Member at Open Labs
Representative at Mozilla
E: pi...@elioqoshi.me
M: +355672775433


> Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2015 20:47:10 -0700
> From: bker...@gmail.com
> To: community...@mozilla.org
> CC: reps-g...@lists.mozilla.org; webm...@lists.mozilla.org; reps-m...@lists.mozilla.org
> Subject: Re: [Reps-General] [CBT] Effective Communication

> _______________________________________________
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> https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/reps-general
> https://wiki.mozilla.org/ReMo/SOPs/Mailing_List_Policy

[Robert Kaiser]

Lawrence Kisuuki schrieb:

> It is so sad that up to now, we are still making abrupt decisions and we
> don't inform the people affected. We put time into what we do, so please
> make an effort to inform us in advance. Some of these decisions affect our
> planning, they tarnish our names and are draw backs.

For one thing, addressing this to multiple lists is probably not a good
idea, gives it the impression of venting by spamming the most people
possible.

That said, it would be helpful if you clarify what groups you mean by
the different occurrences of "we" in this paragraph. I think you mean at
least two different things with "we" there.

KaiRo

[Mark Surman]

Lawrence, can you say more about the decisions you're referring to? And what impact they're having?

Happy to talk in a side thread if that is easier.

Ms

Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 28, 2015, at 11:28 PM, Lawrence Kisuuki <lawr...@mozilla-uganda.org> wrote:
>
> It is so sad that up to now, we are still making abrupt decisions and we don't inform the people affected. We put time into what we do, so please make an effort to inform us in advance. Some of these decisions affect our planning, they tarnish our names and are draw backs.
>

[Lawrence Kisuuki]

@Benjamin true transparency, collaboration and advance information is
critical.

@Elio yes, but describing the event would mean me talking about one of the
actual decisions which by way of things I feel it is not my place or
authority to do so. I'm sure those meant to will maybe do so since I've
reached out to them as well.

@KaiRo on the contrary, this is not a vent, if it was I would've pointed
fingers and gone on a rage but rather I carefully selected the lists. Reps
& webmaker because the decision involves and affects them greatly, Mentors
because they're the reps leaders who can help fix part of it, the CBT list
because that's where we usually discuss #community building issues but you
must agree there are few reps in it. If you put 2&2 together, you might
already have got a small idea of the case in point. That's why there are no
country specific mailing lists nor functional ones. #transparency

This topic is intended to find a solution as well as to encourage that we
all as Mozillians work together on communicating and planning, because we
are a team.

Regards,

Lawrence
Lead MozFestEA

Sent from mobile. Watching every step so I don't trip, please forgive any
typos.
Lawrence Kisuuki schrieb:

> It is so sad that up to now, we are still making abrupt decisions and we
> don't inform the people affected. We put time into what we do, so please
> make an effort to inform us in advance. Some of these decisions affect our
> planning, they tarnish our names and are draw backs.
>

For one thing, addressing this to multiple lists is probably not a good
idea, gives it the impression of venting by spamming the most people
possible.

That said, it would be helpful if you clarify what groups you mean by the
different occurrences of "we" in this paragraph. I think you mean at least
two different things with "we" there.

KaiRo

[Majken Connor]

It will be impossible to find a solution without more context. It is
valuable to use a specific example so that people can brainstorm specific
solutions, and see if they are making the same mistakes in other areas with
other projects.

I agree that without context it sounds like venting - venting doesn't have
to be angry or involved, it's not the same as ranting. Without context all
we can do is offer emotional support, not practical solutions.

[Lawrence Kisuuki]

Well I don't mind if they call it venting... The council will make a
communication about it all soon, so I leave that to them.

Regards,

Lawrence
Lead MozFestEA

Sent from mobile. Watching every step so I don't trip, please forgive any
typos.

[Moses Echodu]

Hello all,
I have seen Lawrence's email and I am one such victim of the said decision.
I was at One of the schools where we attended to over 150 students who were
superbly enjoying the Webmaker clubs activities that we had in package for
them. Quite interesting is that so many joined the appmaker and want to
learn how to develop apps for the Firefox OS. And by the end of day,
another group of over 50 students came running to be part of the club.

But that is besides the point of discussion here. The most important thing
is that if a decision is to be effected please give us the reps
notification of at least one month and let us prepare adequately. We fight
so hard to build the name of the communities here locally so that we can do
activities that in the long run benefit Mozilla as a foundation. Now if we
start back tracking our plans because a decision was made and immediately
effected then we end up cancelling events, the individuals and the
community are looked at as people who should be trusted and also this later
on in one way or the other comes to affect Mozilla Foundation.

For me I would really love that we develop effective and timely
communication of decisions that have been made.



Regards,

Moses Echodu
Gen-Open-ug | newslibre.com | Mozilla-Uganda

[ankit gadgil]

Dear Lawrence, Moses and Reps,

On behalf of Reps Council I want to address some concerns expressed by
Lawrence. First of all: we made a mistake on communications and we want to
apologize for the rushed and erroneous messages on the wrong channels. We
understand why the message felt frustrating, because our intention was the
opposite to what was conveyed.

The Council is currently working on finding new ways to empower Reps to
have impact, and part of this is to rethink the way we plan events. Despite
communication in Budgets to the opposite, we haven't made any decisions
regarding how to review Webmaker & Hive budgets. Instead, we want to begin
a transparent and rigorous process with all stakeholders to be more
thoughtful and strategic with how we disperse funds.

At the core we want to ensure that Reps are having impact and that their
efforts are amplified. That means that we’re looking to partner with
functional teams at Mozilla to make sure that we help Reps identify the
best ways to contribute to the Mozilla mission. Since Reps and Webmaker
have a successful partnership we wanted to start with the Webmaker team.

In addition to working with functional teams we want to make sure that
we’re empowering Reps by providing more tools and resources to be
successful. We understand that the process for planning an event can be
frustrating since a lot of the feedback comes at the very last minute. We
want to make sure that we provide more useful guidance earlier on the
planning process and that Reps are empowered to plan strategically along
with functional teams.

We will be testing a new training module on strategic planning next week.
We would love to get your feedback and would really welcome your help
shaping this curriculum and thinking how to better our processes. Please
reach out to us if you want to get involved.

We hope that this can turn into an opportunity to work together on making
the Reps program a platform for empowering Mozillians on every level!

​

*Regards​​,**Ankit Gadgil.*

*Mozilla Reps Council Chair <https://reps.mozilla.org/u/ankitgadgil>​​on
behalf of the Reps Council​​*
​.​



On Sun, Mar 29, 2015 at 11:16 PM, Moses Echodu <mec...@mozilla-uganda.org>
wrote:

> _______________________________________________
> webmaker mailing list
> webm...@lists.mozilla.org
> https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/webmaker
>

[Michelle Thorne]

Dear all,

On behalf of the Mozilla Learning Networks team, I just wanted to follow up
with Ankit’s message with a bit of context from our perspective.

Building on the success of Maker Party, we saw a need to focus efforts on
sustaining local activity in 2015. This means emphasizing long-term,
deepened engagement in a city. These plans were development here:
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Webmaker/2015 and blogged about here:
http://michellethorne.cc/category/mozilla/clubs/.

As leaders in Mozilla, individual Reps are some of the greatest drivers for
teaching the web. The partnership between Reps & Webmaker goes back many
years -- and we want to ensure we stay well aligned and supportive of each
other.

There is a ton of Webmaker activity led by Reps. That is brilliant. It
shows our partnership is working.

However, there are also a lot of budgets flying around, and a healthy
community should check in regularly on how resources are being allocated.

As we focus on deepening and sustaining engagement in a city, a budget
review should ask: are these funds enabling and empowering local leaders?
Are we investing in local learners, so they can grow and deepen their
knowledge overtime? Are we finding local resources and offsetting core
costs through smart partnerships? How does this activity fuel a broader
strategic effort in a city?

I’m looking forward to a transparent assessment of how budgets are granted
for Webmaker activities. I’m following the Council’s lead on how to best go
about that discussion. They, like all of us, know that to be successful, we
need to think out loud and ensure everyone’s perspective is accounted for.

Also like all of us, I know the Council is working hard to do what’s best
for the mission. Let’s keep up the good collaboration!

Michelle Thorne

--
*Michelle Thorne*
Director, Webmaker Programs
Mozilla Foundation

@thornet
mich...@mozillafoundation.org

[Lawrence Kisuuki]

Thank you Ankit, Council and Michelle.

Happy to help out as always and hope Council and webmaker will work out
this soon.



*Regards,*

*Lawrence*
*Lead MozFestEA*