March marked a significant shift in the rhythm of the program. After weeks of community sign-ups, application reviews, and prep work, the contribution period officially opened on March 20th.
Much of the earlier part of the month was spent onboarding new mentoring communities, which involved researching each community’s project, holding onboarding meetings with coordinators, and putting together notes for the team to review. Alongside this, I worked on outreach to communities, reaching out to both past and current coordinators and following up consistently throughout the month.
As the project list came together, I reviewed submitted projects and worked with communities to ensure their submissions met program guidelines, sharing resources where needed. Getting the list finalized ahead of the contribution period opening was a key priority, as was sending out initial application results to applicants on March 20th.
Once the contribution period opened, I handled the announcement tasks like sending acceptance emails, inviting mentors and coordinators to the Outreachy Zulip and mailing list, and sending the welcome email to the mentors mailing list. From there, the focus shifted to supporting applicants and mentors during the contribution stage.
The contribution period runs through mid-April, and intern announcements are expected at the end of the month. For now, the goal is to keep the momentum going and make sure mentors feel supported as they evaluate the work coming their way.
Tilda's Thoughts 