GSoC - Guidelines for Mentors

Mentors

In general, Mentors are community volunteers who are willing to give a student a great experience in open source development. Mentors should be knowledgeable enough in open source development and their project to provide quality mentorship during Summer of Code. Note that mentors cannot also participate as a student (i.e., someone applying as a student to GSoC should not also volunteer to be a mentor in the same year).

Before student selection

1. Commit to spending a minimum of 4 hours each week to be available to guide and mentor students (not just your assigned student).
2. Commit to being present in IRC and/or Telegram to help answer questions as much as your schedule allows, at a minimum of 4 hours each week.
3. Prepare a good overview of your project idea(s) and have them linked to this wiki page.
4. Watch OpenMRS Talk for questions about your project idea(s).
5. Review student proposals and work with other mentors and organization admins to select the best candidates for OpenMRS.
6. Treat returning students who have applied with as much (or more!) scrutiny than first-time students.

After student selection

1. Ensure your student is ready & active. They should have a dev environment, be regularly communicating in the community, and have prepared a project plan together with you. (See above for student expectations.)
2. Read the GSoC Mentor Guide and ask questions if you have them.
3. Be sure to CC your backup mentor on communications with the student so your backup mentor can keep abreast of the project's progress in case she needs to step in for you if you have an emergency that will take you away from GSoC for more than a week during the program.
4. Reach out to the Summer of Code organization administrators if you have questions or concerns.
5. If the student is not active during the community bonding period, please contact the organization administrators.

During the program

1. Help your student be successful. Commit to spending a minimum of 4 hours each week answering questions, giving advice, working with your student on blockers, and evaluating your student's progress.
2. Complete a short "progress report" each week to help stay on schedule and catch potential problems early.
3. Have fun and work hard! The highest-performing mentors will get an expenses-paid trip to Google's headquarters in October to geek out with fellow mentors from other open-source projects.
4. Schedule some time to chat 1-on-1 with your student to talk about their post-GSoC plans. Will they continue in their university program? Are they looking for a job? Help them understand the world beyond GSoC, and how they can continue contributing to OpenMRS.

After completing GSoC

1. Stay in touch with your student and help them find interesting ways to stay involved with OpenMRS.
2. Apply to attend the GSoC mentor summit in October! It's an awesome way to connect with other people in the open-source world and have fun!

Backup Mentors

Backup mentors have no explicit expectations beyond staying abreast of a project in case they need to fill in or take over for the primary mentor in case of an unforeseen circumstance. While we generally avoid anyone being a primary mentor for more than one project, we do allow primary mentors to serve as a backup mentor for one other project, since the need for backup mentors to take over the role of primary mentor for a project is very rare.

After student selection

1. Ensure the student and primary mentor are copying you on communications. This is most important during the program, but it is important you be aware of the project goals and this is a good time for student and primary mentor to build a habit of CC'ing you on communications.
2. Read the GSoC Mentor Guide and ask questions if you have them.
3. Reach out to the Summer of Code organization administrators if you have questions or concerns.
4. If you are not hearing anything about the project during the community bonding period, please remind the primary mentor and student to CC you on communications.

During the program

1. Briefly review communications when CC'd and watch the project page and blog entries of the student. Your job is to be aware of progress on the project and be ready to step in and assist if the primary mentor must step away from mentoring for some unforeseen reason.
2. If you are not seeing regular communications about the project touch base with the primary mentor and student to remind them to CC you in communications.

After completing GSoC

1. Make sure to congratulate a successful student!
2. If you aren't already, consider becoming a Primary Mentor.