[Outreachy reports] · April 7, 2020 · 2 min read

Outreachy report #9: March 2020

• Sage, Karen and I reviewed all but the applications submitted on the last day of our application period. That was a hard decision to make, but ultimately it was what we could do considering the circumstances.
• After a few months of experience as a technical writer on Open Collective, I started to think about ways to improve Outreachy’s documentation on all fronts. I’m planning to discuss this with Sage soon.
• While Sage is recovering from surgery, I’ve been keeping an eye on the mentors mailing list—making sure messages are approved in time and forwarding them to more appropriate channels when needed.
• As the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, I saw an increase of initially selected applicants that stated they would have to give up their Outreachy application. Mentors, coordinators and applicants had their routines disrupted by abrupt changes such as shelter-in-place orders. Changes to the internship itself needed to be made as well; Outreachy has issued a statement that addresses many of those concerns.
• I’ve lost access to my Twitter account @contraexemplo, but I created a new one with the handle @annaeso.
• Today was the last day for applicants to submit their contributions. I’m expecting an increase in queries on the applicant helper mailbox in the next few days.

I’m grieving the life I once knew. We’re witnessing such an extraordinary moment in our lifetime I’m afraid we’ll never be able to return to the world we lived in before… And it’s difficult to adapt to this new order when the situation changes so dramatically over the course of a few days. But we’ll keep supporting each other (while six feet apart).