Outreachy report #22: June 2021
Sponsorship processing
We finished processing most sponsorships. There are still a few specific invoices that need to be ironed out – most of them involve someone else’s guidance or clarification to go forward –, but we covered most community-specific and general fund sponsorships this round.
This was the hardest task to keep each other in sync because it involved multiple systems and documentation covering different aspects of invoicing. We quickly found out that the amount of lists we were using were overwhelming both of us, so we decided to introduce a visual kanban tool to the mix. That was quite successful – we were finally able to identify pending and completed items at a glance and proceed accordingly.
Sage and I had several meetings to consolidate our invoicing documentation at each step. Since this task resulted in a great footprint of emails (especially when dealing with the usual back and forth in Conservancy’s RT), we also decided to create a dedicated sponsorship inbox. This helped us not miss any important emails sent to the main organizers inbox.
Initial feedback
This was my first time reading and reviewing feedback from mentors and interns. It surprised me that the amount of intervention required from us is quite low – in most cases it’s just a matter of keeping an eye on the progress of a certain intern or sending them an email reminding them they don’t need to overwork themselves –, but the few cases outstanding cases we had do require a good amount of attention and thoughtfulness.
Communication barriers and different expectations on what mentorship entails were some of the most common issues. Sometimes interns with English as a second language find it difficult to express themselves and communicate their hardships to their mentors; sometimes mentors themselves fall short in more interpersonal skills and that might resulted in both parties completely checking out. I’m afraid one case in particular may be heading towards termination.
Running intern chats
It became quite apparent in the initial feedback that many interns struggle with feelings of self-doubt. This usually prevents them from opening up with their mentors, especially when they feel like they need to prove themselves as capable. That was highlighted by the Modifying Expectations chat – we saw many interns afraid of failing their internship, not knowing how to approach their mentors to discuss what are their expectations on the outcome of the project.
I know I struggled with that too, leading me to write a post about the fear of failure after I had a heart-to-heart conversation with my mentors in the middle of my internship. And I found that mentioning my own experiences as an Outreachy alum helped our interns feel less isolated: we discuss ways to overcome imposter syndrome and strategies to approach their mentors when they need support, giving them a boost to continue working on their projects.
Progress as an organizer
Outreachy is an interesting program – even though we run similar cohorts twice a year, knowing every single part of it is quite dependent on time of the year and opportunity. Much of the work behind Outreachy has to be adapted to become a two-person bit, and it takes time – and a lot of questions to Sage – for me to truly understand what every task and resposibility entails. It is, however, one of the most diverse jobs I’ve ever had, making me wear several different hats on occasion. I’ve been enjoying my first months in the backstage, and I hope we have many more to come.