Sustaining Engagement through Clubs

Introduction

Members of the Learning Network team as well as Mark Surman and a consultant from Organizing for Action met in Brooklyn from Feb. 9 - 12 to further develop the clubs program. We finalized details of how to build and roll out the program, and how it will be successful.

Specifically, we left with an actionable plan for how we launch clubs. Below is a summary of the key decisions we made.

Framing

1. Insights from other organizations.

We interviewed and analyzed other successful organizing model, from Code Club to Free the Children to Organizing for Action. These are the best practices we want to apply to clubs:

• Strong, personal on-boarding. This process should be well scripted, available online, and as much as possible, conducted in-person by volunteers.
• Overt, explicit and clear pathways. A contributor's development path in the organization should be widely understood, clearly communicated and compelling for them to pursue it.
• Website that facilitates connections among mentors. There should be a website that serves as a hub and watering hole for the community. Different levels of volunteers should be able to communicate with one another, share resources, and organize themselves. Strong social media presence is a must.
• Support personal development and professional growth. Make clear value propositions, such as training, so community members self-actualize and gain professional experience.
• Permeate a sense of belonging and narrative. There needs to be a Story of Self > Us > Now that is widely understood, oft repeated and made personal by community members. This narrative is bolster by a strong sense of belonging.
• Offer embeddable as well as standalone programming. When existing structures are in place, i.e. via a partner network, offer embeddable activities and support. When individual community members seek structure, offer them guidance on how to build their own.
• Teach local, share global in organized peaks and valleys. Empower community members to make a difference locally & develop local action plans. These should be connected to global campaigns and moments. Organizing requires peaks and valleys, which should be clearly communicated, well planned and celebratory upon completion.

2. Understanding our allies.

We discussed and prioritized our top two club leader personas. These are based on deep relationship with collaborators and an analysis of who would most benefit from and be activated by the clubs program. These are the main personas we' we're serving, with a refined understanding of their motivations, their needs and concerns.

3. Our values and Point-of-View.

We decided on the values that clubs embody. We established the social practices we want to embed and repeat in the program. These values inform our point-of-view (POV) in our curriculum, leadership development and online tools. Our POV is compelling to our two personas and differentiates us.

• Why we teach: This is our mission.
  • We are dedicated to empowering others with web literacy so that they have agency on the web as creators, citizens and future leaders.
• How we teach: This is our pedagogy.
  • Teaching and learning is how we achieve our mission. They are political as well as self-actualizing acts. We teach and learn by making projects together and openly reflecting on the process in an inclusive and locally relevant environment. Learning is social, production-centered, and open-ended. It is done best when facilitated in small groups meeting in-person.
• Who we teach: This is our audience.
  • We teach our peers, so that we can reflect and improve together. We teach our local community, so we can give back and make a different locally.
• What we teach: This is our subject.
  • We teach web literacy, which encompasses the mechanics, culture and citizenship of the web. Our learners are more self-actualized as creators when they can use the web as a platform for creativity. They are better citizens when they can make more informed choices on the web. And they are economically more empowered with skills and practical knowledge of this public resources.
• Where we teach: This is our classroom.
  • We teach locally, wherever we have our learners, be that in formal classrooms, to libraries and coffee shops and kitchen tables. We learn globally, as we connect with peers who inspire and mentor us to make local change that has a global impact.

Success Is...

1. Metrics.

We decided what it means to "be active in a city" for Mozilla Learning Networks in 2015. Our goal this year is 500 cities. A city has to fulfill one of the following to count:

• 3 volunteer job roles filled and reporting on local activity
• 1 event per quarter done by the same leader(s) (or pledged)

2. Naming.

We also discussed what to name this initiative and larger branding implications. Our conclusion: "Mozilla Academy"

• Focus on "Mozilla" as the uniting brand. This is preferred over "Webmaker", "Hive" or other secondary brand. "Moz" can continue as suffix.
• Test out "Academy" or similar name instead of "clubs." This clearly communicates learning, some structure, but also expandability. You can have one local Mozilla Academy, as well as a global online Mozilla Academy of all the mentors.
• Continue using generic suffix, i.e. " __ Party", "__ Festival", "__ Learning Network" as the generic part of the Mozilla branding equation.

3. Organizing model.

To be successful, we need tiers of organizing. These were deeply informed by our affiliate comparison work and leveraging existing tiers. We anticipate needing three job roles, at least. The job descriptions are here: https://teach.etherpad.mozilla.org/clubroles

• Club Leader
• Regional Coordinator
• Organizer

Program Offering

1. Leadership Development.

We defined what leadership skills we want to foster in our community, the job descriptions that support and encourage their development, and the offering we provide to help them develop as leaders. This is what we agreed on needing, with tiers of access: Anyone [grab & go for all resources], Club Leaders [grab & go AND club-specific resources], Regional Coordinator [all the above AND regional coordinator training]

2. Online Platform.

We scoped requirements and prioritized the phases of development. These tickets describe the features in scope for v1.0, aimed for release at the end of Q!: https://github.com/MozillaFoundation/Mozilla-Learning/labels/v1. The top-level summary of the v1.0 site is:

• Showcase resources for teaching and organizing
• Connect mentors to one another
• Show clubs on a map

3. Curriculum.

• We identified the two streams of curriculum we want to create and a path to packaging and testing it.
• Web Literacy: learners are end-users
• Teach like Mozilla: mentors are the end-users
• We concluded we want top-line curriculum partners for each module, including MDN, IMLS, Rio LAN Houses and Aspiration. Each module will have a final project with a light "give it forward" ask to go out and teach the module to someone else.
• Curriculum will be mobile-optimized and where possible, point to the Webmaker tool but not exclusively. It will include learning outcomes and questionnaires, as well as templates for featured remixes. 
• This first quarter will focus on getting the module architecture right. Then in Q2 we'll work on distributed "barnraising" to populate later modules including writing out roles and incentives. 
• See the curriculum queue: http://mozilla.github.io/webmaker-curriculum/

Program Roll Out

1. Partner Criteria

We've used "partnerships" in a very broad way in the past. Going forward, we want to be more specific about what a partner is, so we can better find and serve them, and so we can give our close partners the level of attention they need. We would rather have fewer, more strategic and sustaining partnerships, than many light uninvolved ones.

Maker Party

Campaigning is a powerful way to organize peaks and valleys for the community. This year, the Maker Party will evolve in the following important ways:

• Asynchronous, instead of synchronous. Spread throughout the year, instead of just two / three months.
• Super-localized. Developing deep knowledge, partnerships, product learning, etc. e.g., When’re we’re focused on Brazil, we’re *really* focused on Brazil
• Focused where we have heat. Our current base + key countries for 2015.
• Tightly integrated w. partner salesWork even more closely w. partnerships / sales.
• Marketing supported...
• Support and coordination with directed, niche marketing. Trying to broader MoFo and Mozilla-wide efforts wherever possible.

The emphasis for the Learning Network team is on leadership and organizing structure. Not just sustained activity, but also volunteers growing, getting better and more impactful -- and getting more responsibility as a result, building a larger-scale system by managing other volunteers, etc.

Mozfest

We discussed how Mozfest can be a reflective and activating moment for clubs. We are proposing the following programmatic arc to convene and celebrate our community, as well as on-board the next cohorts.

Mobilzing

We will continue engaging out 10K lists through two important initaitives:

• Teach the Web Podcast. A regular podcast sharing skills and experiences that add value to our core mentor audience. Begin to feature clubs' activitities.
• Newsletter. Regular email updates to our large mailing lists, updating them on the program and sharing the podcast and club activities to keep them engaged.

Next Steps

Find our roadmap, milestones and assigned next steps in our Github repository.