You’ll work on a project for the bulk of your three month sprint, either alone or in a group. If you’re brand new to this area, your project might be very learning focussed, and have an output like a write-up to make things easier for the next person with this learning goal.
We want projects to be fairly self-directed. We will certainly have things that need doing, but it’s also important that you find something that you find interesting and motivating, and also that you can complete within three months.
A project might be something entirely new, like setting up hosting for a software platform we don’t provide yet. Or, it might be an improvement to an existing service, like changes to make it easier to monitor an existing system.
Your projects in the community
If your project creates a new offering for Merri-bek Tech, we’ll initially role it out as a “Labs” project, an experimental offering that we may not maintain. That’s because although it may be both very useful, and perfectly executed, all new software offerings have maintenance needs and we need to be sure that we can meet them before offering it to the public.
We’d love to see your projects in the wild though, so if you build a new Labs project, we’ll work with you to help create a “go-live plan” for your new offering. This includes figuring out how we’ll maintain it, keep it up to date and secure, cover any costs, provide support, and so on. This doesn’t have to be on you, but you’re welcome to lead this process if you like.
What’s next after doing a sprint?
After you’ve done a sprint, you have a lot of options open to you.
Doing another sprint
You can do sprints as often as you like. They can be back-to-back, or you can leave a gap and do them as you like. You can engage in other activities here, and also do a sprint whenever you have a new project idea.
Mentor a sprint
Once you’ve participated in a sprint, you can sign up as a sprint mentor. This is helpful if you have technical skills that might help the next group. Even things that you just learned could be great for helping someone who is about to learn then. You might also want to mentor a sprint if you have an interest in group facilitation, rather than a particular technology.
Join a stewardship group
Each offering we provide to the community needs some care and ongoing maintenance. This work is just as valuable as setting up new things. You can help steward particular systems that you’re interested in, including ones built by you, or by others.
Stewardship moves at a slower pace than building things. Volunteering as a steward is a six-month engagement (or a best-effort at that, life changes happen). It’s also hopefully not much work, and we aim to have multiple stewards for all systems so there’s no pressure on anyone’s shoulders in particular.
Become a member
Members decide how Merri-bek Tech runs. Anyone who has completed a three-month sprint in good standing (i.e. has not acted against our code of conduct) is eligible to take up membership, providing they do so within six months. Members are also eligible to take on governance roles.
See: Membership