Scholarship administration SOP

This page is intended to provide insight as to how we manage the Fedora Scholarship.

For administrators

Administrative timeline

Before applications open

1. Make sure the scholarship AT fedoraproject DOT org alias points to you. This can be done by asking the prior administrator to file a Fedora Infrastructure ticket.
2. Update this page to reflect any changes in procedure you wish to implement for this round of the scholarship.
3. Update the Scholarship terms to reflect any changes in procedure you wish to implement, along with relevant dates (in particular, the open/close dates for application submissions). In case of any substantive changes, be sure to run them by Red Hat legal.
4. Update the Scholarship page to reflect the dates for the new cycle along with any procedural changes that affect the content on that page.
5. Publicize via Fedora channels to encourage people to apply. See #Marketing for ideas.

When applications open

1. Edit the Scholarship page to reflect that the application period is open.
2. Publicize via Fedora channels to encourage people to apply. See #Marketing for ideas.
3. Nominate people for the selection committee and ask if they would be willing to serve.

Once applications close

1. Edit the Scholarship wiki page to reflect that the application period for this cycle is over.
2. Select the final selection committee from among the eligible nominees (selection committee nominees serving as references for an application cycle are not eligible to serve on the committee for that cycle).
3. Guide the selection committee through the process of selecting a winner.

Once a winner is selected

1. Publicize the results via Fedora channels. See #Marketing for ideas.
2. Take care of the financial logistics behind transferring scholarship funds to the school the winner will be attending.
3. Convene a follow-up meeting with the selection committee and any other interested attendees from the Fedora community in order to think about ways to improve the scholarship program for the next cycle.
4. Edit this page to reset the instructions for the administrator of the next cycle. If you will not be administering the next cycle, find your successor and hold a handoff meeting.

Marketing

The marketing of the Fedora Scholarship has taken several forms in the past, including:

• A Red Hat press release
• Blogging
• General news articles that came from the above
• Mentions during speeches at Linux events
• Listing with scholarships.com

Template letters

General informational inquiry response

Thank you for inquiring about the Fedora scholarship.

Some frequently asked questions:

Q: Where can I find out more about the scholarship?

A: For general information about the scholarship, please see https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship.

Q: How are recipients selected?

A: For selection criteria, see https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship#Selection_Criteria.

Q: Can you send me an application?

A: For information on how to apply, see https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Scholarship#How_to_apply. Our application process is entirely digital, and all the materials needed are available on the website.

If your question was not covered by the above information, or if your email was an application submission, you will receive an email response shortly (within 3 business days).

Recruiting the selection committee

This template is under construction.

Greetings,

You are receiving this email because we would like to ask you to be a member of the selection committee for this year's Fedora Scholarship. More information on the scholarship is available on the Scholarship page. This year's selection timeline can be found on the main Scholarship page, with more details on each of the responsibilities of committee members listed at Scholarship administration SOP#Responsibilities. If you do not want to, or cannot, serve on the selection committee, that is perfectly all right.

Giving applications to the selection committee

This template is under construction.

Greetings,

You are receiving this email because you have confirmed your membership acceptance for the selection committee for this year's Fedora Scholarship.

The application window for this year closed on DATE. The applications and references for each candidate are attached. As you read these applications, please keep the selection criteria in mind.

For the selection committee

This section is under construction.

Selection committee timeline

• Date TBA -- Each member of the selection committee reviews the applications, weighs the merits of each along with the criteria, and writes a few paragraphs to the rest of the committee indicating their thinking.
• Date TBA -- discussion continues, and if we have not reached a consensus by email, a conference call will be set up in order to make a final decision.
• April 5, 2010 -- according to the Terms and Conditions, the recipient will be notified by this date.
• Date TBA -- by this date, a postmortem will be conducted with ideas on improvements to this program for the next year, including marketing, selection criteria, the selection process itself, etc.

Selection committee membership

• Selected by the Scholarship administrator.
• Entirely composed of Fedora community members.
• In the past, each committee has had at least one community member with ties to academia (professor, etc).
• All previous recipients of the Fedora Scholarship have the option to serve on the selection committee.

Selection committee responsibilities

• list
• goes
• here

Ideas for next round

If you have an idea, please add it here.

• One thing I'm thinking about is starting a mailing list for discussion/questions on the scholarship, because there's no place for people to talk about it right now (well... the talk page, but we don't really use that in Fedoraland). Mel Chua 10:30, 16 December 2009 (UTC)
• Another thing I'm thinking about - not for this round, though - is having contributors submit their applications via git checkin, which I think is a perfectly reasonable barrier to entry if we want Fedora contributors anyway (if you're an active participant in Fedora, you should at least know what git is and be able to find someone to walk you through how to use it, regardless of what type of contributor you are). Mel Chua 10:30, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Things to fix for this round

We may not be able to do everything on this list, but we'll try.

Students from conscription countries not eligible

• The way the Terms and Conditions are worded at the moment disqualifies most contributors from countries that have conscription. Usually these mandatory services (army, community service) take place between high school and university so there currently is no way for contributors that are affected to fulfill 2 (i) and 2 (iii) of the Scholarship terms at the same time. Also see the Map of countries that are affected (all the red ones). --Heffer 10:54, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Fixed; the Terms and Conditions now allow students "enrolled as a high school or secondary school student (or home-schooled student) during the Program Application Term, or [who] have graduated with a high school or secondary school diploma within two (2) years of the start of the Program Application Term." Thanks for calling out this bug! Mel Chua 05:55, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

Further explanation: The new T&C allows students from transcription countries to apply during their year of service. You still apply the year immediately before you go to university, but you don't have to be enrolled in secondary school when you apply so long as you've graduated from it within the last 2 years. Mel Chua 05:58, 17 December 2009 (UTC)