Open Source Collective hired Changeset to create and run maintainer skills training, discussion, and co-working sessions.
Maintainers of open source projects often need help learning how to address issues such as "how do we recruit and promote project members?", "what do we spend our money on?", and "how do I finally have the difficult conversation I've been putting off with that one contributor?"
So, Changeset founder Sumana Harihareswara created and ran eight unique one-hour videoconference sessions -- a combination of workshops, training, co-working, and discussion -- to leaders of projects hosted by Open Source Collective. OSC sponsored the workshops to make them free of cost to participants. To serve participants in varied time zones, Changeset repeated some topics, running 13 sessions in total.
Changeset developed six resource documents based on those sessions:
Recruiting Financial Sponsors: Inventory your potential donors and fundable tasks or chores, prepare your requests and update your website and documentation to ensure you look credible, make the request, and follow up on responses.
Deciding How To Use Your Project's Money: When should you spend or save? What's on your project's roadmap, and how could you spend to support it?
Marketing, Publicity, Roadmaps, and Communications: Understand your audiences and what you need to tell them, how frequently, and why. Includes a template and schedule.
Growing Your Contributor Base: Retain your existing contributors by better understanding what they want and need. Recruit new contributors by easing their path to contribution and making it easy for them to find you and feel welcome.
Handling Burnout and Career Planning: Take a moment to imagine: what would a good departure look like for your involvement with your project? Includes concrete steps to help you plan succession, and a self-guided career planning exercise.
Promoting Maintainers and Handling Conflict: Address difficult issues, and recruit and promote maintainers in open source projects. Includes a self-guided exercise.
Open Source Collective and Changeset also collaborated on four diagrams (illustrating People, Resources, Information, and Work Product dynamics in open source projects) based on material from the workshops.
Participants responded positively to the sessions, immediately using new skills to improve contributor recruiting and retention, better manage project finances, initiate difficult conversations, revamp project governance, and contact potential sponsors.