1. Basic Information
Congratulations on creating a Mozilla Community Group!
This is the Mozilla Groups README. It contains all the information required to successfully setup and manage a Mozilla group. Please read it carefully.
Mozilla Community Groups are groups of people who meet regularly and work collaboratively to advance Mozilla’s mission. Anyone who is working to advance Mozilla’s mission can start a Community Group. Groups can meet in-person or virtually and can be organized around a region, contribution area, identity, or interest. All groups must respect and adhere to the Community Participation Guidelines and follow the terms & responsibilities.
All Mozilla Community Groups must:
- Adhere to and uphold the Community Participation Guidelines.
- Adhere to and uphold the Volunteer Leadership Principles.
- Be open and welcoming to everyone who shares Mozilla’s goals and want to contribute in a healthy and constructive manner to participate.
- Be easy to join and cannot restrict membership.
- Contribute to Mozilla by regularly participating in campaigns, activities, events or other Mozilla related projects.
- Be active – demonstrated by having more than five members and hosting at least one event every six months.
- Have two group contacts that change every year.
Only groups that meet our requirements and have been reviewed by a community manager will appear as “verified” groups.
2. Terms & Responsibilities
Becoming a verified group:
All groups will be reviewed by a community manager after three months in the portal. In order to become a “verified group” it must be reviewed and approved by a community manager. At the time of their review they must be able to demonstrate they are upholding the terms & responsibilities of the group by having:
- An accurate, up to date group profile
- More than five members
- Hosted at least one event
- Two responsive group contacts
Groups that fail to meet the criteria at the time of the review may be asked to update their group profile, or be removed from the portal.
Validated groups will be reviewed on an annual basis to ensure they continue to uphold the guidelines and criteria.
Naming your group:
Group names should be informative and help new and established community members identify the groups that are most relevant to their interests and identities.
Choose a group name that will:
- Reduce confusion – Names should be descriptive and accurately reflect the focus of the group. Groups that have the exact same focus and mandate may be asked to merge or revise their title or description to be more descriptive.
- Avoid exclusivity – Using more descriptive titles helps avoid the appearance that a particular group exclusively represents the entire topic or area throughout the movement.
- Encourage diversity – Group names should not suggest that people are obligated to join a group to participate within a focus area or region. Mozilla will not acknowledge any hierarchy between groups.
Group contacts:
Group contacts are the people who are responsible for maintaining the group’s page on the portal and liaising, on behalf of the group, with Mozilla staff. There must always be two group contacts and they must change every year, their responsibilities are:
- Maintain the content and activity of the group page.
- Answer questions from community managers during the “verification” process.
In order to be validated, group contacts must be responsive and able to answer and address issues on the group page. We recommend that group contacts are people who feel comfortable communicating in English, and have a good understanding of what is happening inside their group.
Note that group contacts do not have to correspond to governance roles inside the community. Communities are free to create their own internal structures and governance though all leadership roles should follow the Volunteer Leadership Principles.If you have any other questions about group creation or management please visit the FAQ.