Share your expertise with Mozilla Clubs around the world!
Club guides are an important part to the Mozilla Clubs program as they provide direction and assistance for specific challenges that clubs may face during day-to-day operation. We are looking for volunteers to help us author new guides and resources that will be shared globally. By learning more about the process and structure of our guides, we hope that you’ll collaborate on a Mozilla club guide soon!
Background
In early 2015, Mozilla Clubs staff began publishing a series of guides that provide Club leaders with helpful tips and resources they need to maintain their Clubs. Soon after, community members began assisting with, collaborating on and authoring these guides alongside staff.
Guides are created in response to inquiries from Club Captains and Regional Coordinators around challenges they face within their clubs. Some challenges are common across Clubs and others are specific to one Club. In either case, the Mozilla Clubs team tries to create guides that assist in overcoming those challenges. Once a guide is published, it is listed as a resource on the Mozilla Clubs’ website.
Screenshot of a guide co-authored by Simeon Oriko, Carolina Tejada Alvarez, Kristina Gorr and the Mozilla Clubs team
How are club guides used around the world?
At Mozilla Clubs, there is a growing list of guides and resources that help Club participants maintain Club activity around the world. These guides are in multiple languages and cover topics related to teaching the web, sustaining communities, growing partnerships, fostering collaborations and more.
Guides should be used and adapted as needed. Club leaders are free to choose which guides they use and don’t use. The information included in each guide is drawn from experienced community leaders that are willing to share their expertise. Guides will continue to evolve and we welcome suggestions for how to improve them. The source code, template and content are free and available on Github.
Here are a few examples of how guides have been used:
- A new Club Captain is wondering how to teach their Club learners about open practices so they read the “Teaching Web Literacy in the Open” guide for facilitation tips and activity ideas.
- A librarian is interested in starting a Club in a library and uses the “Hosting a Mozilla Club in your Library” guide for tips and event ideas.
- A Club wants to a make a website, so they use the “Creating a website” guide to learn how to secure a domain, choose a web host and use a free website builder.
What is the process for creating club guides?
The process for creating guides is evolving and sometimes varies on a case-by-case basis. In general, it goes something like this:
Step 1: Club leaders make suggestions for new guides on our discussion forum.
Step 2: Mozilla Club staff respond to the suggestion and share any existing resources.
Step 3: If there are no existing resources, the suggestion is added to a list of upcoming guides.
Step 4: Staff seek experts from the community to contribute or help author the guide (in some cases this could be the person who made the suggestion).
Step 5: Once we find an expert (internal to Mozilla or a volunteer from the community) who is interested in collaborating, the guide is drafted in as little or as much time as needed.
We currently have 50+ guides and resources available and look forward to seeing that number grow. If you have ideas for guides and/or would like to contribute to them, please let us know here.
