Contents
Reviewing applications
The Outreachy administration system allows applicants to submit their applications to multiple organizations and allows mentors to view, set status for, and rank them.
Once you are approved as a mentor, you can click "View applications" button or select the same option from the "Actions" menu to get to the applications viewing screen. There, you can select your or any other participating organization from the dropdown list to view applications received for it.
Making Sure Application is Fully Filled Out
Most applicants post their application in the "Application text" field, while others upload it as a .pdf or .odt file. Either approach is fine. Please make sure that the applicant has answered all the questions in the application form and let them know is they have missed some or used an outdated form template. Application editing is enabled through the whole selection period.
Coordinating with GSoC
Only for May rounds
Even if your organization is not participating in GSoC, you might still have applicants who are applying for GSoC with a different organization. Check the applicant's answer to the question "Are you applying for Google Summer of Code and, if so, with what organization(s)?" and if the applicant is applying for GSoC and you are interested in accepting that applicant, you will need to coordinate with the coordinators of the organization participating in GSoC to avoid duplicate acceptance. In 2016, organizations will be in the position to make their GSoC selection decisions on April 13, so that's a good time to reach out to them. If you are not sure how to handle this, please feel free to ask Outreachy coordinators to help you with deduplication.
Setting Application Status
Both mentors and cooordinators for a particular org can modify statuses for this org's applications. While mentors are encouraged to update these statuses, the status values that indicate acceptance should only be set in agreement with the org's coordinator(s).
For accurate reporting, it's very important that all the applicants get the right statuses in the system. In particular, please set "Contribution, will not accept" and "Contribution, full-time commitments" when applicable for applicants who are not accepted, because we would like to be able to share the number of applicants eligible for participation as the number of applicants the program received. We only consider applicants who made a contribution and do not have full-time school or job commitments eligible.
The following options are available for the application status:
Temporary Status Options
- "No contribution" - this is the default status, which all applicants start with
- "Contribution, under review" - the applicant has made a contribution
Final Status Options
- "No contribution, will not accept" - there is no sign of the applicant planning to work on a contribution
- "Contribution, will not accept" - the applicant made a contribution, but is not strong enough for you to accept them
- "Contribution, full-time commitments" - the applicant made a contribution, but is ineligible due to full-time commitments
(Only for May rounds) "Will accept for GSoC" - this is a great applicant, who also applied for GSoC and you intend to accept them for GSoC; this status is treated as an intent to accept,equivalent to "Want to accept, need funding" before GSoC slot allocations are announced, which in 2016 is on April 13
- "Want to accept, need funding" - this is a great applicant, but is a runner-up to the applicant(s) you have funding for (please assign a rank in agreement with the coordinator)
- "Will accept, have funding" - this is a great applicant your org has the funding for (only set in agreement with the coordinator)
You need to press the "Save" button for the values to be saved.
Setting a Rank
Mentors and coordinators can set ranks for the applications for their organization. The applications will then show up on the page sorted from best ranked to worst ranked. The lower the number (starting with 1), the better is the rank. I.e. 1 is the best rank.
You are welcome to use this option as it best suits you and assign the numbers arbitrarily. The program coordinators will only pay attention to the relative ranks of people with the status "Want to accept, need funding". For these applications, the relative rank should indicate your order of preference, with the lowest number indicating most preferred.
You need to press the "Save" button for the values to be saved.
Indicating Willingness to Mentor
Each application has "Willing to mentor" or "Add myself as additional mentor" at the bottom of the application. Mentors should use this button to indicate their willingness to mentor the applicant. All applications that are to be accepted should have mentors set. Mentors should be willing to sign the required contracts for the program.