Over the past year, we’ve seen some amazing efforts from student-led FOSS Clubs across campuses. To keep the momentum going and ensure that every club remains active and impactful, we’re introducing a few changes to how clubs will operate going forward. This note outlines what’s changing, what’s expected from clubs, and what support we’ll continue to offer.
Review of current clubs
We’re currently reviewing all FOSS clubs based on their activity over the last year. Based on this:
Inactive clubs (with little to no activity) will receive an email notification shortly. These clubs will no longer be considered part of the active network, which means that the status of the club will be inactive, but these clubs can apply for the upcoming batch and will be given a New Club Status.
Active clubs will be contacted for a short call where we’ll walk them through the updated activities, expectations, and ways we’ll support them this year.
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What’s new for active clubs
All active clubs will be expected to take part in a few key initiatives this year:a) FOSSHack – month-long hackathon
All active Clubs are expected to host this independently (we’ll provide guidance on the process, what is expected and what needs to be done and resources), apart from that, operationsrelated to it will be solely handled by the club itself. For this hackathon, they’ll work on building a project during this period. We suggest hosting this in either January or February or an even semester, depending on their exam and other timelines. We’ll share a checklist soon outlining what the club needs to do during FOSSHack.b) Season of Commits
A paid, project-based opportunity for students to contribute to real open-source projects we will have as partner projects. FOSS Clubs are expected to help students apply and get involved in the season of commits, guiding and helping them navigate. Most importantly, participation is expected from all active clubs.c) Hosting learning sessions (based on the Playbook) We’re building simple playbooks that outline sessions clubs can run (e.g., Git, Frappe, docker, react, penpot, and more). These will help students build core FOSS skills and onboard into projects smoothly.
For New Clubs
A new application and a newer process will be introduced this year. New clubs will follow the same structure and activities as Active Clubs. Support will include resources, event guidance, and community onboarding.
What’s coming next
We’ll begin reaching out to the active and inactive clubs soon. We are working on detailed Playbooks, which will serve as a source of event ideas, and we are planning to have sessions once a month where the club members can join and get the idea to have the sessions in their club activities.
We are also drafting FOSSHack and Season of Commits information packs, which will serve as guides for the clubs to perform activities for these events. The application for new clubs will open in May and close by August, and the new batch starts in July, so all details will be finalised before that.