Introduction and Considerations

Before applying to be a member and undergoing the following steps, ensure this is the place you want to be. Read the introduction on the BeginnersTeam homepage and look over the numerous subsections of the wiki listed in the header. This team is devoted to helping other users, thus its primarily for those interested in helping others. You can learn as you go, as many have, but don't expect a structured learning like a course. For that, see #ubuntu-classroom for sessions held by experienced users on topics. All members are friendly and will answer questions as best they can.

Application for Membership

The path to membership is different for everyone, how long it takes until your are given full membership is dependant entirely on you. There is no set time, nor exact set of requisite knowledge and skills, so you will remain a padawan until such time as your mentor believes your ready. Final admission comes once your approved by a vote at a team meeting, so be sure to get to know the team.

Below are steps, listed in order, that should be taken to ease the path to membership. Also of note, even if you aren't a full member, you can join and contribute to the work of any focus group, see their respective pages in the header and contact the leads (IRC is usually best) for more information. If you've any trouble with the below steps, stop by our main IRC channel indicated in Tell Us About You section for live help from members.

Get Yourself Signed Up

• Ensure that you've signed up for an account on Launchpad, it is an important site required for numerous focus groups. The ID on launchpad is an OpenID, which can be used to log into both of the main wikis and Ubuntu Forums listed below. If you've already created an account on the forums or for the wiki, try to keep all of these similar and do list them on your wiki page.

  • Ubuntu Forums - Main support forums for Ubuntu and its derivatives.

  • Team Wiki - Used for organization of teams, proposals of ideas, homepage creation and other assorted functions.

  • Community Documentation - Community documentation centre for all wikis related to software and how to use it. See wiki focus group for more details.

• To log in to the wikis with your new openID simply be signed into launchpad with your account (ensure cookies enabled) and then navigate to either page. You should automatically be redirected and logged in with your openID.

• To associate the ID with the Ubuntu Forums you have to manually enter the information into the login section at top right of the site. The username is not your email address, but the name registered on lp. When you click your name on launchpad to see your account information, the url at the top should read: https://launchpad.net/~starcraft.man . In my case, starcraft.man would be my username. Password is of course same one you log into launchpad with.

Tell Us About You

• Fill out this (to be discussed) entrance quiz that will gauge your current ability and then submit it. This will help us place you with a mentor. Cheating on this will only hurt you, your mentor will know if your not up to the same level as you answered.

• Come hang out with us in the InternetRelayChat (IRC) channel #ubuntu-beginners on Freenode.

• Generate a wiki on the team wiki (this site) introducing yourself. If you have any trouble, ask a member for help in our main IRC channel. Post a link to the wiki page in the channel as well as below in the Padawan seeking master section.
• For a few examples of what a wiki page might look like see the following:

  • starcraft.man

  • Bodhi.Zazen

  • JoelGoguen

  • nhasian

• Please note, not all section used by these members might apply, use only what you need. Don't feel shy about copying the markup; just push edit on any page, copy and paste it to yours, cancel changes and then fix it up as required.

Join a Focus Group

• For information see Focus Group as well as each groups separate page (see header). Contact leads before adding yourself to the list, read over each groups page linked in the header for more information.

• Assisting on the Forums is popular, and counts as the Forums Focus group. We will, however, want to see you are active and review your posts.
• We feel it is important for new members to get to know the team and how it functions, so we require that you are active on the IRC channel for 1 month (exceptions may be considered for established members of the community).

Sign the Ubuntu Code of Conduct

• As an official Ubuntu team the CoC is required before you can be voted upon at a meeting, there is no rush to sign it prior to that. Simply read it over and then sign it. More information on this process can be found below:

  • Ubuntu Code of Conduct - The Code of Conduct.

  • Signing the Code of Conduct - Instructions on how to sign with a GPG key.

Mentoring

To smooth integration into the team, we have a mandatory mentoring system in place. Every new Padawan will be paired with an experience member of the team. Masters are responsible for the following:

• Welcome potential new members to the Ubuntu Beginners Team and familiarize them with general operation.
• Provide prospective members with a wide array of resources for learning and answering their questions.
• Help them find and integrate into the focus group of their choice.
• Assist prospective members creating and maintaining their wiki and launchpad pages.
• Ensure the the Padawan's preparation for the entrance test.
• Verify that applicants are committed and not just "passing through".

Just because your assigned a mentor, doesn't mean you can't ask questions of other members, by all means do. The mentor is there as someone who will get to know you more than others and spend time on whatever you need, like a first year mentor at a new school.

Skill and Knowledge alone do not make a Jedi. Personality and Character will play a far greater role.

Current Masters and Padawan

The following table lists all the masters available for mentoring in the first column, and usually links to their forum page or wiki page. The next column indicates if they've any padawan's assigned. Last column indicates people approaching full membership and requiring the test. Please add yourself to the padawan list at the bottom while you wait to find a mentor, with your timezone. It is best to drop onto IRC to connect with prospectives, note the names of those free and message them in the main channel. It is also possible to pm them on forums or as otherwise listed in their wiki page. Initiative is your friend, just jump in and you'll connect quickly.

Padawan Seeking Masters

If you would like to join the team and have not yet been sponsored by a Master please add yourself to this table.

Young New Users

If you are between the ages of 8 and 18 please also join the Young New Users group.

New Member Nominations

Padawan nominated for full membership will be listed on the Team Meeting Page

CategoryBeginnersTeam

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