Contrib.social

Email communications with mentors

Open on Drupal.org →
Created on 28 April 2015, over 9 years ago
Updated 28 June 2023, over 1 year ago

Problem/Motivation

Follow-up to #2232047: [META] Get ready for DrupalCon →

We want to communicate with people who sign up to mentor. We invite people to join the monthly mentoring call, provide links to resources and remind them about mentor events at DrupalCon.

Proposed resolution

We are using MailChimp for mentor communications. We have templates that we can reuse with minor changes. Another nice thing is that email campaigns can be scheduled ahead of time.

Download form submissions

  1. Log in to event site and navigate to the mentor sign-up form (Community > Sign up to be a sprint mentor
  2. Click on Results
  3. Click on Included export components and uncheck Include all components
  4. Check First Name, Last Name, drupal.org username, Email
  5. In the Download range options: if this is the first time you are downloading, leave All submissions selected. Otherwise, you can check Only new submissions since your last download
  6. Click Download and open the downloaded spreadsheet.
  7. Add a column with the label DrupalCon Mentor and type location and year, for example Asia 2016, move the cursor to bottom right of the cell so it turns into a plus sign and drag the cursor down to fill all cells in the column with Asia 2016

Example spreadsheet with mentor sign ups:

Import to MailChimp

  1. Log in to MailChimp
  2. Click on the list name, then Add Subscribers, then Import Subscribers
  3. Select copy/paste from file
  4. Copy the contents of the spreadsheet and paste into the text area (together with column labels
  5. Check the "I understand that my billing plan may be automatically upgraded" box and click Next
  6. MailChimp should automatically match column names, click Save on each column, then click Next
  7. On the next screen, Subscribed should be checked. Also, check Auto-update my existing list
  8. Click Import to add/update subscribers.

Create a campaign (mailing)

  1. Click Campaigns, then Create Campaign
  2. Select Regular Campaign
  3. Select Send to a saved segment and choose the appropriate DrupalCon segment (for example, Asia 2016)
  4. One the next screen, enter an internal name for your campaign (For example: "First contact with Asia 2016 mentors" or "Asia mentors thank you dinner")
  5. Write the subject of the email
  6. On the Select a template screen, click Saved Templates and choose one of the existing templates
  7. Replace text and photos as appropriate and click Next
  8. Click Send to send immediately, or Schedule to send the email at a later date

Replicate a campaign

When new mentors sign up, you might have to repeat some of the campaigns:

  1. From the list of campaigns, click on the far right button and select Replicate
  2. Next, select Send to a group or new segment
  3. Change any to all and add the following conditions:
    • Choose the DrupalCon Mentor grop (for example, Asia 2016)
    • Info changed is after the last campaign was sent
  4. Click the Refresh count link to update the number of recipients (we should not re-send to the whole list, or whole segment, just the people who signed up after the last campaign was sent)
  5. Click Next and follow the usual steps for a campaign

MailChimp templates

  1. Sign up to mentor. This message is sent to mentors from the last 2-3 DrupalCons.
  2. First contact with mentors. Introduce mentors to the Mentor spreadsheet.
  3. Mentor Meta Meeting. Invite mentors to join the monthly mentoring meta meeting.
  4. Get more mentors. Depending on how the signups are going, send to anyone on the mentor list who has not yet signed up.
  5. Mentor resources. Links to "Mentoring at Drupal Events" and "Contributor Tasks". Send ? weeks before DrupalCon.
  6. Mentor events at DrupalCon. Orientation, sprint demo, issue triage.
  7. Suggested sessions for mentors, sprint participants and contributors.
  8. First contact with mentors - condensed - send to mentors who have just signed up in the last few days before, or during DrupalCon
  9. Reminders before DrupalCon. Dinner, T-shirt, Booth, Mentor events. Also sent after mentor orientation to any mentors who signed up on site.
  10. Final tips before Sprint day. Wear comfortable shoes, drink water, you will do great.
  11. Mentor Thank You Dinner. Sent in the early afternoon on Sprint Day, to thank the dinner sponsor and remind mentors about the location, time and directions.
  12. Mentor Survey. Requires setting up a survey in SurveyMonkey or an open Google doc for free-form comments. Can be prepared ahead of time and scheduled.

Remaining tasks

  • ??
🌱 Plan
Status

Fixed

Component

Miscellaneous

Created by

🇺🇸United States shnark

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