2020-03: Outreachy Progress

Summary

  • Initial application results have been announced and the contribution period is under way for May 2020 internship applicants
  • Outreachy organizers were not able to review 230 initial applications
  • 890 initial applications were accepted
  • 1,474 initial applications were rejected
  • Outreachy published a blog post about our response to COVID-19

Personal

On March 10, 2020, Sage Sharp had top surgery. They had a three week recovery period and they are healing well. Sage had to reduce their hours before the surgery so they could go to medical appointments.

This meant that a backlog of unreviewed initial applications built up. Sage asked for help from the Outreachy PLC on February 20. Karen Sandler, Anna e so, and Sage Sharp ralled. They were able to review 1,201 initial applications in two weeks.

Unreviewed Initial Applications

Due to Sage’s medical appointments, the Outreachy organizers could not review 230 initial applications. Those applications were submitted on the last day of the initial application period.

The Outreachy PLC discussed pushing back the opening of the contribution period from March 5 to March 9. However, it was too close to Sage’s surgery date and the Outreachy PLC wanted to lower Sage’s stress levels before surgery.

Outreachy acknowledged the situation on Twitter and apologized to the applicants who did not have their initial application reviewed.

This underscores the need for a paid full-time Outreachy organizer. Outreachy plans to post a job opening in May.