Wikipedia:Ambassadors/Newsletter/1

Classes get active, students requesting mentors
As you've probably noticed, many of the classes the Wikipedia Ambassador Program is supporting this term are getting active. Adding some or all the course pages to your watchlist is a great way to jump right into the ambassador role.

Compared to last term, this set of classes will be active on-wiki much sooner, and on average they will have more extensive Wikipedia assignments, with milestones spread throughout the term.

Right now we have 30 classes, 57 Campus Ambassadors, and 50 Online Ambassadors. Look for all those numbers to increase over the next few weeks. We especially need more Online Ambassadors who can serve as mentors for students, so please invite other editors you've worked with who know the ropes to apply!

First mentor responsibilities
Online Ambassadors: If you haven't added your profile to the list of available mentors, please do so!

When a student asks you to be his or her mentor, or if you are paired up with a student from a class in which students are assigned mentors, be sure to:
 * 1) Leave a friendly message on the student's talk page letting them know that you'll be their mentor. If you like to respond on your own talk page, be sure to leave a message on theirs pointing to the response; many newcomers won't know to check back on your talk page for a reply.
 * 2) Check out the student's course page, and add it to your watchlist. The course talk pages (the discussion pages of the course pages) are the main places for students to ask questions and get feedback.  If they come to you with a question that other students in the same class may also benefit from, considered answering their question on the course talk page and pointing them there.
 * 3) Add WAP student to the student's userpage, filled out with the course page and course talk page, the WikiProject the class is connected with, and your username (example). This provides links to the main places the student can find help: the course talk page,  on IRC, and you.

If you reach the point where you are mentoring all the students you want to, you can move your entry on the mentors table down to the lower "Additional Online Ambassadors" section, or simply mark "FULL" in the first column.

Other news

 * There is an ongoing discussion of the Online Ambassador selection process: Should it be a public on-wiki process, an off-wiki discussion that avoids embarrassing unsuccessful applicants, or should applicants be given a choice between on-wiki and off-wiki application?
 * The Wikipedia Ambassador Program was part of the program at WikiXDC, the Wikipedia 10th anniversary event that took place in Washington, D.C. on 22 January. Because of the strong interest from local institutions and groups, and the high number of ambassadors in the area, we're hoping to use D.C. as a laboratory for testing out new kinds of Wikipedia Ambassadorship, beyond just working with students and university courses.  In particular, with Wikipedia Fellow Liam Wyatt, we hope to develop the role of GLAM Ambassador (ambassadors to galleries, libraries, archives and museums).
 * Next Friday (4 February) will be the first Wikipedia Ambassador Program Editing Friday; ambassadors (and anyone else who would like to join) are invited to spend some time collaborating in real time on improving a single important article. We'll start with the article Tradition, and if this goes well, it may become a weekly tradition for the ambassador program!

Things you can do

 * Welcome students who have signed up on course pages but who are not yet paired up with Online Ambassador mentors. Try using a personal message, or Ambassador welcome, if you'd like to avoid the generic welcome template.
 * Recruit more Online Ambassadors.
 * Tag more articles for WikiProject United States Public Policy. Most of our classes this term are part of WikiProject United States Public Policy, and some classes are using the set of articles tagged for the project to find articles to work on. So the more relevant articles are tagged, the better. Instructions on how to tag articles are on our Assessment page - this page also has more information about the quantitative analysis we're doing on students' efforts to improve article quality.
 * Help write the next newsletter!