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Mentor Learning Path

Mentors play a critical role in helping podlings learn the Apache Way. This path introduces the core responsibilities and provides exercises to practice.

New to mentoring? You’re not expected to read everything at once. Start with the Mentor Quick Start Guide and use the rest as reference when you need it.

This short video welcomes new mentors to the Apache Incubator and provides an overview of the process for getting started.

See also: Training Home | All Resources

Key: 📘 Guide 🖥️ Slide Deck 🎞️ Video 🧩 Quiz 🧠 Practice / Scenario 🎮 Interactive == Steps

  1. 📘 Read: Mentor Quick Start Guide - fast orientation for new mentors

  2. 📘 Read: Mentor Onboarding - detailed overview of mentor responsibilities and expectations

  3. 🎞️ Watch: Mentor Onboarding - video of Mentor Onboarding presentation

  4. 🧩 Quiz: ASF Mentor Onboarding Quiz

  5. 🧠 Practice: Mentor Scenarios Training

  6. 📘 Read: Best Practices for Mentors - real-world mentoring examples and scenarios

  7. 📘 Read: Incubator Case Studies - lessons learned from past podlings

  8. 📘 Read: Mentors’ Tough Conversation Guide - approaches for handling challenging situations

Also see

📘 Mentor Handbook - the central reference tying together all mentor responsibilities, guidance, and training materials. Start here before exploring individual topics below.

Orientation & Fundamentals

  • 📘 IPMC Oversight - how the IPMC provides high-level oversight, guidance, and course correction across podlings

  • 📘 Incubation Explained - overview of the Incubator’s purpose, practices, and lessons learned

  • 📘 Podling Orientation Guide - introduction to the incubation process and expectations for new podlings

  • 📘 Who Does What - clarifies roles and responsibilities across the ASF, IPMC, mentors, and podling PMCs

  • 📘 Why Governance Matters - explains why governance is central to ASF culture and how mentors help podlings apply it

  • 🖥️ ASF Values - introduction to the core cultural values of the ASF

  • 🎞️ ASF Values - video overview of ASF Values

Mentoring, Leadership & Community Building

Governance, Consensus & Neutrality

Reporting, Graduation & Beyond

Lessons & Case Studies

  • 📘 Incubator Case Studies - examples of challenges and successes from past podlings

  • 📘 Practicing The Apache Way - scenario-based cases from real Incubator situations (anonymized)

  • 📘 Incubator Discussion Trends - long-term patterns in general@ list topics over ten years

  • 📘 Mentor Engagement Patterns - data-driven analysis of mentor participation, sign-offs, and responsiveness

  • 📘 Mentor Trends - common podling issues and mentoring patterns from recent report analysis

  • 📘 Incubator Health - long-term system-wide health indicators across the Incubator

  • 📘 10 Years of the Incubator — a decade-long retrospective on Incubator growth, scale, challenges, and governance evolution

  • 📘 10 Years Summary - summary of ten years of Incubator trends, impacts, and governance evolution

  • 📘 IPMC Governance - long-term analysis of incubator-general governance activity, participation continuity, and how governance load scales with podling population

  • 📘 Governance Patterns — cross-podling study of mailing-list activity revealing common governance-development trajectories and warning signals during incubation

  • 📘 Podling Governance Patterns — observed patterns in how podlings develop governance during incubation, based on long-term analysis of public mailing-list activity and podling outcomes

  • 📘 Community and Governance Growth — ten-year empirical study of how podlings build sustainable community and governance over time: key healthy growth trajectories and common risk signals