Tracking Your Club's Progress¶
Your club's journey with FOSS United is structured around five stages: Onboarding, Explorer, Contributor, Expert, and Graduation. Each stage reflects where your club is in building an open source culture on campus, and unlocks specific support and opportunities.
The FOSS United team will internally track your club's progress across these stages. You do not need to apply or report formally to move forward. Staying active, documenting your work on the forum, and maintaining communication with your program manager is how progress happens naturally.
This structure is also designed to be useful for clubs not formally affiliated with FOSS United. If you want a framework to track your own growth and set internal milestones, use these stages as a reference.
Stage 1: Onboarding¶
Who: Clubs that are new to FOSS United and getting set up for the first time.
What to do:
- Complete the onboarding steps
- Plan, promote and host your first meetup. Check out Month 1 of the 90 Day planning to learn more about planning an inaugural event and check out the general event hosting guide too.
- Complete the post event reporting process.
What you get:
- Financial support up to Rs. 5,000 for your first event
- End to end planning support from the FOSS United team
Stage 2: Explorer¶
Who: Clubs that have completed onboarding and run their first event.
What to do:
- Find at least 10 members to join the club
- Help every member (not just leads) complete at least one "Good First Task" in a track of their choice. This could be a first OSM edit, a translated sentence, a filed issue, a photo taken and uploaded with a Creative Commons licence, or anything small and real.
- Host at least two more hands-on events, one per contribution type
- Collaborate with other clubs in your college where relevant
- Work on a 3-month plan with your program manager
What you get:
- An onboarding kit from the FOSS United team.
- Access to list of contribution ideas and resource people who are part of the FOSS United community
- Micro-grants of up to Rs. 150 per attendee for meals at hands-on sessions
Stage 3: Contributor¶
Who: Clubs with sustained activity across events and contributions.
What qualifies:
- 20 or more contributions across the club
- At least 3 hands-on events run
- At least one blog post published (roughly once a semester)
- Active on the forum and in regular communication with the program manager
What to do:
- Continue running hands-on events and getting members to contribute
- Participate in monthly check-in calls with your program manager
- Look for opportunities to collaborate with other FOSS clubs and communities
What you get:
- Access to grants up to Rs. 10,000 or track-specific micro-grants
- Digital badges for active members
- Opportunity to attend or speak at city chapter meetups (up to 2 people)
- Opportunity to apply for a travel grant to speak at a conference
- Conference ticket grants for the top 3 active contributors
- Active club certificates and digital badges for members with 5 or more contributions
- Opportunity to host FOSSHack in your college
- Access to internship recommendations at social sector or open source organisations
- Free ticket to attend IndiaFOSS for your club members
Stage 4: Expert¶
Who: Clubs with a proven track record of contributions and a culture of open source on campus.
What to do:
- FOSS United will work with you individually to identify how we can help you. The focus shifts from following a structure to being connected with the broader network and finding opportunities that match your club's specific strengths.
What you get:
- Eligibility for additional project grants
- Opportunity to apply for travel grants to speak at conferences
- A direct pass to speak at IndiaFOSS, with mentorship through the proposal process
- Opportunity to attend or speak at city chapter meetups (up to 2 people)
Stage 5: Graduation¶
Who: Clubs at the end of their term, transitioning leadership.
What to do:
- Identify the next set of leads and connect them with the program manager
- Wrap up all documentation on the forum
- Share feedback on your experience as FOSS Club lead
What you get:
- Pathway into the FOSS United city chapter
- Added to the speaker and mentor pool, if applicable
- Option to mentor new clubs
- Free pass to attend IndiaFOSS that year to selected leads
How Progress is Tracked¶
You do not submit reports or applications to move between stages. The FOSS United team tracks activity internally based on what you post on the forum, your event reports, and your regular check-ins with your program manager. The clearest thing you can do to demonstrate progress is to document everything publicly: post event write-ups, link contributions, and stay active in conversation.
If you are running a club independently and want to use this framework for internal tracking, treat each stage as a milestone to reflect on with your team at the end of each month. The criteria above give you a concrete way to assess where you are and what to focus on next.