More on refining the reference check questions
I had the comments below sent to me by a colleague who is external to the Mozilla Community, but who reads my work blog and has provided opinions in the past. He provided his thoughts about the questions we ask to help evaluate candidates for the community support/empowerment/building program.
(NB: notice how the name keeps referring to what we are hoping to do with this program? It started as Community Giving…but it can be so much more. Empowerment, building, support, etc. Still seeking that illusive name for this effort. Any ideas?)
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Back to the feedback on the questions (My questions are italicized and his comments are below each one):
• Can you articulate why you think supporting this volunteer will empower him or her and the Mozilla community?
Would it be helpful to articulate what kind of empowerment you are looking for? empowerment as a leader? as a better contributor? anything in particular
• Has the volunteer helped advance the core mission of Mozilla, which is providing innovation and choice on the Web?
Nice reiteration of the core mission on this.
• By providing a relatively small level of support to this volunteer, do you think it will provide a comparatively larger benefit to the Mozilla community? If so, how? And, if possible, by how much? (Guessing is allowed. 
)
Do you want to give any kind of objective leveling data here? ($100 in support or a new CPU or a new big monitor?) Perhaps a better way to tease out the answer to this question is to ask about how much do you think the volunteer will be able to amplify the support given her/him?
• Can you comment on the quality of the volunteer’s work? (High quality, but low quantity can be very valuable to the project.)
Why the parenthetical on this one? Something to elaborate upon regarding how low quality work can be valuable?
• Has the volunteer been collaborative, positive, and fun to work with?
Maybe append an “if so, how?” to the end of this one?
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Thanks for the comments. All are welcome and I will try to incorporate the suggestions above.
Further thoughts regarding the amplification/benefit-the-community question above:
• By providing a relatively small level of support to this volunteer, do you think it will provide a comparatively larger benefit to the Mozilla community? If so, how? And, if possible, by how much?
Maybe another way of teasing that information out would be to ask a similarly subjective question:
If this volunteer gets support, what do you think she/he will do with the support? Take it as payment for services rendered? or find a way to pay it forward into the community? how?
Hope you can help with this question. An applicant filed a Human Relations claim against a previous employer (race discrimination/harrassment) and received a settlement. I was told this after 2 interviews and while scheduling the final interview with the owner of the Company. The applicant claimed they were terminated from the previous position, which was held for only a few months, because of the claim. Can I legally ask for more detail and should I tell the owner of the Company of this claim before or after they do the final interview. An offer of employment will not be made by the owner of the Company after the interview. The offer would come from me. All other reference checks on this applicant are excellent.