[SoC] GSoC - News, changes and some reminders for 2017

[Helmut Kudrnovsky]

Dear OSGeo-GSoC community,

some news, guidelines and changes coming from the Google Open Source Programs Office for mentors and students:

* There are *3 evaluation periods* this year where mentors are required to complete an evaluation of their student. After the first 4 weeks of coding, after 8 weeks of coding and then at the end (after 12 weeks of coding). The evaluation forms are shorter than previous years so they should take less time to complete.

* Students can only be accepted into GSoC *2 times*. Google Admins will do a sanity check on all accepted students once you select your students in late April so you do not need to be concerned about this.

*GSoC Mentor-invite Mailing List*

* @Mentors: For those that have opted into the GSoC mentor mailing list (available on your profile page) we will bulk add you to the list on March 6th. Then we will add additional folks who opt in about once a week throughout the program period. You can remove yourself through the groups interface at any time. You can also update your settings to receive a daily digest of emails and other options. This generally is not a very high traffic list but there will be more questions over the next two months on this list than probably later in the program. The GSoC mentor mailing list is a great way to ask questions of other org admins and mentors and to get their feedback and help.

*Roles and responsibilities:*

If you have not yet read the Roles and Responsibilities [1] created with the help of GSoC Org admins and mentors, we highly encourage you to read this - it will help everyone understand what is expected of them over the next 6 months. You may also want to check out the Mentor Manual, which contains important information for both Mentors and Org Admins at each stage of the program.

*Important Upcoming Dates*

Now - March 20: Proactive students will reach out to you and ask questions about your ideas list and receive feedback from your org so they can start crafting their project proposals.
March 20 - April 3 16:00 UTC: Students will submit their draft proposals through the program website for you to give solid feedback on.
April 3 - 16: Review all submitted student proposals with your org and consider how many you want to select and how many you can handle. Decide on the minimum/maximum number of student slots to request.
April 17, 16:00 UTC: Deadline to submit slot requests (OAs enter requests)
April 19, 16:00 UTC: Slot allocations are announced by Google
April 19 - 24 16:00 UTC : Select the proposals to become student projects. At least 1 mentor must be assigned to each project before it can be selected. (OAs enter selections)
April 24 - May 4: Google Program Admins will do another review of student eligibility
May 4: Accepted GSoC students/projects are announced
May 4 - 29: Community Bonding Period
May 29: Deadline to notify Google Admins of an inactive student that you wish to be removed from the program
May 30: Coding begins
June 26-30: First evaluation period - mentors evaluate their students and students evaluate mentors
July 24 - 28: Second evaluation period - mentors evaluate students, students evaluate mentors
August 21- 29: Students wrap up their projects and submit final evaluation of their mentor
August 29 - September 5: Mentors submit final evaluations of students
September 6: Students passing GSoC 2017 are announced 

Cheers,
The OSGeo GSoC Team (forwarding from the Google Open Source Programs Office)

[1] https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/help/responsibilities