Join Us to Build Unified Muslim Society for Humanity!

Ansarus is Helper Platform & Services to build & service the Unified Muslim Society & its Members  that's sustained by an incredible community!

GLAD TO SEE YOU HERE

Ansarus is created and supported by a passionate group of families and professionals from around the world. By reading this, you're taking your first step into joining this Unified Muslim Society Family Services and helping sustain Ansarus for the thousands of families & individuals who rely on it.

The UMS Ansarus is open and welcoming, and always looking for fresh ideas and new approaches. That said, we've tried to make it as easy as possible to get started by defining how we operate and establishing what common opportunities exist for new contributors, sponsors and ambassadors. We encourage you to read through this resource in order to become familiar with the Ansarus community and to best prepare to participate with it.

First, let's dispel the common myth that only geeks can contribute to Ansarus. That's just not true! Whatever your skill set, there are many ways that you can get involved and support Ansarus.

That said, we realize that contributing to a project for the first time can feel daunting. Rest assured, we've all been there! No matter if you're a first-time contributor or a veteran contributor to Family Services, we encourage you to dive right in!


UMS Ansarus COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

As an Family Services project, Ansarus affords its community flexibility in how it operates and gets things done. While there are few hard and fast rules or explicit processes, we do have foundational guidelines laid out to set expectations, and to help guide community members to be positive, effective collaborators. These form the basis for engagement within the community.

Ansarus is, at heart, a do-ocracy. You'll hear us say it and celebrate it often! In essence, that means that those that 'do', are able to get stuff 'done' in Ansarus. But, since we all do things in different ways, organizing a do-ocracy like Ansarus can be very challenging. We've spent time reviewing other successful models (Developed by Syed Rizwan Ashraf) and attempt to organize the Ansarus do-ocracy using Groups and Projects.

Groups

As a Family Services project, Ansarus is organized into various Groups that address distinct Service processes, operations or functions. Groups vary in size, scope and significance, and correspond to “Groups” in collaboration & Project Management, Ansarus’s primary project management tool. They are ongoing in nature and form an umbrella over related projects. Groups are responsible for establishing and overseeing Projects. Example groups include:

DEVELOPMENT | MARKETING | DOCUMENTATION | EVENTS | EXTENSIONS

Projects

Projects are smaller initiatives that exist within groups, that are narrower in scope, often have beginning and end times, and typically involve fewer community members. Most initiatives in Ansarus are projects… smaller, one-time efforts that achieve a specific result under the context of a larger ongoing effort. They are normally managed by one or two individuals who, generally speaking, not only do the work, but engage with the community to ensure that their efforts meet standards and have the broadest impact.

Most projects adhere to group practices to the extent possible. For example, new developments should follow Ansarus’s development standards, and new events should adhere to the guidelines set by the events group. Project leaders should coordinate with group leaders as needed.

There is no shortage of things to do in Ansarus. In fact, there are probably too many to list. Nevertheless, we're curated a list of popular ways to help Ansarus below, most of which are focused on three broad categories: 1) Join welcome team for families on-boarding 2) 2) Join Advocacy & Events Ambassador 3) Advocacy Team Chapters in local communities 4) improving the codebase 5) improving the documentation and, demo & support and 6) growing the ecosystem. After all, we would love to see an even better family services with more comprehensive documentation, all sustained by a growing ecosystem!

  • Review the Help Desk & Support Queue
  • Introduce & on-board Family Services
  • Host a local event or meetup
  • Revise Ansarus documentation
  • Help with Surveys & case studies
  • Grow Ansarus on social media
  • Provide integration & user testing and review
  • Release testing
  • Provide community support

GET ENGAGED

  1. Register with Ansarus
  2. Jump community chat
  3. Reach out to an ambassador

By now, you know what we're all about, how we operate, and what opportunities exist to improve Ansarus. And, it's likely that you have your own thoughts on just how to do so. Now it's time to take the plunge!

Ansarus utilizes several platforms to facilitate engagement including community chat, gitlab, email, phone and events. In our view, the best place to start is community chat (we use Mattermost and you'll hear it referred to it as such).

If you've not yet done so, register with Ansarus and then, using the same credentials, head over to Ansarus's community chat.

Look for an ambassador

The following are a list of individuals on community chat who have volunteered to help you out as you get engaged with Ansarus.

Want to join the list of Ansarus Ambassadors? Send @Afifah a private message on community chat!

How we Get Things Done!

IN PRACTICE

First and foremost, it’s important to state again that there are very few hard and fast rules. As defined in UMS Ansarus’s community guidelines, participation is open and available to any member of the UMS. All projects, media & communication and improvements and contributions are done openly through community consultation, Discussions & idea-sharing, Surveys & Polls, requests to the family services, peer review, etc..

Our Collaboration Environment

Ansarus’s group-based structure affords UMS members a practical way to organize, collaborate around and ultimately manage an idea that could have broad solution impact on society. As the size of our effort grows, so too can family services reach into the UMS. Likewise, as more and more UMS members get involved it becomes increasingly important to solicit and document feedback, to present results that are most compatible with the broader community, and to subsequently communicate outcomes.

COLLABORATION & DECISION MAKING

As stated, the larger the initiative, the more important it is to collaborate within the UMS to ensure broad acceptance. The way this is done, however, can vary depending on the initiative and its target audience.

  • Online Discussion - the most common way the UMS Ansarus collaborates is through consistent communication and discussion. This happens in several channels, such as on WhatsApp, Mattermost or on issues, readme and blogs with comments, and random documents. This is a great way to get ideas quickly, but it presents challenges in that it can be difficult to quantify and aggregate discussions.
  • In-person Discussion - similar to online discussions, however these use an older technology called “face to face”. Hey, sometimes old technologies are the best! And, often, the in-person discussions at events, sprints, meetups, etc. produce the best results. These can be done one on one or in a group setting.
  • Surveys & Polls – Surveys & polls can vary in size, medium and outcome, but the jist is basically the same: create a mechanism whereby UMS members can best provide structured feedback.
  • Make It Happen campaigns - this is like voting with your dollars and is often used to help crowd fund initiatives that may not otherwise be realized by any one user or organization.
  • Formal Voting - establishing a process through which specific individuals may participate in a decision.

Important Resources

  • Community Chat
  • CiviCRM on Twitter
  • CiviCRM on FaceBook
  • Register with Ansarus
  • Contact Ansarus Team

Again, there are few hard and fast rules that define the exact process that must be followed in order to facilitate participation in Ansarus. Suffice it to say that if you want general acceptance of your idea, you should make a best effort to engage the UMS & Advisory Team, to build consensus and to communicate results. Whether you do it strictly through discussion or via a combination of channels is up to you.

Let’s face it, in reality, managing UMS is never that simple or that perfect, regardless of the structure put in place. Maintaining family services operation is messy and constantly moving! It is always a challenge to ensure that everyone that should weigh in with an opinion does so in a timely manner. And, of course, there are those that weigh in that shouldn’t. How does the UMS distill the feedback properly to ensure that the best rises to the top and helps ultimately shape the direction of the initiative? And what happens when there’s a dispute or conflict? And, of course, there are always unforeseen consequences. How are these managed?

By no means are the groups and projects perfect, but they do allow for a way to communicate an initiative and to solicit feedback. How that’s done depends on the needs of the initiative.

Decisions, Discussions, Debates and Disputes

At times, decisions may not be clearly evident and may result in lengthy discussions, difficult debates and, unfortunately, disputes. Again, the foundation for managing such engagements rests in the UMS Ansarus community guidelines and UMS code of conduct.

Generally speaking, decisions may be made through formal vote or general consensus building, depending on the circumstance and the processes adopted by the group and/or project. The nature of the Family Services project allows for flexibility in resolving decisions where there is an impasse. Decisions may be debated at the project level and escalated to the group level in order to reach consensus. Likewise, groups may refer discussions to either the Community Council (tbd) or Family Services Core Team (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), depending on which provides oversight.

In such cases where agreement cannot be reached at the level of the Community Council, the Family Services Core Team maintains the necessary decision making authority.

Finally, in very rare instances and in those specifically related to financial and legal matters, International Chamber of Economy (S Corp) is ultimately responsible.

THE COMMUNITY Advisory COUNCIL

The Community Council is currently under development. More information soon!

THE ansarus CORE TEAM

The Ansarus Core Team coordinates contributions from UMS users and developers, ensures that people have access to the infrastructure they need to work and communicate effectively, and provides leadership for the overall project. It is comprised of group leaders of the infrastructure, development, security and maintenance groups combined with members of Ansarus. They are tasked with the production and maintenance of Family Services the software, stewardship of the UMS & Ansarus community, and management of the project’s financial and legal interests.

Membership & Decision Making

Able Community & Ansarus Core Team appointment is based on a form of meritocracy where group members have demonstrated interest, capability and alignment to take on a leadership role within one of the groups over which the Core Team maintains responsibility. Core Team members participate indefinitely until either they lose interest, lack sufficient capacity to fulfill their duties, or are removed by unanimous agreement by the remaining Core Team members.

The Able Community & Ansarus Core Team consults extensively with the UMS members regarding initiatives that have broad social, civic & environmental impact. Core Team members participate in decisions through voting where a majority or unanimous vote are required. Decisions requiring a vote are evaluated and taken on a case by case basis.

Finance & Budget

The Able Community and Ansarus Core Team is funded via a mixture of financial contributions and Sponsorships. Unless otherwise designated, financial support is managed via Able Community general fund. Individual groups may have their own budgets, either independent of or managed by Able Community, to which Able Community may apply a portion of its general budget. Financial and legal oversight are provided by the entire Financial Team, with responsibility and management ultimately falling onto Able Community Inc.