SURPRISE: Community Champions is reborn! Say hello to the MongoDB Community Advocacy Program (CAP)!

Hi there esteemed friends, acquintances, and friends-yet-to-be:

My name’s Billy Lim and I lead up the MongoDB Community Advocacy Program (CAP), formerly known as the Champions program! :trophy:

The CAP program is version 2.0 of the Champions program that was reinitialized almost single-handedly by @webchick in 2022. Our flagship community, well, advocacy program in that first year entailed a lot of listening and dialogue with our core group of veteran Champions — undisputed technical experts and practitioners of MongoDB from around the globe with model personal character and the force of desire to engage the global community from their position as authentic users and, yes, real advocates for the power of MongoDB to make the dreams of many come to life.

How? By enabling the next generation of products and services that will change the world, especially for those in need of the flexibility, ease of use, and high scalability enabled by our developer data platform.

From November to the very end of January, a small team of MongoDB staff, including yours truly, came together to build on the foundations set in 2022. We set about the goal of carefully scaling the program, not just by adding more Champion tier members, but by constructing and rolling out a new tier entirely: Enthusiasts - those who range from those early in their MongoDB learning journeys to those who know quite a bit but require more experience practicing the various methods of product advocacy (e.g. blogging, podcast creation, hosting webinars, giving public talks and engaging developers at conferences, writing technical documentation, and much more).

With the close of our first full intake cycle ever, we chose from a highly competitive field of applicants, pouring over application materials, vetting candidate backgrounds, conducting interviews, and gaining cross-functional internal approval of our final slate of CAP nominees.

:trophy: The result is that we are kicking off a new fiscal year with 37 Community Advocates (16 Champions and 21 Enthusiasts)!! :green_heart:

The future is uncertain for me, but I’m already quite fond of this amazing group of MongoDB Champions and Enthusiasts, and you can bet I will be very active in all of our MongoDB Community spaces in the coming months, supporting them regardless… and participating in all manner of other ways.

:information_source: For one full year, our Community Advocates will receive specialized programming meant to hone their abilities as advocates and greatly accelerate and extend their technical knowledge of MongoDB.

These members will receive an array of benefits contingent on their tier, including Q&A with Product staff, invitations to Round Tables, Private Preview program invites, priority slots to carry out key advocacy initiatives, social events, discounted tickets to in-person programming, and and even financially supported travel and accommodations to attend .Local events around the world! And much more. :))

:star2: Perhaps most important, these individuals - who represent an extremely rich and heterogeneous mix of technological interests - are united by their shared passion for community engagement and a fierce curiosity that we hope will both be felt throughout the global developer community across the many spaces where MongoDB users gather.

We also intend to greatly elevate their profiles as budding or veteran MongoDB practitioners, so that their reach extends and thus more people are brought into the fold who we otherwise would not have reached.

:fist: The truth is, everyone deserves to know about what MongoDB can do for them if the platform fits their use case, and we’ve got an incredibly energetic and passionate community that is ready to get the word out across every medium you can imagine.

I know you’re wondering: “Well dang, did I miss out? When can I apply next?”

:stop_sign: This intake cycle is officially closed, but currently we plan to hold two intakes per year. If you have questions about how to prepare for the next intake so you can put forth a most competitive application, reply here with your general questions, or stay tuned to the CAP website, which will reflect new information about the 2023 program in the coming two weeks.

In the meantime, just take a look at the profile of Nuri Halperin, one of our phenom veteran Champions, for inspiration, while keeping in mind that we will intentionally weave together a diverse collective of individuals with each future intake. Nuri is awesome. But you don’t have to be Nuri!

:key: Be you, be true — just make sure your MongoDB knowledge is as up to snuff as possible when you apply (though there is no minimum knowledge requirement) and that you’ve got at least 2x examples of advocacy contributions to show, qualifying you for the Enthusiast tier, or 4x to show if you’re dreaming of “Championship.”

We are so excited to kick the year off with this extraordinary group. You will hear more about them with the coming public launch of the 2023 program. Stay tuned for more information on our next intake.

Yours in community,

Billy Lim
CAP Lead
Senior Community Engagement Manager, Global Developer Community


This could be you! Maybe not as impossibly dapper, but there’s always second place! :smile:

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I am super excited for Community Advocates

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