How to get sponsored into the packager group

Sponsorship model
Getting sponsored allows anyone interested to become a Fedora maintainer and get direct commit and upload access to their proposed software packages. We require people to get sponsored into the  group before getting this access to Fedora to ensure that they have someone that they can go to with questions. Sponsorship is not automatic and requires that you find a willing sponsor. Depending on the sponsor and how much time they have to spend with you, they may require that you demonstrate that you have the knowledge to maintain Fedora packages properly (including an understanding of the Fedora packaging guidelines) or they may be willing to take you on if you just show that you are eager and willing to learn those things from them. A sponsor will assist you with some aspects of packaging and the submission process but will expect you to read about the process and guidelines for packages on the wiki for a large amount of your understanding of how things work.

Convincing someone to sponsor you
There are several ways to get sponsored into the  group depending on your interest. In many cases doing a mixture of different things will increase your chances of being sponsored.

Submitting quality new packages
Until you are sponsored into the  group you are not able to own packages or to check in changes to packages which you own. However, you can still create an initial package and submit it for review as talked about on the joining the package collection maintainers page. When you open your review request in bugzilla, you should block the FE-NEEDSPONSOR tracking bug, that way all of the sponsors will be able to see your sponsorship request. Although  is set on the package's review request, it is the person that needs to be sponsored into the   group, not the package. The package undergoes a review and approval that is separate from someone sponsoring you.

When submitting a new package, usually a sponsors finds you, but you can take a look at the list of packager sponsors (only accessible with a Fedora Account) for someone you know. Sending bulk requests to the list is discouraged. If you can't find anyone that you have a connection with, you may want to trying hanging out in the #fedora-devel IRC channel to get to know some people. Also you might find a sponsor in a that fits to your submitted package.

Sponsors who work with people submitting new packages are looking to see how well you are going to be able to maintain this package which is primarily about whether you can package according to Fedora's Packaging Guidelines but they'll also take into account how you'll be able to respond to bugs against the code itself. If you like, you can include other information about your involvement with the Fedora and upstream communities that you think might help the sponsors in their decision. If you are an upstream author of the package you are submitting or if you are active in the community that surrounds it, please say so. If you can line up one or more existing Fedora contributors who are willing to maintain the package along with you, even if they are not sponsors, please indicate that as well.

The sponsors that look at new package submissions often ask new packagers to do some package reviews in order to further show that they know what they're doing. If you do some reviews ahead of time, you can show the sponsors that you've both read these pages and understand the guidelines. Go ahead and link to other package review requests where you've left comments and reviews (More on reviews  below).

Basically, the more information that you make available, the quicker you will find a sponsor.

Reviewing packages
It is true that before you have been sponsored you will not have the ability to assign review tickets to yourself but you can still make comments on other review requests and the quality of those comments can go a long way towards convincing a sponsor of your knowledge. They will also help out the other reviewers, which will be much appreciated. Please restrict yourself to only make comments and add yourself to the CC list, until you are familiar with other possible changes of a bug's status. Please do not change the fedora-review flag as this may make it difficult for other reviewers to tell that the package still needs a final review.

Reviews follow the review guidelines. Note that it's not strictly necessary for you to work through the entire checklist, but please do as much as you can; the more you indicate that you understand, the better your chances of being sponsored.

You can search in the list of reviews in progress  for review requests to comment on. If you would like to peruse completed reviews to see how it's done, take a look at the list of approved reviews. If you want to work on review requests that nobody else officially reviews, see the list of unassigned review requests.

After making review commentary, it is helpful if you include references to the tickets you've commented upon in the review tickets you have submitted so that possible sponsors will be able to easily see the work you've done.

Become a co-maintainer
Another way to enter the  group is by co-maintaining a package that is already in Fedora. To get sponsored this way you need to convince the current owner of that package to let you co-maintain the package and they will act as your mentor -- teaching you how to package properly in Fedora and how to use the tools available for building and distributing packages. To get an owner to agree to this you may need to demonstrate that you have some understanding of packaging already or at least, that you are eager to learn. Submitting patches on bug reports, preparing updated packages if the maintainer is behind on creating an update, or otherwise communicating with the maintainer that you are willing to help are ways to show that you are worth the package owner's investment to train you.

In some cases the package owner is a sponsor in the  group and can sponsor you themselves. If they are not a sponsor, they can get another existing sponsor to do so, either by contacting a sponsor personally and asking them to proxy the sponsorship or by opening a ticket in the fesco trac instance stating that they are a package owner who would like you to co-maintain their package. They agree to be responsible for mentoring you in how to follow the Fedora Packaging Guidelines and how to use the tools Fedora provides for building and pushing packages but need someone to sponsor you since they are not sponsors themselves. A FESCo member can sponsor you into the  group once that agreement for mentorship exists.

Provenpackagers
Provenpackagers are members of the 'provenpackager' group. In addition to the rights granted to members of 'packager', provenpackagers are able to commit changes to packages they do not own or maintain. If interested, see also the procedure to become a member of the provenpackager group.

How to sponsor
If you are looking for information on sponsoring someone, take a look at how to sponsor a new contributor.