Add Q3 BEAR WG Report

TI-reports/2026/2026-Q3-BEAR-WG.md

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+# 2026 Q3 BEAR WG
+[Q2 2026 TAC report - not yet merged](https://github.com/ossf/tac/pull/611)
+
+## Overview
+
+The BEAR WG continues our mission to increase representation and strengthen the overall effectiveness of the cybersecurity workforce. The WG continues to see relatively low regular attendance in meetings (3 attendees on avg) since moving to the new time of Wednesday at 11am ET to support the new interim co-leads. Slack engagement has also been reduced since the OpenSSF Africa left and now we are running the OpenSSF Africa SIG.
+Over the past quarter, we've made progress in these areas:
+* No Welcome calls have been hosted since March 26. We have July-Sept planned out with confirmed groups.
+* Summer 2026 mentorship program is in full swing with mentee evaluations due on July 10.
+* OSSAfrica SIG has been rebranded to OpenSSF Africa SIG with 3 co-leads, Ejiro, Ijeoma, and Harmony marching forward to support.
+* Interim co-leads, Sal and Ejiro, have started to assist and collaborate towards OpenSSF Africa SIG.
+* Major strides have been accomplished by the OpenSSF Africa SIG with various proposal, blog series and workshops ideas, and a blog post from their experience in AfricaCyberFest, pending Marketing review
+* OpenSSF Africa working towards a sponsored spot at the KCDNigeria conference.
+
+## Welcome Calls
+### Purpose
+Our Welcome Calls are a monthly event in which we highlight maintainers and/or contributors from OpenSSF Projects or working groups to talk about their initiative. The goal is to allow for information sharing for new members to understand the initiative, current efforts, where the TI needs help, and how to connect. Each month, we aim to host diverse TIs to help spread the awareness of OpenSSF WGs and Projects. 
+### Current Status
+We have unfortunately been unable to engage with other working groups interested in participating in the Welcome Calls from April-June. As the calls have been conflicting with conference dates and other priorities.
+### Up Next
+Below is our current schedule for the upcoming Welcome Calls with agreed OpenSSF WGs and Projects.
+
+* July 23 - OpenSSF Africa
+* August 27 - Summer Mentorship Showcase
+* Sept 24 - DevRel
+
+We will continue to look for groups to participate in October and November. 
+## OpenSSF Mentorship Program
+### Purpose
+Hands-on experience and contributions to OSS projects are a major advantage for obtaining a job in SWE and/or cybersecurity. At the same time, mentoring and coaching experiences are increasingly viewed as important leadership skills in tech jobs. The OpenSSF Mentorship Program (via LFX) offers these experiences and opportunities to students and individuals from underrepresented groups to boost the skills they need to enter the cybersecurity workforce, and to OpenSSF project maintainers wishing to grow their community by mentoring rising developers.
+### Current Status
+* We are aiming towards the half-way mark with the Mentorship and still hosting 8 mentees.
+* Mentee evaluations are underway with mentors having a deadline of July 10 to complete the evaluation.
+* Sal and Ejiro have been granted access to the mentorship channel to support and coordinate the August Welcome Call.
+### Up Next
+* Mentorship to run June 1-August 21 (12 weeks)
+* Mentees will showcase their projects during the August Welcome Call (coordinated by Sal and Ejiro)
+* Kate and Yesenia will follow up while Marcela is out June-August.
+* Kate will support once Yesenia is out in August.
+## Conference Participation
+### Purpose
+Members of the OpenSSF BEAR WG community present talks and panel discussions at major industry conferences to raise awareness about the WG and to engage with folks beyond the OpenSSF. A primary goal of the talks and panels is to share their experiences and advice for newcomers to the OSS and cybersecurity space.
+### Current Status
+We had two talks accepted at OSS NA + OpenSSF Community Day, presented by Marcela:
+* OSSNA: BEAR-ing Fruit: How OpenSSF’s Working Group Is Diversifying Open Source Security
+* OpenSSF Keynote: BEAR-ing Fruit: A Year of Learning, Mentorship, and Community Building in Open Source Security
+* As well as hosted a BEAR Lunch Meetup on Wednesday during OSS NA.
+
+OpenSSF Africa
+* held a booth at AfricaCyberFest and presented their talk during the conference about OSS in Africa.
+* Working towards a sponsorship package with the Kubernetes Community Day (KCD) in Nigeria in Oct 2026 - goal is to get a booth, speaker slot, and community shout out. 
+* Sal and Ejiro are working on a CFP for OpenSSF Community Day Europe (Prague)
+
+DevRel
+* Spoke at and attended the OSSNA and UN Open Source Week
+
+
+### Up Next
+Most conference participation for the remainder of the year will flow through the OpenSSF Africa and DelRev SIGs. We will revisit conferences in the later part of 2026 and early 2027.
+## OpenSSF Africa SIG
+### Purpose
+The SIG is dedicated to fostering collaboration, education, and innovation in open source software and cybersecurity throughout Africa. Our goal is to empower African developers, security professionals, and enthusiasts to contribute to and benefit from the global open source ecosystem.
+### Current Status
+Throughout Q3, the SIG:
+* SIG was rebranded as OpenSSF Africa SIG, after initial SIG leads left.
+* New co-leads are all from Nigeria region: Ejiro, Ijeoma, and Harmony.
+* Team has worked together to generate the following proposals and strategy for the next steps of OpenSSF Africa
+    * MSVR Strategy proposal for OpenSSF Africa structure
+    * Research proposal to uncover missing gaps and information about OSS in Africa
+        * This has been shared with David Wheeler and we are looking at reaching out to other organizations to help fund the research
+* Blog post in draft and to be reviewed by Marketing for their involvement with Africa CyberFest
+* KCD Nigeria - Harmony is working with the conference committee to negotiate a sponsorship award that will grant OpenSSF Africa a booth, speaker slot, social media shoutout, breakout session, and potentially a hackathon. Working with Stacey on budgets and negotiation ask.
+### Up Next
+* Generate a blog series of the various OpenSSF projects - targeting exposure to several Africa regions including Nigeria and Gambia
+* Sal and Ejiro are working on a CFP for OpenSSF Community Day Europe (Prague)
+
+## DevRel SIG
+### Purpose
+Demonstrate the value proposition of making developer's lives easier and reduce perceived workload of OpenSSF
+* Increase community engagement with OpenSSF Technical Initiatives and Events.
+* Increase awareness and visibility of OpenSSF, its projects, tools, initiatives.
+* Increase non-member contributions / participation
+* Increase adoption
+
+### Current Status
+
+* Two sessions from DevRel community members (Katherine Druckman (JetBrains), Stacey Potter (OpenSSF), Tabatha DiDomenico (G-Research), Kadi McKean (ReversingLabs)) at cdCon (May 18–20, Minneapolis), both Room 200C, Tuesday May 19:
+* Bring Your Lunch, We'll Bring Our Notebooks: Securing Software Workflows — 12:45pm CDT — Open-floor feedback session with project maintainers in the room — no slides, no pitches. 
+Security Things: How OpenSSF's Technical Initiatives Keep You Safe From the Upside Down! — 2:10pm CDT — Real supply chain problems mapped to OpenSSF solutions, with lightning-round demos from Working Group Leads and Project Maintainers..
+### Up Next
+* DevRel community meeting July 9 11:30am ET 
+* DevRel has submitted talks for:
+  * Open Source SecurityCon NA 2026
+  * Open Source Summit EU
+  * OpenSSF Community Day
+* They're also working to prep shareable content/materials (“talks in a box” style with CFP drafts, talk outlines and slides) so the community is able to give talks on OpenSSF, WGs, TI’s/Projects.
+
+## Questions/Issues for the TAC
+* Welcome Calls: We have been struggling to get responses from other WGs willing to host a Welcome Call. Would love the TAC’s help in promoting these as part of our more general community onboarding resources.
+## Additional Information
+* Reminder: 
+   * Marcela has stepped away for parental leave
+   * Yesenia is planning to go on parental leave targeting August 14
+   * With the 3 meeting gap between Yesenia leaving and Marcela returning, our goal is to keep the BEAR WGs with Ejiro and Sal serving as interim co-chairs to support the August mentorship showcase and have a channel for OpenSSF Africa to communicate through.