diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/committers-guide/article.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/committers-guide/article.sgml
index 731e56fd14..266d31b7a6 100644
--- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/committers-guide/article.sgml
+++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/committers-guide/article.sgml
@@ -1052,7 +1052,9 @@ Host pcvs.FreeBSD.org
     <title>Conventions and Traditions</title>
 
     <para>As a new developer there are a number of things you should do
-      first.  The first set is specific to committers only.</para>
+      first.  The first set is specific to committers only.  (If you are
+      not a committer, e.g. have GNATS-only access, then your mentor needs
+      to do these things for you.)</para>
 
     <sect2 id="conventions-committers">
       <title>Guidelines For Committers</title>
@@ -1142,16 +1144,19 @@ Host pcvs.FreeBSD.org
       </listitem>
 
       <listitem>
-	<para>If you subscribe to &a.svn-src-all.name; or the &a.cvsall;,
+	<para>(For committers only:)
+	  If you subscribe to &a.svn-src-all.name; or the &a.cvsall;,
 	  you will probably want to unsubscribe to avoid receiving duplicate
 	  copies of commit messages and their followups.</para>
       </listitem>
     </itemizedlist>
 
+    <note>
     <para>All <filename>src</filename> commits should go to
       &os.current; first before being merged to &os.stable;.  No major
       new features or high-risk modifications should be made to the
       &os.stable; branch.</para>
+    </note>
     </sect2>
 
     <sect2 id="conventions-everyone">