Sponsoring event attendees

[Paul W. Frields]

On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 07:34:18AM -0700, Robyn Bergeron wrote:
> On 02/15/2012 06:30 AM, Paul W. Frields wrote:
> >On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 09:17:38AM -0600, Bruno Wolff III wrote:
> >>On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 07:49:34 -0700,
> >>   Robyn Bergeron<rbergero at redhat.com>  wrote:
> >>>(That said, we have seen a dramatic drop in the number of FADs
> >>>sponsored; I don't think this is necessarily a sign of anything
> >>>concrete, except perhaps (a) people have forgotten that this
> >>>resource exists, or (b) we have fewer people working on new projects
> >>>or solving problems that they are excited about, and can produce
> >>>results face-to-face more rapidly. I suspect the latter may be the
> >>>case, and is certainly troubling, but is a topic not really for this
> >>>email.)
> >>My (possibly selective) memory is that Paul instigated a lot of the FADs
> >>when he was FPL. Since his job change he has had to cut back his time and
> >>probably isn't in a position to see the needs and push for setting up FADs
> >>as much as he used to be able to.
> >In one sense, Bruno's statement confused me, because I only recall
> >helping to drive a handful of FADs when I was FPL.  Then in another
> >sense it made me feel happy someone thought I was doing a good job
> >with those.  At least I think that's what he meant, so thanks for the
> >kind words Bruno! :-)
> >
> >But in truth, I recall most of the FADs during my FPL time being
> >driven by other Fedora contributors.  What I do recall doing is
> >talking about FADs often, and when good ideas came up, suggesting to
> >the key contributors involved that they should organize a FAD event
> >once they had a plan for the work.
> And much of the framework for "having a FAD" was actually set up by,
> IIRC, yourself and Community Architecture - the documentation is
> fairly comprehensive (although perhaps hard to find or know about
> without people broadly advertising or suggesting it.)
> 
> My first FAD... well, Fedora event, period -- was the Marketing FAD
> we did in March, 2010.  Mel Chua and I mostly drove the arrangement
> of that, with Mel doing the pointing of, "Yes, you can," and
> credit-carding, and myself doing agenda-driving with plenty of
> encouragement from Paul and Mel.  It was incredibly valuable, both
> from a productivity as well as team-building/bonding experience --
> and I think that we, collectively, simply don't take enough
> opportunities to do these, don't point it out as a resource to or
> encourage it amongst others.
> 
> >It does seem like there were more of them a couple years ago than
> >perhaps there were in the last year.  But unfortunately the last part
> >of Bruno's statement is only too accurate; I definitely don't get the
> >time for Fedora these days that I used to.  However, since I didn't
> >really drive many of the FADs personally I suspect
> QUICK! Sentence-finishing FAD! (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Whoops, should have concluded "they don't block on me. ;-)"

> I think I do want to amend my previous statement about quantity of
> FADs a bit: We do continue to have FADs -- I think we are having
> fewer of them that are focused on solving a particular problem, and
> perhaps more of them that are oriented as "Mini-FUDCons."
> 
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FADs#Past_FADs
> 
> Not saying that that is a bad or good thing, just pointing out that
> I previously spoke incorrectly. :)

2010: 15
2011: 10
2012:  9 (2 of them virtual)

We certainly could have more, and I agree that solving a particular
problem is usually the best motivator for having a successful one.

-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
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