[Fedora-ambassadors-list] Steering committee meeting last night.

Patrick Barnes nman64 at n-man.com
Tue Mar 14 05:11:46 UTC 2006


On Monday 13 March 2006 22:07, Clair wrote:
>
> * Why is funding, swag, and events seen as the three 'big' things? No.
> Events are NOT the most important part of ambassadors. I cannot stress this
> enough. Funding and swag should not be seen as something that makes or
> breaks ambassadors. The only swag that is imo important is the DVDs. And
> these can be produced much more cheaper than the plan so far, and should be
> sent to ALL ambassadors whether they are going to an event or not. Handing
> out DVDs to friends and people "on the street" is a very big way fedora is
> spread.

The general goal here was to break down the assorted responsibilities that 
fall to the Steering Committee into key groups that can be managed by small 
teams within the committee.  In the past, that division was between the 
budget, merchandise, and event management.  As you can see in the transcript, 
this was further refined.

The coverage of merchandise and events includes merchandise to be distributed 
to the assorted Ambassadors who are not participating in large events, and 
management of smaller events.  This is not a dedication to large events.

I know what you're worried about, but rest assured that we are trying to make 
things work in an efficient manner that will help us in devoting resources to 
smaller events and singular efforts.  These things take a little hashing 
through, and you can see some of that in the transcript.

>
> * Alex is trying to combine mentors and ambassadors. This is a sign that
> Alex is thinking that ambassadors is some master project. No. It's not.
> Ambassadors are here to do one job, and one job only. You do not discuss,
> or deal with, marketing. You do not mentor. You tell people about Fedora.
> You tell them anywhere, not just in the big events.

This point was discussed.  The idea came up innocently, and was rejected 
through agreement.  We do need to try to work cooperatively with the Mentors 
project, but we did agree that it would be inappropriate to combine the two 
projects.

>
> * The only overlap between ambassadors and mentors is that the ambassadors
> project is in serious need of support. There are too many ambassadors who,
> in my opinion, do not know what their role is, or how to fulfill it. It is
> good that the committee is starting to see this.

Yes, we do need to come up with a simple, unified idea to spread among the 
Ambassadors as our motto.  Currently, there is a great deal of confusion 
within the project with regard to our goals, purpose, and scope, and we are 
all in agreement that this is something we need to correct.

Additionally, we are in a position to help the Mentors program.  Ambassadors 
can do three key things to help the Mentors program:

1. Many Ambassadors would be well-qualified to act as Mentors.  There are some 
similar requirements and some Ambassadors have skills that would be helpful 
to new contributors.

2. Ambassadors can help spread the word about the Mentors program to attract 
new Mentors from among Fedora contributors.

3. Ambassadors can attract new contributors to the Fedora Project, and direct 
them to the Mentors program when they need help.

>
>
> As a side note:
> (19:21:20) rjune [n=rjune at oh-67-76-200-198.sta.sprint-hsd.net] entered the
> room.
> (19:21:34) lxmaier: rjune: who are you?
> (19:22:23) lxmaier: rjune: this is a members-only meeting, please leave
> (19:22:42) rjune left the room (Kicked by lxmaier (lxmaier)).
>
> I was taken aback when reading this - it shocks and saddens me. rjune is an
> important member of the fedora community. Several things spring to mind
> here: 1) By asking "Who are you", it has become clear that Alex does not
> know, or care about, anyone who is not an ambassador. She should seriously
> consider getting to know strong community members like rjune, whether
> ambassador or not.
> 2) Fedora is open source. We are open. Why should someone be stopped from
> spectating (or even taking part?) in a meeting, whether it's committee or
> not, whether they're members or not?
> 3) /kick is a tool that should be used lightly. Not only does keeping +o go
> against freenode guidelines, using said op tools is not recommended unless
> it is really necessary, since it raises the channel temperature.
>

You are correct in that this could potentially have been handled in a more 
amicable manner.  I must point out that rjune has not been an active 
contributor with the Fedora Project.  Even his involvement with Fedora Unity 
has been limited.  It is perfectly understandable that Alex would not know 
who he is.  Each person has a unique perspective to know a different subset 
of our contributors, and Alex has not had the widest window to learn who 
everyone is.  The kick might have been overkill, as simply asking him to 
leave would have probably been sufficient.  In the future, we will do a 
better job of handling these meeting so that everyone understands what is 
going on.

The Steering Committee decided it was necessary to have a meeting where they 
could discuss some pressing issues without the distractions that are usually 
faced in the #fedora-mktg channel and when other Ambassadors are involved.  
This was not an opportunity for people to ask questions, make requests, seek 
opinions, express concerns, or any other such things.  This was an 
opportunity for the Steering Committee to work out concerns over the project 
management that are of specific interest to the SC and are not suited for 
involvement of other Ambassadors.  The meeting had to be conducted privately 
to get things done.  It was very productive as a result.  The transcript is 
available, and feedback, such as yours, is welcome.

Future meetings like this are planned.  They will also not be open while the 
meeting is in progress.  Rest assured that this is not against the ideals of 
Fedora.  The restrictions on these meetings are in place to allow the 
meetings to fulfill their purpose without interruption, not for propriety 
reasons.

Having a proper channel setup will help in avoiding issues such as the above, 
and will allow us to keep the channel temperature a bit lower.

-- 
Patrick "The N-Man" Barnes
nman64 at n-man.com

http://www.n-man.com/

Have I been helpful?  Rate my assistance!
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-- 

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