[Ambassadors] FUDcon LATAM 2011 decision & FAmSCo meeting minutes

[David Nalley]

At today's FAmSCo meeting the primary topic was a decision on the
location for FUDcon LATAM 2011.

This particular FUDcon bid process featured 4 very well qualified
proposals, from Foz do Iguaçu, Porto Alegre, Valparaíso, and Panama.
There were no bad choices in any of the proposals, and in truth any of
the venues would make an ideal venue. It's a sign of a very healthy
community that so many dedicated individuals have stepped up offering
to host FUDcon.  As noted in the bid process, regional ambassador
leadership, and ultimately the budget owner  (CommArch, represented by
Max Spevack, who is also on FAmSCo) is responsible for venue decision.
In the end the decision was for Panama as the location for FUDcon
LATAM 2011.

What follows is a bit of explanation, as a decision did have to be
made. The following issues seemed to be important during the course of
the FAmSCo meeting:

1. Whether we wanted a stand-alone FUDcon or one attached to a F/LOSS event.

and

2. Whether we wanted FUDcon to continue occurring in locations that
have previously held a FUDcon.

On the first point, historically FUDcon LATAM has generally been
attached to a F/LOSS conference. Other regions have noted that this
has been a potential difficulty. While attaching to an existing
conference potentially garners a larger audience, it also adds
distraction to both events. FAmSCo felt that a stand-alone event has
the potential for greater impact.

Despite the fact that we think that FUDcon is best as a standalone
event, we recognize the fact that events such as Latinoware and FISL
are key events in LATAM.  As such, we continue to encourage the
development of FADs at events such as these, and both FAmSCo and
CommArch are committed to ensuring that these can be funded at
appropriate levels.

Secondly, we have held FUDcons in Brazil, and Chile. While we tend to
have a larger contributor community in those regions, we felt it was
important to move FUDcon to a new region of LATAM, in hopes that we
can grow our contributor base in both maturity and number.

In the course of the meeting, there seemed to be repeated concern over
the fact that a large portion of our LATAM contributor base is from
South America, and the cost of travelling outside of that region.
Travel sponsorships are available, and the Fedora Project, via
CommArch is committed to seeing contributors from all over LATAM
attending FUDcon.

David Nalley
on behalf of FAmSCo


Minutes: http://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-meeting-1/2010-11-01/fedora-meeting-1/2010-11-01-17.59.html

Minutes (text):
http://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-meeting-1/2010-11-01/fedora-meeting-1.2010-11-01-17.59.txt

Log: http://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-meeting-1/2010-11-01/fedora-meeting-1.2010-11-01-17.59.log.html