[FAmSCo] change of FAD status

Jiri Eischmann eischmann at redhat.com
Tue Dec 18 14:16:08 UTC 2012


Hi all,
this is something we discussed at EMEA FAD and I'd like to start the
discussion in FAmSCo, too.
Currently, Fedora Activity Days have a status of premium events and are
treated the same way FUDCons are. In my opinion, it's mainly for
historical reasons and we might want to consider changing it. Here are
some reasons:

* FADs are not premium events. IMHO premium events are big and important
events that need special attention in terms of planning, budgeting,
reimbursement etc. such as FUDCons, FOSDEM, LinuxCon. FADs are small,
(mostly) Fedora-only events where a small group of contributors get
together to work on something. This doesn't sound like a premium event
to me.

* We've created a new system to approve expenses with clear
responsibilities and I think it's been working well so far.
Unfortunately, because FADs are premium events they are excluded from
this system. And as EMEA FAD showed, it doesn't work very well. There is
no documented process to ask for a FAD budget (which is not the problem
I'm trying to solve now, we can simply create it), people ask for
approvals in the FAmSCo trac, but FAmSCo is not the one who has the
right to make the decision. Requests are left unapproved. For example,
it's been a week since I returned from EMEA FAD and my request for
travel subsidy has not even been approved yet! Well, I can nag people
around (I certainly will at some point), but it's not how things should
work.

Which leads me to two potential solutions:

1. FADs will be treated differently from other events, but all requests
related to FADs will be approved by FAmSCo. Then all tickets in FAmSCo
trac will again belong to FAmSCo. And I also think we recently got rid
of many requests and have a good response time in approving things.

2. FADs will be treated like any other event. So all expenses under
$2000 related to FAmSCo will be handled by regions and people would
follow standard processes. This solution brings a few questions we'd
have to answer:
How much are FADs tied to regions? EMEA FAD certainly is, but what about
say Security SIG FAD? Should the region have the right to approve it
just because it happens to take place in that region?
How is it going to be reflected in regional budgets? Because if regions
should approve FADs, it should come from their budgets.

Please think about it and come with your opinion. This is an area that
will definitely need some changes.

Jiri 





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