From Fedora Project Wiki

Revision as of 03:58, 4 November 2015 by Decause (talk | contribs)

Fedora.next Background

Fedora.next has precipitated a number of other changes and improvements across the project, and up and down the organizational stack--from release engineering with Bodhi2 and other tools, (reducing the amount of time it takes to ship updates by HALF) to governance and strategy with Fedora Council Objectives.

Another change that has been in the works is improving the budget process by which we allocate financial resources. FAMSco has effectively regionalized the process by which local community members request, spend, and report funds. This approach we think is an effective one--we agree that each region knows their own communities and their needs best, and should control their own budgets.

Historically, regions that needed to make extraordinary expenditures would need to get FAMSco approval. Since the transition away from FAMSCo, this responsibility has now been delegated to the council.

Starting in FY17, there are going to be changes to the budgeting process. The new role of Fedora Community Action and Impact Lead (FCL) has a mandate to improve the transparency of the budgeting process. After some months of planning and discussion, we have come up with a process to move forward in a post-FAMSCo Fedora.

This process builds off of the work that FAMSCo and other ambassadors (particularly cwickert) did when proposing the idea of FOSCo, and also includes input from Fedora Council, the Fedora Project Lead, and other Fedora Leadership.

The Fedora Budget Process

At some point in the near future will be a webpage to inform project members on all things budget at: http://budget.fedoraproject.org

The budget will be split into discreet chunks as follows (FY17 and Beyond):

* Fedora Premier Events (FLOCK/FUDCons) 
* Regional Budgets (LATAM/APAC/EMEA/NA) 
* Discretionary Council Budget (non-regional general funds)

The budget will be proposed and approved according to a Timeline roughly as follows:

+----------+-------------+-------------------------------+
| Calendar | Fiscal Year | Topic                         |
+----------+-------------+-------------------------------+
| Feb '16  | FY 16       | Final Quarter Budget Report   |
| Mar '16  | FY 17       | Budget Adjustment/Allocation  |
| May '16  | FY 17       | First Quarter Budget Report   |
| Jul '16  | FY 18       | Budget Proposal for Next Year |
| Aug '16  | FY 17       | Second Quarter Budget Report  |
| Aug '16  | FY 18       | Budget Session at Flock       |
| Sep '16  | FY 18       | Ratification by Council       |
| Oct '16  | FY 18       | Budget Submission             |
| Nov '16  | FY 17       | Third Quarter Budget Report   |
| Feb '17  | FY 17       | Final Quarter Budget Report   |
| Mar '17  | FY 18       | Budget Adjustment/Allocation  |
| May '17  | FY 18       | First Quarter Budget Report   |
| Jul '17  | FY 19       | Budget Proposal for Next Year |
+----------+-------------+-------------------------------+

Regional Ambassadors will manage their own budgets, and report back quarterly on action and impact.

If a region does not submit a budget proposal within the timeline above, their budget will be allocated as general discretionary funds.

Regional Delegates

Each region will have 3 delegated roles:

  • Treasurer
  • Logistician
  • Storyteller

One person may hold no more than (2) of these roles at the same time.

The Regional Treasurer will be responsible for recording costs and disbursing funds (Cardholders don't necessarily have to serve this role, but it would reduce the amount of hops between expense and report.)

The Storytelling Delegate will be accountable for Regional Reports. They don't necessarily have to write all the original content, they just need to be accountable for ensuring content makes it out onto our channels.

Reimbursement

Holding with our current policies, reimbursement will depend on submission of an Event Report to the appropriate channels (mail lists, communityblog, and the planet/magazine when applicable)

Event reports going forward should also include a very short list of bullet points. These bullet points are the necessary ammunition we need to reinforce our proposals to increase funding for regional programs going forward.

Action is any typical or special activity that ambassadors lead regionally such as:

  • Tabling at Conferences, Conventions, or other large events
  • Presenting/Representing Fedora at Local Meetups
  • Organizing FADS, Workshops, or other Fedora-specific Events

Impact includes the outcomes from the activities as above. This includes things like:

  • Attendees contacted or reached
  • Fedora Badges issued at or as a result of the event
  • Pull requests and patches submitted as a result of event
  • Bugs reported
  • Candidates sourced (i.e. Outreachy, GSoC, and/or other FOSS programs)
  • Articles/Videos/Photos/Content published by or about regional team
  • Social media mentions and interactions generated by event
  • Other supporting evidence data that shows the results of your effort
  • Links to and reach of Posts on Fedora Channels

Delegation Benefits

Benefits for assuming the roles assigned above are as follows:

  1. Budget Allocation for their region
  2. Delegates will get a special Fedora Badge on http://badges.fedoraproject.org
  3. ONE delegate from each region will get travel/accomodations covered for their region's
   Fedora Premier Event (FLOCk or FUDCon)

This new budget and regional delegation model will become part of a larger Community wide body. This body will have broad participation across subprojects, websites, and teams, with Regional Ambassador Delegates having the largest number of members. This body will be the subject of future discussion once we've gotten our regional ambassador strategy back on track.