Ambassadors/SteeringCommittee/Meetings/2006-05-15

= FAmSCo Meeting Minutes: 2006-05-15 =

Meeting Time

 * 2006-05-15 23:00 UTC

Attending

 * lxmaier: AlexMaier
 * mspevack_hm: MaxSpevack
 * gregdek_home: GregDeKoenigsberg
 * rwhetsel: RobertWhetsel
 * tchung: ThomasChung

Regrets

 * BobJensen

= Meeting Summary =
 * See  Meetings  page for current agenda

Budget

 * mspevack_hm reports:
 * working on getting a PO for the video contest stuff, that should be done tonight/tomorrow once i have time to breathe
 * other thing that's a big TODO for me is to update the budget table and figure out where we actually are money-wise. I'd like to do that for the next meeting
 * i need to have the finance guys run the numbers on the cost center and see how much money we've spent
 * lxmaier: I have a question on budget (table) http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/SteeringCommittee/Budget
 * why did we subtract the cost of DVDs and shipment from the budget? i thought the DVD portion of the budget was separate ?
 * mspevack_hm: well that update to the page wasn't me, but I agree with it. "DVD budget" is the cost of creating and delivering DVDs to people who need them"  it's not like we have a separate shipping budget
 * mspevack_hm: this is why we have such an incentive to get local production of stuff into place

Jack research on Issues

 * mspevack_hm:
 * JackAboutboul started his summer internship today. I've asked him to directly work on this problem, as per the proposal that I talked about several meetings ago
 * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/SteeringCommittee/Meetings/2006-05-01
 * he's researching, thinking about our issues, etc.
 * he's going to put together a plan for how we can solve these problems within the next 2 weeks I'd say, and that will be presented to famsco/ambassadors
 * tchung: I'm sorry specially what issues he's doing research on?
 * mspevack_hm: couple things:
 * 1 - getting the equivalent of "cool stuff" stores setup in different geos worldwide
 * 2 - figuring out a process around which we can maybe use worldwide RHAT offices of hubs for swag
 * 3 - following up on some leads for sponsored media that I haven't had time to track down, and working with you - tchung - on that
 * 4 - finalizing the guidelines for self-sustaining events, etc as discussed previously
 * 5 - presenting his plans to me/famsco for review and then implementing them

Member Services

 * tchung reports:
 * Since last report, we have 2 more new ambassadors.
 * See http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Projects/WeeklyReports/2006-05-08 for their names.
 * As of 2006-05-15, we now have 70 approved (signed CLA and joined) ambassadors officially.
 * See http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/MembershipService/Approved for their names.
 * lxmaier: how many total?
 * tchung: based on fedora-ambasadors-list, we have 116 memebers in total.

How are we doing?

 * mspevack_hm:
 * i'm wondring if FAMSCO is doing everything that it can to make the most of our ambassadors.
 * I'm wondering if we can figure out which ambassadors are the most active, and I'm wondering what sort of measurable activities we can ask ambassadors to do other than run events
 * i'm aware that we have a variety of "ambassadors mission statements" but i just have a sense that we could be doing even more
 * i'm wondring if ambassadors are feeling as integrated as they could
 * gregdek_home:
 * It's clearly time to ask the ambassadors this question.
 * tchung:
 * just a comment.
 * it seems very quiet lately (in the ambassadors-list)
 * and the reason seems to be that it's the final week for most schools.
 * mspevack_hm:
 * i have an interesting example
 * i've been pinged a bunch of times by some people who want the Fedora Project to contribute an article for some tech magazine
 * basically we can write 1800 words on Fedora
 * whatever we want and they'll print it
 * I'd love to be able to farm that out to a couple of community people
 * people who aren't the biggest names in fedora and let them come up with a draft
 * that seems ambassador-ish and could lead to a whole Fedora PR team
 * gregdek_home:
 * Here's the thing:
 * Ambassadors can only do as much as we empower them to do.
 * Unfortunately...I think we've made some choices that have made that difficult.
 * The branding/logo issue is one.
 * The schwag centralization is another.
 * We say to ambassadors, "go have a show..."
 * "...but ask us for permission for this and that."
 * I think that slows us down a bit...
 * ...and I'm glad that Jack is working on some of it.
 * So we'll see how that helps, I think.
 * But it's also time to ask:
 * "Ambassadors, what do you need to spread the word?"
 * lxmaier:
 * please also consider that writing an article is something out of realm of possible for most of them--writing takes skill, ask Jopp, so even though we had the "writing" and other more creative things were in the "ideas for ambassadors" the events are the easiest to do.
 * http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/HowTo
 * mspevack_hm:
 * i'm not saying they all have to do it. I'm saying that it's something I'd love to get community help with.
 * I don't care if the person helping calls themself an "ambassador" or something else.
 * It is the chance to empower someone in the community
 * I'd love to see a subset of people -- and forget naming for a moment --
 * who are good enough speakers/communicators that we can send them forth to *seek out interviews* and actively spread the fedora word that way
 * lxmaier:
 * i am all for it, it's just that each time i see us ask the community for concrete deeds, an spirited discussion ensues, but hardly more
 * mspevack_hm:
 * people who can write, speak, and persuade people about fedora
 * so let's ask them for single things, that are concrete, as they come up
 * and see who volunteers and delivers
 * and then you remember who it was :-)

FAMSCO track on Action Items

 * lxmaier:
 * so if our own famsco members are so slow on the uptake, what do you expect from the rank-and-file ambassadors
 * gregdek_home:
 * A couple of things:
 * 1. Are ambassadors actually going out and kicking (behind) and not closing the loop, do we think?
 * 2. These things that whomever volunteered to do -- where are they tracked?
 * whetsel:
 * we track by going back and reviewing our meetings or make a note
 * I have many projects and on my list is Fedora
 * I get some done and others get pushed back
 * my guess we all have jobs that keep us a bit off track
 * tchung: Please note we have Meeting Agenda wiki page specifically designed for tracking.
 * mspevack_hm:
 * I just think ambassadors needs a bit of a kick in the (behind).
 * It needs to be quicker to do stuff, and it needs to present tasks in a way that make them easily done. Putting on an event is hard
 * and it's not something you do often
 * we help with that, but we could do *way* better
 * with permission of rest of FAMSCO
 * i'd like to start just tossing smaller one-off marketingish type things to amabassadors list
 * seeing if anyone bites and mentoring them through it
 * like a summer of code for marketing

Follow up LinuxTag and two initiatives

 * lxmaier: so yeah, gregdek_home, do you mind following up with florian and gerold? kinda post-mortem for LT?
 * tchung: yes, we need a report for LinuxTag.
 * lxmaier: i will follow up with evilbob about his two initiatives that are yet to happen

Schwag

 * gregdek_home: Current delivery date for store stuff: May 19th, firm.

Next Meeting

 * 2006-05-23 03:00 UTC (Monday in US)
 * channel: #fedora-famsco (this is an invitation-only private channel)