FAmSCo report 2010-07

FAmSCo meetings
FAmSCo held 2 meetings in July. Attendance was as follows:


 * 2 out of 2 -- Joerg, Susmit, Maria
 * 1 out of 2 -- Max, Luca, David

So far this year, FAmSCo has held 22 meetings. Overall attendance has been:


 * 22 out of 22 -- Joerg, Susmit
 * 18 out of 22 -- David, Maria
 * 16 out of 22 -- Max
 * 13 out of 22 -- Luca

Regional meetings
One of FAmSCo's goals this year is to make sure that at least one FAmSCo member is at each regional meeting that is held.

As of the time this report was prepared, 7 regional meetings held in July had been logged, but only 2 meetings was also attended by FAmSCo members. This is not acceptable, and we all need to improve.

FAmSCo mailing list
FAmSco's mailing list received 60 messages this month, coordinating on some swag-related questions, and filling in conversation when we didn't have a meeting.

General accomplishments or decisions

 * FAmSCo Trac Instance - After quite a long period and a bit of effort on a number of members of FAmSCo, we have come to the realization that exposing the trac instance to public view is essentially not possible. Each solution we arrived at placed us further away from transparency that the situation now is. The reasons for this are:
 * A significant amount of information that contains personal data is contained in the tickets that currently exist. Those include addresses, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, etc.
 * Moving forward, additional tickets will be created that of a necessity will require submission of personal data for reimbursement. (FAmSCo considered having Max be emailed directly via an encrypted email, having encrypted data be submitted to the trac instance, and a number of other 'solutions' that proved in FAmSCo's opinion to be unworkable.)
 * Fedorahosted.org's trac instance only allows for all tickets to be set as private or public.
 * Fedora 13 Release Events Winners announced

FY11
Total budget: $100,000

Total spend (through July 27): $32,720

We are currently on pace to finish under budget. An on-target pace would be a total spend of about $42,000 at the end of July.

Regional support
NA -- $13,395
 * $4,145 -- Fedora 13 media
 * $1,800 -- Shipping
 * $1,770 -- Shirts
 * $1,350 -- Pens
 * $1,230 -- Texas LinuxFest 2010
 * $1,000 -- Support for SELF
 * $860 -- SCALE leftovers
 * $730 -- Stickers
 * $325 -- Canada event box
 * $185 -- LinuxFest Northwest (LFNW) 2010

EMEA -- $10,685
 * $3,780 -- Fedora 13 media
 * $2,030 -- Support for IDLELO 2010
 * $1,225 -- Linuxwochen Wien 2010
 * $1,030 -- Chemnitzer Linuxtage 2010
 * $930 -- USB keys
 * $680 -- Open Source Days
 * $510 -- OpenExpo 2010 Berne
 * $500 -- Support for Libre Graphics Meeting

LATAM -- $5,735
 * $2,510 -- Support for FLISOL
 * $1,675 -- FPL to FISL
 * $1,355 -- Fedora 13 media
 * $195 -- Swag for Mexico

India/APAC -- $2,905
 * $2,400 -- Support for swag creation by Harish
 * $480 -- Support for BASIS
 * $25 -- Fedora 13 release party

Mentoring Survey
To improve the Ambassadors Mentoring Initiative, we sent a Survey to all Mentors and will use the feedback received to improve the mentoring process.

Mentors expected that they would:
 * give guidance and help
 * teach people on our tools
 * improve the quality performance of new Ambassadors
 * find and encourage the future leaders

These expectations were mostly met - some mentors were not so happy because some Candidate did not match expectations and valuable time was invested on non-responsive candidates. However, overall, the Mentoring process has brought quality improvement to the Ambassador Group.

Regarding the tracking of where Candidates are in their Mentoring process: FAmA provides enough feedback on the accountability and transparency for the Process. The process itself is clear enough, and there is no need for additional technical tools to support it.

Some Mentors have a wish for more common requirements for when a Mentor should approve a Candidate; others love to have the freedom to judge by human contact and instinct if the Candidate can become a good Contributor to Fedora.

The question of requiring more specific things of Candidates before they're approved (like CLA+1) was raised. It brought up some pro and con along with the idea that a better workflow can help to pre-filter unresponsive Candidates.

The Process might be improved by a more streamlined workflow and a extended "find a mentor" period from 14 days to 21 days.

There was a range of answers what criteria should be considered for a new Mentor:
 * no, only trust and judgement is needed
 * no, because knowledged and experienced is stated already and therefore the requirement
 * minimum time requirement in the group should be a "must"
 * events experience is a "must"

NA and EMEA are Regions who are well covered with mentors - but APAC and LATAM need improvement!

Mentors meeting once a month was considered a good idea from most Mentors!

News
Swag production is ramping up. Orders for tshirts have been placed. Research underway on balloons and lanyards.

News

 * 4 meetings where held this month with Brazilian Ambassadors, Argentina, Peru and a general LATAM users/Ambassadors/Contributors
 * Fedora-LATAM Magazine is almost done for its first release
 * Revista Fedora-BR change his leader, who is now a new ambassador (Rafael Conrado)
 * Nicaragua has set a 5 sunday workshops. Planing Stage
 * #fedora-ve and #fedora-pa make a foward to their IRC channels linking #fedora-latam. Other countries may follow this iniciative
 * FAD Argentina 2010 and FUDexp Peru 2010 start their organization.
 * FISL and FUDCON Santiago where held this month

News

 * EMEA meetings on hiatus during August
 * Distribution among all EMEA Countries is organized and distributed
 * Contributors from EMEA feel free to request F13 Media with a ticket to the EMEA SWAG Tracking

News

 * Shakthi Kannan is now a mentor for India.