FAmSCo election 2012 F18 nominations

The nomination period is CLOSED. The nomination period ended at 23:59:59 UTC on May 15, 2012.

The following elections will take place in May/June 2012:

• Fedora Project Board (three seats)
• FESCo (Engineering) (five seats)
• FAmSCo (Ambassadors) (seven seats)
• Fedora 18 Name (separate schedule from the committee elections)

All dates and times noted are UTC time.

FAmSCo 2012 F18 elections

This is a special transitional election for FAmSCo. All seven seats are open for election. The four candidates receiving the most votes will be seated for two release cycles and the three candidates receiving the fewest votes will be seated for one release cycle. As those terms expire in the future elections will be held each release to fill the open seats. Current FAmSCo members nominated for the new seats are Christoph Wickert and Clint Savage. Others on the current FAmSCo who are not running include Neville A. Cross, Zoltan Hoppar, Gerard Braad, Igor Soares, and Caius Chance. For historical FAmSCo members, see the FAmSCo history page.

Candidates must be a member of the Ambassadors group in the Fedora Accounts System. This helps ensure that FAmSCo members have some experience with the processes of Fedora Ambassadors, but still allows relatively new contributors to sit on FAmSCo and bring fresh ideas to the table.

Ambassadors will be following the Fedora election timeline.

You may self-nominate. If you wish to nominate someone else, please consult with that person ahead of time.

Eligible Voters
Voting eligibility is determined by a community member's Fedora Account System (FAS) memberships.

To vote for FAmSCo you must have cla_done + one other "non-cla" group in FAS.

Introduction

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora.
• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?
• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?
• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?
• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?

Questionnaire

The community has submitted the questions that it wants you to answer. The list of questions is here: F18_elections_questionnaire#Fedora_Ambassador_Steering_Committee_.28FAmSCo.29

The answering period has expired. The responses have been put up below:

• What will you be able to accomplish if elected, that you couldn't as an unelected contributor? Why this post?
• Do you have any notes on how best the FAmSCo can help support The Fedora Project in regions where there aren't enough Ambassadors?
• How do you think you would solve the issue of FAmSCo members being from various time zones and the meetings therefore falling short of quorum? Do you think you'll be able to attend a majority of the meetings?
• Will/Do you participate in the regional meetings that Ambassadors hold? If yes, what regional meetings will/do you cover?
• What do you think are the problems and challenges that the Fedora Ambassadors are currently facing? Do you have solutions for these issues?
• How do you think can budget management be improved?
• What do you think can be done to attract more people to sign up as Fedora Ambassadors, and maybe other areas of the project? Do you think Fedora's visibility needs improvement? If yes, do you have any ideas on how?
• Do you think the issues FAmSCo discusses and the decisions FAmSCo makes are effectively and efficiently communicated throughout the Fedora community? If you believe communication between FAmSCo and the Fedora community can be enhanced, what first steps or ideas would you propose?

Candidates

Jiri Eischmann (sesivany)

Introduction

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora:
  • Although my history with Fedora started just at the beginning of 2011 I've been involved in Linux communities much longer (since ~2004). Because I work as a community manager for Red Hat Czech I spend on Fedora-related stuff most of my time.
  • I'm an ambassador for the Czech Republic, and also in the marketing and the Czech L10n team (haven't been very active in this team though).
  • I produce Fedora media for EMEA.

• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?:
  • I want to influence how Fedora is promoted and I think what FAmSCo needs the most now are active members and I hope I will be able to provide that level of activity.

• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?:
  • As the name says it's a steering committee, so I think FAmSCo should steer the whole project, make the global decisions. It should also enable cooperation between the regional ambassadors teams and between ambassadors and other groups in Fedora.

• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?:
  • Improving communication between ambassadors and other groups so that ambassadors can know what activities are important for the Project and should be promoted in the community because it's ambassadors who should deliver this message. For example Test Days are a unique and great way for the community to easily contribute to Fedora. However, they are still not very well attended, and I think the awareness and promotion in the community is not very good.
  • Improving swag production and distribution. We've done some improvement in the EMEA region and I think we can improve it even more, perhaps on the global level.
  • Working as a middleman between Red Hat and Fedora. Because I both work for Red Hat and am involved in promoting Fedora (ambassadors, marketing) I'd like to help coordinate efforts between Red Hat and the community.

• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?:
  • I'd focus on ambassadors' activity. There are hundreds of ambassadors, but I meet just a little subset of them at regional meetings (talking about EMEA). Maybe we should start a discussion what steps to take to keep ambassadors active.

Questionnaire

• What will you be able to accomplish if elected, that you couldn't as an unelected coontributor? Why this post?:
  • I think most of my goals can be achieved even without being a FAmSCo member. The Fedora community is very open at this. On the other hand, being a FAmSCo member can help me spread and execute my ideas.

• Do you have any notes on how best the FAmSCo can help support The Fedora Project in regions where there aren't enough Ambassadors?:
  • Well, we should first figure out which regions are covered and which are not. We have ambassadors in many countries, but many of them are inactive which means Fedora is also inactive and invisible there. After we find out what countries are not covered we may take some steps. I think the best way is to look for new ambassadors who will be active and promote Fedora in that country. Either by encouraging current community members to step up and become ambassadors or getting new enthusiasts involved in Fedora. That's what I'm trying to do with Poland and Slovakia. When we have no people there ambassadors from neighboring countries may help identifying the most important event(s) and covering at least that. Cooperation with close open source projects (GNOME, KDE,...) which have strong communities in such regions might be helpful, too.

• How do you think you would solve the issue of FAmSCo members being from various time zones and the meetings therefore falling short of quorum?:
  • Well, I think it's pretty much impossible to find time that would work for anyone. Right now, FAmSCo meetings start at midnight in my time zone. It requires a lot of member's commitment. Discussions will always be affected by low attendace at IRC meetings. But maybe voting may be done in a way it won't require attending the IRC meetings (mailing list, special voting tools), so decision making won't be so paralized. It may have a bad impact on meeting attendance, though, so maybe only for important decisions?

• Do you think you'll be able to attend a majority of the meetings?:
  • I do. Otherwise, I wouldn't candidate.

• Will/Do you participate in the regional meetings that Ambassadors hold? If yes, what regional meetings will/do you cover?:
  • I'm from the Czech Republic, so I participate in the EMEA regional meetings. I've missed only one regional meeting this year and it was just because I was driving from a Fedora-promoting event at the time.

• What do you think are the problems and challenges that the Fedora Ambassadors are currently facing? Do you have solutions for these issues?:
  • As any other open source project, Fedora Ambassadors are in need for more people. There are never enough volunteers, but what I see as a problem is that the number of people that do extra work, are able to do changes and lead the community is not as it used to be. How to solve this? I don't have any solution right now and I don't think there is an easy one. In general, we should intesify attracting more contributors and then encourage them to become leaders.

• How do you think can budget management be improved?:
  • I've been a FAmSCo member before, so I have very little experience with budgeting in Fedora Project. I've just dealt with expenses on Fedora media and their processing in the RHT financial system. It worked fine.

• What do you think can be done to attract more people to sign up as Fedora Ambassadors, and maybe other areas of the project? Do you think Fedora's visibility needs improvement? If yes, do you have any ideas on how?:
  • I think those two problems are connected. The more Fedora is visible the more people we will attract. And I think Fedora's visibility does need improvements. One of the ways to improve Fedora's visibility is to give Ambassadors tasks/ideas how to promote Fedora in their region. We can't push any volunteer to do this or that, but just giving them some kind of to-do list may help them promote Fedora properly because they would know what to do and what works. We've had something like this, but it all pretty much ends with encouraging ambassadors to organize release parties. Ambassadors also share ideas that work, but it might be helpful to formalize it.

• Do you think the issues FAmSCo discusses and the decisions FAmSCo makes are effectively and efficiently communicated throughout the Fedora community? If you believe communication between FAmSCo and the Fedora community can be enhanced, what first steps or ideas would you propose?:
  • Who wants to know what's going on in FAmSCo can, all meetings are transparent and posted on our wiki page. The question is if it's enough. I think it can be improved. For example FAmSCo members could blog more about their work in FAmSCo. Improving communication between ambassadors and other groups in Fedora is one of my goals. For example ambassadors should be told what iniciatives and subprojects are currently important, where new contributors are especially needed so that they can communicate and promote it in public.

Christoph Wickert (cwickert)

Introduction

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora:
  • Red Hat/Fedora user since Red Hat 6.1
  • Fedora contributor since 2005
  • Ambassador since 2007
  • FeSCo member from 2009-2011
  • Currently member of both FAmSCo and the Fedora Board
  • I run the weekly FAmSCo meetings and the EMEA ambassadors meetings every other week.
  • I organize swag production and media distribution in EMEA (together with Jiri) as well as the Ambassadors Polo shirts.
  • I also organize events here in Germany (5 this year).

• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?:
  • I drafted the new FAmSCo election rules that make these elections happen. I hope we get a stronger and and more active committee and of course I want to be part of it.
  • I want to fix the budget workflow to make reimbursements easier and quicker. We have started working on this in FAmSCo's trac.
  • I want to improve controlling. The latest changes in the Community Architecture team have led to a situation where FAmSCo hardly has a clue about it's budget. We need better controlling for our spending and this is why Robyn and I are are working on a new draft budget.

• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?:
  • Make sure all ambassadors get what they need to promote Fedora.
  • Establish policies and procedures to get things done easily.
  • Delegate as much power as possible to the regional and local communities.
  • Be the voice of the ambassadors and a point of contact for other groups in the project.

• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?:
  • Emerge new leaders. We have lost a lot of long-term contributors due to various reasons (dayjobs, private reasons) and we need new ones to fill this gap. We have lots of new ambassadors but only a few of them stand up and take over responsibility. We need to educate people how to become leaders.
  • Get the events calendar finally in place. If Fedora Insight is not ready soon, we should just use a media wiki calendar plugin.
  • Build a swag inventory that collects all kinds of swag, vendors, quotes and the persons who are in charge of each item.

• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?:
  • More regular meetings, especially of FAmSCo itself.
  • Get more ambassadors involved in other groups, too. An ambassador represents Fedora and as a member of other projects you get a deeper insight into Fedora as a whole.
  • Run more FADs again, where "Fedora Activity Day" and not Fedora presentations. In the past, the leaders of the EMEA community met for an ambassadors FAD once a year and discussed the events of next year. This did not happen and caused a log of chaos, that will last throughout 2012. We should not only bring the EMEA ambassadors FAD but establish one a year in every region.

Questionnaire

• What will you be able to accomplish if elected, that you couldn't as an unelected contributor? Why this post?:
  • We are trying to enable more ambassadors to do things that traditionally FAmSCo has done. Currently we are working on new budget approval guidelines in order to move a lare part of the budget to the regional communities. We are not quite done and this is why I want to continue working on this in FAmSCo.

• Do you have any notes on how best the FAmSCo can help support The Fedora Project in regions where there aren't enough Ambassadors?:
  • I am not sure if Fedora as a project can do something, it's on every individual to do this. ATM I support our only active Turkish ambassador be helping him when he has questions and making sure that he needs everything to run his events. Other than that there is not much we can do in short term, but we should try to get more people join Fedora in these countries. At FUDCon Kuala Lumpur I have just seen what only a small number of ambassadors can achieve, so for me it's not size that matters but having the right people.

• How do you think you would solve the issue of FAmSCo members being from various time zones and the meetings therefore falling short of quorum?:
  • Having FAmSCo members from all around the world is a good thing. Frankly speaking I don't think the time zones were a problem but the willingness of some FAmSCo members. Therefor we should vote for members who have proven to be active and attend the meetings.

• Do you think you'll be able to attend a majority of the meetings?:
  • Yes, I host them. As of April I attended 15 out of 16 meetings.

• Will/Do you participate in the regional meetings that Ambassadors hold? If yes, what regional meetings will/do you cover?:
  • Yes, because again I host the EMEA meetings and I therefore have attended most of them.

• What do you think are the problems and challenges that the Fedora Ambassadors are currently facing? Do you have solutions for these issues?:
  • The biggest problem I currently see is leadership. Some important, long-term contributors have left or suspended their activities for private reasons (dayjob, studies, family). On the other hand we have a lot of ambassadors and constantly new people joining. But not many of them become real leaders and take over responsibility. They do good work, but with some training they surely could do better. I therefor want to support promising candidates and improve the overall education of the ambassadors.

• How do you think can budget management be improved?:
  • By making it more transparent and by giving more power to the regional communities. In order to improve transparency and improve accounting Robyn and me have been working on https://fedorahosted.org/draftbudget/ We hope it will go live soon. As for empowering the regional communities to manage their own budget, I have created a draft for FAmSCo that is currently being discussed. Hopefully we should have this before the elections.

• What do you think can be done to attract more people to sign up as Fedora Ambassadors, and maybe other areas of the project? Do you think Fedora's visibility needs improvement? If yes, do you have any ideas on how?:
  • I don't think that we need more ambassadors, at least in most countries. If you have the right people, even a small number can do miracles. But I do think that we need to have more ambassadors involved in other areas of Fedora - this was one of the reasons for me to draft the new election guidelines. And of course I do think Fedora's visibility needs to be improved - that's why I have become an ambassador and go out to events.

• Do you think the issues FAmSCo discusses and the decisions FAmSCo makes are effectively and efficiently communicated throughout the Fedora community? If you believe communication between FAmSCo and the Fedora community can be enhanced, what first steps or ideas would you propose?:
  • Yes, I do believe that FAmSCo decisions are effectively and efficiently communicated throughout the Fedora community. I am sending out meeting minutes after every meeting and the summary is in that mail. For really important changes like the new election guidelines I do write announcements to the ambassadors mailing list. Not sure if we can do much more.

Clint Savage (herlo)

Introduction

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora:
  • I started with the Fedora Project in 2007. Shortly thereafter, I attended FUDCon Raleigh in February 2008, where I was introduced to Max Spevack, Paul Frields, Michael DeHaan, Stephen Smoogen and many others. Their excitement about Fedora and its future really got me interested in the project.
  • I am currently a Fedora Ambassador mentor and have been since its inception. Most of my mentoring these days is with other mentors, as I believe it is good to step aside after a while and let others find a good way forward.
  • Previously, I managed the media production for the North American region, saving a dramatic amount of costs and improving the process to get the media out to contributors quickly with the famnarequests Trac instance.
  • I have been on the fudcon planning committee for the past two years. My goal is to help get the t-shirts designed and help with some additional sessions as well.

• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?:
  • As I see it, FAmSCo is about making sure that ambassadors can get things done. My plan with FAmSCo is to help break down some barriers to doing just that and I see that there are some really good opportunities we are currently not taking advantage. I'd also like to help the Ambassadors broaden horizons and integrate more with the other teams and other communities where applicable, growing both the concept of what it means to be a Free Software Ambassador as well as a Fedora Ambassador

• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?:
  • FAmSCo's job in my view is to serve the greater community. I'm one to believe that the Ambassadors in their regions generally know what is going on better than FAmSCo ever will. I'd like to help provide general guidelines while enabling Ambassadors and the greater community better ways to spread knowledge and information about Fedora and Free Software.

• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?:
  • As a candidate it is easier for you if I mention my vision clearly, that shows mainly How I see and What I ll do as a member of the FAmSCo if I am elected.
  • Lowering barriers to becoming an Ambassador. I do think that the Join process is good, and I had a large hand in it, but I'd like to make the process easier to complete for both the Mentors and the Candidates.
  • Getting out of the way of good things. FAmSCo should provide a good set of guidelines and let the Ambassadors get things done!
  • Provide resources for all regions quickly, and as transparent as possible. FAmSCo is about helping the Ambassadors do their job. Each region has its specific challenges and FAmSCo should be meeting regularly to address these issues. Additionally, the meetings should be as transparent as possible, meaning meeting notes, public IRC meetings with Q&A and possibly even a regular 'office hours' for Ambassadors to come and get resolution.

• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?:
  • I believe Ambassadors are doing much more than they used to in the past, which is amazing. I do think there are many more ways FAmSCo can improve and grow the Ambassadors program.
  • Lowering the barriers to joining the Ambassadors group. Improving the join process, helping mentors understand "what's next" and how to get a prospective Ambassador going quickly.
  • Better response times for requests from Ambassadors and community members. It's hard to judge this and say that there is any problem really, it just seems there could be some process improvement to getting Ambassadors resources they need to put the best food forward.
  • Better financial processes -- enough said.

Questionnaire

• What will you be able to accomplish if elected, that you couldn't as an unelected contributor?:
  • I think there is a lot of trust the community puts into FAmSCo. Providing tools to Ambassadors to get their job done is very important to me. While I can 'do stuff' as a fedora contributor, I can definitely do more on FAmSCo and provide a reasonable direction on most things based upon feedback from the community.

• Do you have any notes on how best the FAmSCo can help support The Fedora Project in regions where there aren't enough Ambassadors?:
  • There are many things we can do to help regions with lower ambassador numbers. Specifically, we can start an initiative to have other ambassadors in those (larger) regions visit the area and put on a Fedora Day at one of the local communities. Have them bring SWAG, do a few presentations and if necessary, bring a few bits of hardware to distribute and show how Fedora Linux works.

• How do you think you would solve the issue of FAmSCo members being from various time zones and the meetings therefore falling short of quorum? Do you think you'll be able to attend a majority of the meetings?:
  • This is a very challenging problem and one I'm quite aware of from last term. My suggestion is the one we went with when needing a quorum. Essentially, those who cannot make the meeting can vote in advance on the tickets from trac and this will count as both a member toward the quorum and as a vote for or against the idea. Sometimes, though, the issue needs discussion and for that reason, we can put the vote up for the following week and collect votes on the trac ticket as well. The way the voting could work would likely be left up to the FAmSCo chair on an issue-by-issue basis. I plan to make every effort to make most meetings. IIRC, I missed two meetings in my previous term.

• Will/Do you participate in the regional meetings that Ambassadors hold? If yes, what regional meetings will/do you cover?:
  • I do regularly participate in the NA regional meetings.

• What do you think are the problems and challenges that the Fedora Ambassadors are currently facing? Do you have solutions for these issues?:
  • I think the biggest challenges are:
    • Monetary support in a timely manner and
    • Barriers to joining the Ambassadors.
    • The solution for this is a much more difficult issue than just approving monies to be spent. In some cases, things need to be paid in advance or approved prior to the event/activity/moneyspendingevent. To me, it is more about making sure people know the clear process of what needs to be done on a region-by-region basis. FAmSCo defined previously that the credit card holders can approve certain amounts. It should alleviate quite a bit of this pain, but there is still a need to work on each issue on a case-by-case basis. To that end, I think the main thing for those being reimbursed/paid for in advance to understand is to provide as much information as possible in as far as advance of the monetary need as possible.
    • I think the barrier for becoming an ambassador has grown incredibly high. It's difficult for both prospective ambassadors and mentors to decipher the rules for joining. I'd like to clean up the system further and make it easier for those who wish to join.

• How do you think budget management can be improved?:
  • I think more transparency from our sponsor, Red Hat, is very important. The department which managed the funds we received has changed and we just need to work with them more to clear up procedural items that were assumed before. Additionally, I think some cool things have happened with trac recently (thanks to rbergeron and the fedora infrastructure team) which make it much clearer how money is being spent. I hope these two things will help identify how to budget.
  • From the standpoint of an ambassador, each region should meet regularly and discuss items they would like to purchase for events in their region. This happens in each region from what I understand. However, from that meeting (maybe once a month), the budgeted items should be clearly stated and provided to FAmSCo for review. In this way, we can make sure funding is properly being distributed and that everyone is accomplishing goals with the monies they receive.

• What do you think can be done to attract more people to sign up as Fedora Ambassadors, and maybe other areas of the project? Do you think Fedora's visibility needs improvement? If yes, do you have any ideas on how?:
  • As I stated above, prospective ambassadors have difficulty joining not because of desire, but because of confusion. I think lowering the barriers can help.

• Do you think the issues FAmSCo discusses and the decisions FAmSCo makes are effectively and efficiently communicated throughout the Fedora community? If you believe communication between FAmSCo and the Fedora community can be enhanced, what first steps or ideas would you propose?:
  • I do think FAmSCo does a decent job of communicating when meetings are held (thanks to cwickert) and our decisions are broadcast on the ambassador list and sometimes on blogs and such. I do think that there should likely be a regular component of Fedora Weekly News (FWN) dedicated to FAmSCo, FESCo and the Board's discussions and decisions each week (this may already be happening). Additionally, a regular blog post, maybe once per month, with the recent discussions and decisions from FAmSCo should be broadcast on the Fedora Planet. In this way, we can help be more transparent and informative in a reasonably regular way.

Daniel Bruno (danielbruno)

Introduction

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora:
  • Fedora user since Fedora Core 1.
  • I began to contribute with fedora in 2008 as ambassador, in 2009 I started to contribute in the administration of LATAM infrastructure helping communities to have the means to spread Fedora more effectively in their regions.
  • Mentor for ambassadors.
  • I have attended several events in Latin America spreading Fedora. I also have attended the last three FUDCon in Latin America.
  • As mentor of ambassadors I have helping new ambassadors to contribute more actively in the project and contribute in other projects.
  • I'm a member of the RPMDev project that help new contributors to became packagers.

• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?:
  • I want to collaborate more effectively to improve the level of cooperation of ambassadors understanding how things are done around the communities and propose process improvements.

• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?:
  • Ensure that the contributors are able to do their job.
  • Analysing the needs of communities and make to get things without pain in a clear and practical way.

• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?:
  • Clarify how ambassadors may have access to available resources.
  • Encourage new ambassadors to become more active contributors.
  • Help the community's growth in LATAM and reach areas where there are no representatives of Fedora.

• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?:
  • Encourage the involvement of ambassadors in other projects.
  • Improve reporting of activities and events.

Questionnaire

• What will you be able to accomplish if elected, that you couldn't as an unelected contributor? Why this post?
• Do you have any notes on how best the FAmSCo can help support The Fedora Project in regions where there aren't enough Ambassadors?
• How do you think you would solve the issue of FAmSCo members being from various time zones and the meetings therefore falling short of quorum? Do you think you'll be able to attend a majority of the meetings?
• Will/Do you participate in the regional meetings that Ambassadors hold? If yes, what regional meetings will/do you cover?
• What do you think are the problems and challenges that the Fedora Ambassadors are currently facing? Do you have solutions for these issues?
• How do you think can budget management be improved?
• What do you think can be done to attract more people to sign up as Fedora Ambassadors, and maybe other areas of the project? Do you think Fedora's visibility needs improvement? If yes, do you have any ideas on how?
• Do you think the issues FAmSCo discusses and the decisions FAmSCo makes are effectively and efficiently communicated throughout the Fedora community? If you believe communication between FAmSCo and the Fedora community can be enhanced, what first steps or ideas would you propose?

Truong Anh Tuan (tuanta)

Introduction

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora:
  • Fedora User since 2006.
  • Fedora Contributor since 2009.
  • Initialized and maintained the first Fedora mirror in Vietnam: http://virror.hanoilug.org/#fedora since 2009.
  • Organized a lot of Fedora Release Parties around the country since Fedora 11 (that's also one of three best Fedora 11 release parties worldwide: http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-ambassadors-list/2009-August/msg00151.html).
  • Founded Fedora Vietnam community with dedicated community website and mailing list since 2010.
  • Co-chaired/Co-organized Fedora Ambassadors APAC bi-weekly meeting since 2010.
  • Started maintaining Fedora package with ibus-unikey, a keyboard for Vietnamese (and planning for further more ones) this year.
  • Present Fedora at a lot of FOSS and Tech events.

• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?:
  • Improve collaboration inside Ambassadors group as well as between Ambassadors and others, following things like these: http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/ambassadors/2011-October/018319.html .

• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?:
  • Coordinate ambassadors in regions and countries.
  • Support ambassadors to run their own events and other activities.
  • Coordinate with Fedora leadership and CommArch for budget and reimbursement.

• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?:
  • Connect ambassadors among countries and regions better; support local ambassadors to make regional meetings more effective (e.g. more people involved, more effective discussions, faster from thoughts to actions, etc.).
  • Make budget budget/fund review, approval, usage and reimbursement faster and more effective.
  • Make sure at least one FAmSCo member got free ice cream at FUDCon (of course! :)

• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?:
  • Improve quality of community activities and contributions in APAC as discussed at FUDCon KL 2012 APAC Ambassadors discussion at FUDCon KL 2012.
  • Run more FADs, Fedora release parties, etc. to introduce more about Fedora to people and to share knowledge and experience among Fedora users and contributors as well.

Questionnaire

• What will you be able to accomplish if elected, that you couldn't as an unelected contributor? Why this post?:
  • Honestly, I just thought that I can contribute more to Fedora as FAmSCo. If I am not elected, I can still put my efforts to contribute to Fedora normally, but may not so fast as when I am elected since, as a FAmSCo member, I feel more responsible, more self-confident, especially I can have more updates in shorter time.

• Do you have any notes on how best the FAmSCo can help support The Fedora Project in regions where there aren't enough Ambassadors?:
  • I think FAmSCo can do these:
    • Improving Mentoring program to get mentors closer to ambassadors. I think, it should be more convenience for new ambassadors to ask supports from someone he/she knows in person, especially when they can communicate in the same language. I got a real case, a newbie needs to have an *official* mentor (other man, of course) to get sponsor to be new ambassador while he feels more convenience to ask supports from me (I am not actually a mentor). This and things like this could be changed and I hope I can involve to the changing process.
  • Improving the budget allocation and fund request approval processes as proposed by former FAmSCo.

• How do you think you would solve the issue of FAmSCo members being from various time zones and the meetings therefore falling short of quorum? Do you think you'll be able to attend a majority of the meetings?:
  • I think FAmSCo meeting time should be re-voted for more convenience for new FAmSCo (of course, this depends on who would be elected) I myself can arrange time to attend a majority of the meetings.

• Will/Do you participate in the regional meetings that Ambassadors hold? If yes, what regional meetings will/do you cover?:
  • Yes, I will continuously participate in APAC Ambassadors bi-weekly meetings [2] which I have been a co-chair for a long time.

• What do you think are the problems and challenges that the Fedora Ambassadors are currently facing? Do you have solutions for these issues?:
  • In our APAC region, I think almost ambassadors do not know how to contribute most to Fedora; they can know something, but not the most important ones. I think, some of the most actions need to be done asap:
    • Improving the Mentor program (as I mentioned above)
    • I am also planning to collaborate with all ambassador fellows to summarize something onto wiki for newbies who want to know how to contribute most to Fedora as an active ambassador.

• How do you think can budget management be improved?: Yes, we can:
  • I know we have got annual budget. The budget allocation should be improved.
  • Regarding the fund requests reviewing, I have not more ideas other than things being discussed on FAmSCo trac [3]. I will partcipate to this discussion later.

• What do you think can be done to attract more people to sign up as Fedora Ambassadors, and maybe other areas of the project? Do you think Fedora's visibility needs improvement? If yes, do you have any ideas on how?:
  • I don't think we should encourage newbies to participate to Fedora as ambassadors but we should encourage them to participate to other sub-groups before (freemedia, design, marketing, package maintainer, etc.); then they can participate to the ambassadors later. At that time, we can understand more about Fedora and the ambassadors group, know what they should contribute to Fedora as ambassadors and also it's much easier for them to contact to a mentor.

• Do you think the issues FAmSCo discusses and the decisions FAmSCo makes are effectively and efficiently communicated throughout the Fedora community? If you believe communication between FAmSCo and the Fedora community can be enhanced, what first steps or ideas would you propose?:
  • N/A

[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/F18_elections_questionnaire#Fedora_Ambassador_Steering_Committee_.28FAmSCo.29 [2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors_meetings [3] https://fedorahosted.org/famsco/ticket/281

Nick Bebout (nb)

Introduction

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora:
  • My FAS account was created 2007-04-05
  • I've been involved with quite a few different projects in Fedora, including Ambassadors, Infrastructure, Docs, IRC support, etc.

• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?:
  • I think I would bring experience with various aspects of Fedora to FAmSCo since I am not just involved with Ambassadors but am also involved with many other areas. I think this is important for FAmSCo to know how other teams work so they can better help them.

• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?:
  • To ensure that resources are available to help make Fedora the leading Linux distribution. I believe FAmSCo should empower the regions to do their job without micro-managing everything.

• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?:
  • I think i've pretty much covered this in the other questions.

• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?:
  • Less bureaucracy with FAmSco, reduce the number of trivial tickets that have to be approved by FAmSCo (continuing the work started by the current FAmSCo).

Questionnaire

• What will you be able to accomplish if elected, that you couldn't as an unelected contributor? Why this post?
• Do you have any notes on how best the FAmSCo can help support The Fedora Project in regions where there aren't enough Ambassadors?
• How do you think you would solve the issue of FAmSCo members being from various time zones and the meetings therefore falling short of quorum? Do you think you'll be able to attend a majority of the meetings?
• Will/Do you participate in the regional meetings that Ambassadors hold? If yes, what regional meetings will/do you cover?
• What do you think are the problems and challenges that the Fedora Ambassadors are currently facing? Do you have solutions for these issues?
• How do you think can budget management be improved?
• What do you think can be done to attract more people to sign up as Fedora Ambassadors, and maybe other areas of the project? Do you think Fedora's visibility needs improvement? If yes, do you have any ideas on how?
• Do you think the issues FAmSCo discusses and the decisions FAmSCo makes are effectively and efficiently communicated throughout the Fedora community? If you believe communication between FAmSCo and the Fedora community can be enhanced, what first steps or ideas would you propose?

Arif Tri Waluyo (arifiauo)

Introduction

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora:
  • I am using Fedora since Fedora 12 and joining Fedora Project since 2010.
  • I am currently a member of the Fedora Ambassadors, Fedora Bugzappers, L10N Indonesian Team and Proven Testers.
  • I am currently active as a contributor in Fedora Indonesia Community.
  • I am often be a guest speaker at various local events.

• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?:
  • Because I want to be involved more in the Fedora Project, so I will have an influence in an attempt to realize the mission and goals of FAmSCo.

• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?
  • Ensure the mission and goals are achieved.

• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?:
  • Create an active communication with the ambassador.
  • Provide what is needed an ambassador in promoting Fedora.
  • Ensuring regular meeting went well, so all tickets can be processed quickly and accurately.

• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?:
  • Increase the ease of joining as an ambassador.
  • Make rules that make the ambassadors remained active in the project.

Questionnaire

• What will you be able to accomplish if elected, that you couldn't as an unelected contributor? Why this post?:
  • I can not do if I am a regular contributor is, I can not take part in the vote at the FAmSCo meeting.

• Do you have any notes on how best the FAmSCo can help support The Fedora Project in regions where there aren't enough Ambassadors?:
  • I believe that success does not depend on the number of ambassadors in the region. What we need is an active ambassador, although only one in an area. I am aware that every regions have their own problems. Problems can be solved. If there is active communication between FAmSCo with ambassadors. All they need is support. If there is only one / few ambassadors in the region, FAmSCo should give more support. So any kind of support they / he needs, I will make sure FAmSCo provide full support.

• How do you think you would solve the issue of FAmSCo members being from various time zones and the meetings therefore falling short of quorum? Do you think you'll be able to attend a majority of the meetings?:
  • It can not be avoided if we held a meeting on IRC. Therefore, the solution is we have to maximize other communications media. In this case, the mailing list. FAmSCo have a private mailing list, we can use it to discuss the trac ticket, and also to vote. With great power comes great responsibility. That way, I will try to attend every meeting. Since I had plenty of time.

• Will/Do you participate in the regional meetings that Ambassadors hold? If yes, what regional meetings will/do you cover?:
  • Meetings in each region can run smoothly without the presence of members FAmSCo. Clearly, FAmSCo members must read each log regions meeting. If the presence of FAmSCo is needed at the meeting, we have no reason to not attend. FAmSCo mission is "To provide the governance and support structure necessary to assist and enable Fedora Ambassadors worldwide". So wherever needed, I was there.

• What do you think are the problems and challenges that the Fedora Ambassadors are currently facing? Do you have solutions for these issues?:
  • Budget and reimbursement issues. We need to find a safe way of payment, low cost, fast and guidelines for a more effective reimbursement. Both of these are related to one another. If I speak now, all you get is not the solution, but only answer. There are many options that can take to resolve this problem, but it's not entirely our authority to determine. Since we are sponsored by Red Hat. So the effort that we can take, we must immediately discuss this with Red Hat.

• How do you think can budget management be improved?:
  • We need to find a safe way of payment, low cost, fast and guidelines for a more effective reimbursement. Both of these are related to one another. If I speak now, all you get is not the solution, but only answer. There are many options that can take to resolve this problem, but it's not entirely our authority to determine. Since we are sponsored by Red Hat. So the effort that we can take, we must immediately discuss this with Red Hat.

• What do you think can be done to attract more people to sign up as Fedora Ambassadors, and maybe other areas of the project? Do you think Fedora's visibility needs improvement? If yes, do you have any ideas on how?:
  • Currently Fedora Project already has a sub-project that can accommodate people with various talents. To attract people to join the Fedora ambassador. I think the best way to make Fedora Project is a comfortable place for everyone. Guidelines that detail how to join, provides guidance on how to contribute, giving the freedom to express and develop ideas, provide the required response to community, providing a variety of communications media. So people will not run out of places to ask for help or ask questions. And finally people are beginning only the user, would be interested in contributing. Regarding Fedora visibility, I think this is how we are. Freedom. Friends. Features. First.

• Do you think the issues FAmSCo discusses and the decisions FAmSCo makes are effectively and efficiently communicated throughout the Fedora community? If you believe communication between FAmSCo and the Fedora community can be enhanced, what first steps or ideas would you propose?:
  • Actually I am now satisfied with the decision made by FAmSCo and decisions that impact is good for the Fedora community. I think we just need to maintain communication. Because we are divided into various regions around the world. The key is communication, whether it's via IRC, mailing lists, email, social networking, blogs, wikis, etc..

Alejandro Perez (aeperezt)

Introduction

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora:
  • Fedora user since Fedora 3.
  • Contributor since 2010.
  • Founder of Fedora Panama community.
  • Main organizer of FUDCON Panama.
  • Fedora Packager, Localization Spanish, Ruby SIG.
  • Member of RPMDEV project helping others to become contributor as Packagers.
  • Give talks about Fedora and FOSS.

• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?:
  • Help Ambassadors and other members of the project to get resources needed to promote Fedora.

• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?:
  • Establish and maintain communication with Ambassadors and other groups within Fedora.
  • Keep resources flowing to Ambassadors and other groups.

• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?:
  • Improve communication in Ambassador group and Others groups.
  • Promote new leadership in the Ambassadors
  • Bring more transparency to FAMSCO.

• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?:
  • FAMSCO needs to become a lead group around ambassadors.

Questionnaire

• What will you be able to accomplish if elected, that you couldn't as an unelected contributor? Why this post?:
  • Will try to increase FamSCo communication to all the community. Not been a FamSCo member make pretty difficult to do this task.
  • Motivate new ambassadors to take the lead on the community, to learn from older Ambassadors and participate in other areas of Fedora to lead with the example.

• Do you have any notes on how best the FAmSCo can help support The Fedora Project in regions where there aren't enough Ambassadors?:
  • Help closes Ambassadors to go or visit those countries or region, for an IT event.
  • Try to establish communications with Universities or Colleges in the area, try if possible to attend an event on those Universities or Colleges, initiate user groups and a local community than with time, will develop new ambassadors.

• How do you think you would solve the issue of FAmSCo members being from various time zones and the meetings therefore falling short of quorum? Do you think you'll be able to attend a majority of the meetings?:
  • This is a complex issue do to time zones, no one can warranty to be in all meetings, but will do my best to be on must of them.
  • The quorum on the meeting is a delicate issue and hope that elected members will try their best to attend to all meetings once the time schedule is define. One way to work around this maybe having meetings on a two different schedule agree by all FamSCo members, so it is not a rigid time every week, this is just and idea, may need to be work around it.

• Will/Do you participate in the regional meetings that Ambassadors hold? If yes, what regional meetings will/do you cover?:
  • I have been on must regional meetings on my region Latam, and I will keep attending to them if they are call. For Latam region right now there are has not been call for meetings, it can be many reason why the meetings stop, that is something needs some love.

• What do you think are the problems and challenges that the Fedora Ambassadors are currently facing? Do you have solutions for these issues?:
  • Resources do not reach all Ambassadors, some of them work with what they have or don't know they can ask. This need to be work, FamSCo needs to work on stablish comunication with Ambassadors and see what they need or how we can help them.

• How do you think can budget management be improved?:
  • Budget for Latam Region needs to be distribute better we have quarters where we don't spend it and some where we don't have enough, so it bring the opportunity on those quarters to give resources to areas or countries where they don't have it yeat.

• What do you think can be done to attract more people to sign up as Fedora Ambassadors, and maybe other areas of the project? Do you think Fedora's visibility needs improvement? If yes, do you have any ideas on how?:
  • Fedora visibility needs to be improve, we need to attend to IT events in every country.
  • Talent people are every were but we need to go back where we can meet more people, with desire an will to help, must of them are in colleges and Universities, we need Ambassadors to establish relationships with them, give talks and more. More important is that Ambassadors needs to lead with example so they need to also be part or know others groups or parts of Fedora.
  • We need to change the talk of this is Fedora and how we do it, to This is Fedora and this what I do in it, so you can also do.

• Do you think the issues FAmSCo discusses and the decisions FAmSCo makes are effectively and efficiently communicated throughout the Fedora community? If you believe communication between FAmSCo and the Fedora community can be enhanced, what first steps or ideas would you propose?:
  • No, must of the decisions made on the FamSCo do not reach all Ambassadors, that needs to be improve. One Idea could be FAmSCo news letter, and more open meetings, must of the open meetings do not need to be hold with a FamSCo quorum, as they are to listen to the Ambassadors and the community.

Buddhika Chandradeepa Kurera (bckurera)

Introduction

• Please briefly describe your history with Fedora:
  • I started with Free Media group and then joined with the Ambassador group. Since then I am contributing to Design Team, Marketing Team, News,Summer coding and Localization work as well.
  • Locally, I have organized some events including release parties and fedora events. I represent the Fedora project in events and initiated the fedora local communityLK_Community.
  • I expanded the Fedora project in University level locally, that makes the local community stronger and also working with APAC ambassadors towards a strong community by assisting them.
  • I manage APAC Bi-weekly meetings with David and Tuan.
  • I wrangle fedora-apac trac and facilitate fellow FAms in the region.

• Why do you want to be a member of FAmSCo?:
  • FAmSCo is playing a major role with in the Ambassador Group, indeed they set the path to proceed.
  • First, the main aim is to support the Ambassador Group.
  • I need to provide a dedicated, effective support which Ambassadors need.
  • I would like to be a part of the team and be an active part of decision making process which lead shaping the project.
  • Further I want to make the FAmSCo, a place which is more attentive, sensitive, responsive and assisted to ambassadors and their needs.

• What is the proper role for FAmSCo in a global project like Ambassadors?:
  • The main role of the FAmSCo is to provide the support that Ambassadors seek. The support should be fast and it should be effective. Such a support keeps the global ambassador effect active and useful. Therefore FAmSCo as the hub, should provide assistant and resources and ensure the ambassadors are getting what they need, when they need. Being align with the team is another very important role that FAmSCo should play. FAmSCo should be very sensitive with the ambassadors. Should identify their needs, ideas, thoughts and try to facilitate, encourage and even try to get novel ideas to shape the team and as well as the project. FAmSCo govern the ambassador team and as well as act as the central hub which connects other entities as well.

• What are your particular goals related to FAmSCo?:
  • As a candidate it is easier for you if I mention my vision clearly, that shows mainly How I see and What I ll do as a member of the FAmSCo if I am elected.
  • FAmSCo should be responsive/ sensitive to needs and issues with in FAms.
  • FAmSCo should be attentive.
  • FAmSCo should be motivational.
  • Develop the regions country wise.

• What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run?:
  • Overall the ambassador group is running well. There are few things we need to make up.
  • More interaction is needed with in the group, so that we can encourage the ambassadors to participate to meetings and the FAmSCo can help them to make the meeting successful being actively engaging with those.
  • It is required to develop and make strong the fedora communities countrywide, it is possible to use FADs (more FADs) for that and later when we have strong communities so we can have FUDCons in various countries with in regions covering most of the parts.
  • Increase quality on FAm activities (events, funding, reporting, guidelines, active participation, encourage FAms, more goal oriented..)

--Bckurera 20:29, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

Questionnaire

• What will you be able to accomplish if elected, that you couldn't as an unelected contributor? Why this post?:
  • I need to get elected because I need to represent the needs of FAms and to support them.

• Do you have any notes on how best the FAmSCo can help support The Fedora Project in regions where there aren't enough Ambassadors?:
  • Regions which dont have enough FAms should recruit new interested contributors to expand the Fedora project. FAmSCo can support the process by providing required support and facilitation as per the need. However FAmSCo can act as the central body to mange the strategy involves. Acting according to a plan will optimize the effort. FAmSCo should play a role coordinating and supporting to FAms according to the strategy involves, that enables working as a team to a common goal to achieve the results.

• How do you think you would solve the issue of FAmSCo members being from various time zones and the meetings therefore falling short of quorum? Do you think you'll be able to attend a majority of the meetings?:
  • I am ready to dedicate and attend meetings since meetings are really important. We should try to select a convenient time slot, so that the every one can attend. However if selecting 1 time slot is not possible(worst case), the trac can be used to discuss the requirements an approve/ vote on. That is more structured, easy and clear. However it is required to have a meeting with all members at least once 2-3 weeks to discuss things in common and take decisions.

• Will/Do you participate in the regional meetings that Ambassadors hold? If yes, what regional meetings will/do you cover?:
  • I am co-managing APAC FAm meetings therefore I ll continue attending them and supporting them as much as possible.

• What do you think are the problems and challenges that the Fedora Ambassadors are currently facing? Do you have solutions for these issues?:
  • In terms of the contribution FAms are having a good environment and the knowledge and support seems enough to perform. But the most importantly the motivation and encouragement is quite lacking. The active involvement of FAmSCo with FAm will increase the confidence of FAms I believe.

• How do you think can budget management be improved?:
  • Managing budget is something are doing good now. Giving powers to regional FAms to discuss their needs with in their regional meetings and approve the budget requests, which is we are doing right now would be fairly good. If the amount is bigger then FAmSCo can make sure the investment wont make any conflicts with other requirements. Therefore giving more powers to regional FAms to mange their budget with no FAmSCo interventions would be a very good idea and we are doing it right now. For bigger amounts FAmSCos' involvement seems quite necessary to make sure the availability of funds to other regions as well.

• What do you think can be done to attract more people to sign up as Fedora Ambassadors, and maybe other areas of the project? Do you think Fedora's visibility needs improvement? If yes, do you have any ideas on how?:
  • Personally I dont think we need to attract people for the FAm team. We are having a good demand. I would like to focus more on the quality than the quantity. Therefore rather than focusing on increasing the number it is good to increase the quality. It is possible to promote this within fedora contributors who already working good with other groups so that they can apply for FAm team and it is good to encourage FAms to get involve with the other groups as well.

• Do you think the issues FAmSCo discusses and the decisions FAmSCo makes are effectively and efficiently communicated throughout the Fedora community? If you believe communication between FAmSCo and the Fedora community can be enhanced, what first steps or ideas would you propose?:
  • At the moment there is a gap between the FAmSCo and the rest of FAms. Therefore it is required to get them into the discussions and decision making process. The first thing is very easy to do. If a FAmSCo member join with every FAm regional meeting, then he can discuss, get ideas, inform decisions and discussion to the FAms, so that will improve the communication between FAmSCo and FAms and their awareness. FAmSCo should interact with regional level and country level with the FAms as much as possible. Every discussion in FAmSCo(not urgent and specific to regions) should be made after regional FAm meeting get it discussed. It provides more insight and awareness on the topic. FAmSCo should be interact with the FAms more and more, so that special attention should be given when support is needed proactively rather than waiting FAms to report FAmSCo for support. That will increase the interaction between the FAmSCo and FAms. Adding "News From FAmSCo" to FAms meetings should be done so that one of FAmSCo member should brief the situation and inform and get the FAms participation to FAmSCo work. Participating to regional meeting would be the key point and a responsibility of the members of FAmSCo.