How to organize a FAD

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This page documents things Fedora Activity Day organizers should think about when putting together an event.

Put up a wiki page

We've created a template to help you organize your FAD details; it is at Template:FAD.

Start with Impact

While planning activities, tasks, and outcomes is crucial for a successful FAD, please also take time to connect those to the Fedora Project Objectives and through those objectives ultimately to the Fedora Mission. FADs are not required to relate directly to 12-18 month objectives chosen by the Fedora Council, but proposals that do will be given priority.

Budget

How much do you have to spend? This needs to be a very early priority, since answer to that question guides most other decisions in the process. You should work with the Fedora Council to figure this out; the Fedora Council will work with our sponsors to determine the budget. We generally budget for two or three FADs of around $3000 annually. Of course, smaller requests are easier to say yes to, particularly when they are planned to have a large impact. Larger budgets are possible too, but such requests should put correspondingly greater emphasis into justification — and ideally be planned in advance as part of the annual budget process.

If you can find additional sponsors for aspects of your FAD, beyond funding from the Fedora community budget, that is, of course, awesome.

Approval

Fedora Activity Days are approved by the Fedora Council. Please discuss your proposal on the council-discuss mailing list, and when ready, submit a ticket with a link to your wiki page.

Dates and Location

Figure out the city in which the event will be held, and the dates of the event. Will it be a one day event, or a weekend event? Will it be adjacent to another Fedora event, or stand-alone?

Remember: no one can book travel until they know the dates and location!

Facilities

A FAD should not require the same amount of facilities as a FUDCon. Since a FAD is probably going to be somewhere between 5-20 people, it is possible that one large meeting room (or two smaller rooms) with tables, work space, and possibly a white board or projector will be sufficient.

From a facilities point of view, consider the following needs:

• space in a useful configuration
• projectors
• power for the electronics being used
• internet access
• signs to direct people to the rooms (coordinate with show)
• white boards

Set up for all these things may cost money -- figure it into the budget.

Resources

Clint Savage Made some killer posters for directing traffic to your FAD. They are intended to be printed at 11"x17"

• fad-is-here.pdf
• fad-is-here-door2.pdf
• fad-is-here-door3.pdf

Be Somewhat Structured

During your FAD, you'll want to have folks come and participate. An easy way to get completely confused and unorganized is to ignore the fact that people will come in and out throughout the day. Triaging them is the best way to get them involved and keep your sanity.

• Have someone designated during the FAD to help walk-ins and others get the things they need.
  • Many will just want to ask questions or get SWAG. Helping them in this time is important
  • Others will arrive for only part of the day. Getting them to the project they wish to participate quickly and efficiently is important.
• Have a sections or a schedule. It doesn't have to be rigid, but if people are planning on attending only one part or another of a FAD, knowing when to come can be very helpful.
  • Post this schedule outside the room so others can see it and join if they are walking by.
  • Make it easy for someone to get started. All they need is a few minutes and something to do.
• Have standard things to do for anyone who wants to participate
  • Package up FreeMedia and send it off
  • Build Ambassador Kits
  • Create Media Boxes (useful for the Fedora Booth at a conference or event)

Lodging

If the event will require a hotel, try to make a deal with a local hotel for a group rate. Depending on the size or nature of the event, it might be possible to rent a house for a weekend, if it has all of the other facilities that are required.

If you make a deal with a hotel for a block of rooms, allow people to sign up for rooms and roommates on the wiki, and indicate to people what the cost per person, per night, of the rooms in the hotel will be. If there are any subsidies available due to the budget, note that also.

Include directions for traveling from the hotel to the FAD location on the wiki.

Refreshments

You may want to think about refreshments for the attendees, as simple as snacks or beverages during the day to keep people from having to continually wander far away when they get hungry or thirsty. Make sure you get the cost estimates in advance and figure them in your budget. With a larger budget, consider bringing lunch to the event, so that people don't wander off and potentially not come back, or miss out on time that could be used for another session.

Social Event

Depending on your location, it might be fun to take a few hours to do some sort of fun activity that can build teamwork and a sense of community.