Ambassadors/SteeringCommittee/Meetings/2006-05-01

FAmSCo Meeting Minutes: 2006-05-01

Attending

• mspevack: MaxSpevack
• tchung: ThomasChung
• rwhetsel: RobertWhetsel

Regrets

• lxmaier: AlexMaier

Meeting Summary

• See Meetings page for current agenda

Schwag

• mspevack reports
• so we've been shipping DVDs all over the world the last month or two
• and it's *incredibly* expensive and not a very good method of spending our money
• an idea that has been kicking around:
• FAMSCO continues to subsidize events with money, but we allow the local organizers of events to be more self-sufficient by permitting them (at their discretion) to sell things like tshirts, DVDs, etc at their events
• what FAMSCO provides is:
• the resources necessary for people to get DVDs, tshirts, banners, etc made locally to their show
• and a "MSRP" so to speak, that we insist product be sold at or below
• let me lay out a scenario:
• LinuxTag is a great example
• we started off by approving a budget of $300 or something like that
• and then they keep coming back to us with "but what about DVDs", and we need this, and we need that
• and so all of a sudden, we're stuck spending a *huge* amount of money to ship DVDs to europe.
• instead, imagine this scenario:
• Some people in Italy come to us and say "there's a big show, we want to organize Fedora presence there, it'll cost about $3000 US"
• we say "ok, well FAMSCO is able to provide you with $1000, and also with the resources needed for you to create DVDs, shirts, banners, etc. all in Italy"
• you can resell the DVDs for anywhere beteween 0-2 Euro, and shirts for X euro, etc
• and recoup costs that way
• so we help out, and we give them the resources/blessings to make even more happen themselves
• *THEN* you can get a situation where people could put on a self-sufficient Fedora event without needing to come to FAMSCO at all
• The costs of Global Distribution of Physical Items is just so high, it destroys our budget
• rwhetsel comments
• This gives a local lug the ability to take control
• and be self sufficient with the blessing of Fedora
• I like
• mspevack continues
• and it still allows us to increase the budget that we give to any event
• but it just lets the event in general do more than they could otherwise
• and everything is up to the organizers
• they don't have to do anything differently than they do today
• but they can if they want to
• as long as they don't exceed the "allowed price"
• which is basically whatever it costs to produce the item
• tchung asks
• Have you considered using local Red Hat offices for Fedora Stuff?
• *producing* and distributing Fedora Stuff to local Ambassadors.
• mspevack comments
• well, i think that's definitely an option depending on where the events are and what kind of offices we have
• I like the idea -- basically it just lets Red Hat folks be the point of contact in certain areas where it's possible
• probably makes transfer of funds easier, etc.
• we should always harness local Red Hat folks when we can
• tchung suggests
• I would suggest you (mspevack) put together a proposal for FAMSCO to read. :)
• rwhetsel: +1
• mspevack: alrighty, that's what i'll do
• rwhetsel comments
• I think that this will prevent problems like we had with Brazil - FISL
• mspevack: yeah, it would definitely prevent those kinds of logistics problems any out of country
• rwhetsel: big up on that idea
• mspevack: ok, so I'll write up a proposal

Task Group Reports

Budget

• mspevack reports
• Budget group -- we're spending too much money and not getting enough for it. See above discussion (in Schwag) for a solution :-)

Member Services

• tchung reports
• Since last report, we have 6 more new members
• See http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Projects/WeeklyReports/2006-04-24
• As of 2006-04-30, we have 65 approved members now
• See http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/MembershipService/Approved

Schwag/Events

• GregDeKoenigsberg not present

LinuxEvents Reports

LinuxTag

• GregDeKoenigsberg not present

OSCON

• BobJensen not present

Next Meeting

• 2006-05-09 03:00 UTC (Monday in US)
• channel: #fedora-famsco (this is an invitation-only private channel)