Please add questions you'd like to see asked to this page.
Board
What will you be able to accomplish by being elected, that you would not otherwise be able to do as a contributor?
Jaroslav Reznik (jreznik): The best of Fedora Project is that even a single contributor can influence Fedora without being member of any comittiee. But of course - these groups (SIGs, FESCo, FAmSCo, Board etc.) helps project to make these individual contributors working together (at least, working better). This is something you can't achieve otherwise (be nice to others should work but you know). So this is the reason for me to run for elections - but on the other hand, I'm not saying enforcing any strict general rules by any comittiee is the way how to solve it!
Larry Cafiero (lcafiero): With the Fedora Board being an administrative and policy-making body, clearly there are administrative duties and tasks, as well as policy decisions, which I couldn't perform or make as a contributor, and there are differences between the administrative duties involved in board work and the regular contributions.
Christoph Wickert (cwickert): I'd like to re-think the overall structure of Fedora. While I think we have a lot of policies and guidelines we have a lack of communication, cooperation and transparency. Therefor I'd like to establish a new body: The Fedora Council. Similar to OpenSUSE's or Magiea's council it will consist of delegates from all groups (ambassadors, design, marketing, packagers, websites, ...) and meet on a regular base. The council is a round table to meet and coordinate. I don't think there should be much decision making in the council, but one think it should be accountable for is the budget. Currently FAmSCo is the only team to manage the budget, but to me it looks ridiculous if FAmSCo is to decide e.g. sponsoring a conference attendance of a developer they might not even know. Budget is limited and we need to share it wisely and evenly, therefor all teams should be involved.
Robert 'Bob' Jensen (bjensen): no answers provided
What is the role of the board in your opinion? What is it to do or not to do?
Jaroslav Reznik (jreznik): I like the way current Board works - not enforcing, not being the the last comittiee with unlimited power but more delegating power to expert groups/SIGs.
Larry Cafiero (lcafiero): Again, the role of the board is administrative and is concerned with Fedora Project oversight. It also sets Fedora Project policy. Not only is the board's role administrative, it also holds a high degree of vision for the future. On the whole, I think that the past boards have done a remarkable job both in administration and in providing a foundation for the future. Should I be elected as a board member, I would work to maintain the high standards for which Fedora, and its board, are known.
Christoph Wickert (cwickert): Fedora is a platform for innovation and rapid development. We need to make sure to use and enhance the full potential of our community and not slow down our contributors with too much red tape. Decisions should be made on the lowest possible level, that means inside the SIGs and projects and only brought to a committee's attention if consensus cannot be reached. When we are to decide about something, the default answer must be "Yes, we can!". This includes means that the board has to step aside from time to time and trust our contributors. By joining the board I want to make sure that this really happens.
Robert 'Bob' Jensen (bjensen): no answers provided
What are your top three priorities as a board member?
Jaroslav Reznik (jreznik):
- transparency of all main bodies in Fedora and it's something I admin I partially failed as a current Board member and it leads to 1.4 but still we opened meetings
(Fedora Board Public IRC meetings, contributors can join us on #fedora-advisory-board channel) but there are more areas the Board could be open/transparent. And as I perceive it - it's not we don't want to do it but more we miss "let's do it, now, finally"!
- set responsibilites clearly for Board/any other SIGs/individual contributors
- work on Governance document/stuff
Larry Cafiero (lcafiero): My top three priorities are:
- Continue and maintain the board's standards in guiding the Fedora
Project.
- Give a voice on the board for the variety of Fedora spins (I am a
Fedora Xfce spin user)
- Try like heck not to screw up.
Christoph Wickert (cwickert):
- Re-thing the Fedora Project Structure, establish the Fedora Council
- Improve decision making in general and budget management in particular
- Carefully evaluate our policies and guidelines and see if we can get rid or some of the red tape
Robert 'Bob' Jensen (bjensen): no answers provided
There appears to be a general malaise or perhaps even an apathy that is plaguing certain areas of Fedora - what do you perceive the problem to be and how would you fix it?
Jaroslav Reznik (jreznik): The thing is - some of the old project members (btw. thank you guys!) they lived for Fedora burned out (I can't express it correctly, I mean more like it's was a long time working on a project and you can't do it forever, or most people cant't do it, read the blogs :-), we even have a lot of new contributors but we do not know how to make them act more in Fedora, to be more visible, to have a voice in community (or to be a voice of community). I agree with guys from latest Fedora Board Public IRC meeting - people don't see what Board/FESCo/SIGs do, they don't know what's the benefit of joining these groups or even they are not sure joining these groups can make a difference (can influence anything).
Larry Cafiero (lcafiero): To be honest, I don't have an answer to this except to say that I think that apathy and/or malaise running amok in Fedora is a gross overstatement and certainly not the norm. People participate in the Fedora Project for a wide range of reasons and obviously conflicts, when they arise, can sap a project's collective energy. But on the whole, despite disagreements, I think all of what needs to get done gets done.
Also, there's no question for board members that specifically addresses this, but I'd like to point out that, on the whole, the Fedora Project does just about everything right and the project is the standard by which all other FOSS projects should be judged. This, of course, is a testament to the quality of the outstanding people involved on all levels of the Fedora Project.
Christoph Wickert (cwickert): No doubt there are problems here and there, but there is no mystic medicine to cure them all. Frankly speaking I think this question is very vague and therefor hard to answer. I think that one of the fundamental problems we have is the division between volunteers on the one hand and Red Hat employees on the other. While the volunteers are often referred to as "the community" we need to understand that the Fedora community is both the volunteers and Red Hatters. We need tear down the barrier between these groups and establish trust and transparency.
Robert 'Bob' Jensen (bjensen): no answers provided
FESCo
What will you be able to accomplish by being elected, that you would not otherwise be able to do as a contributor?
Justin Forbes (jforbes): no answers provided
Jon Ciesla (limburgher): I'll be able to help guide Fedora's community to pursuit of it's stated goals, by shaping the policies that are our common framework for action. Instead of merely bikeshedding, I'll engage more directly with other members of FESCO and the community at large to make decisions that are in the best interests of the project and the larger community.
Marcela Mašláňová (mmaslano): Contributors can protest on fedora-devel, but they are often not heard.
Matthew Garrett (mjg59): I don't think being a member of FESCo is about accomplishing things. I'd hope that any member of the project could propose any topic that's brought up in FESCo and ensure that it was appropriately discussed. Instead, I think being a member of FESCo is about having responsibility to the project. FESCo exists to make sound technical decisions, and being a member of FESCo means being trusted by the project to make those decisions correctly.
Miloslav Trmač (mitr): Many contributors express opinions on policies, processes and distribution-wide technical decisions decided by FESCo. The primary way to make these opinions heard is to have a representative on FESCo, and I'd like to serve as a representative for people who agree with my mission statement and plans.
John Dulaney (j_dulaney): I will bring a different perspective to FESCo as the majority of my experience within the Fedora project is with Quality Assurance.
What is the role of FESCo in your opinion? What is it to do or not to do?
Justin Forbes (jforbes): no answers provided
Jon Ciesla (limburgher): Conceptually, I picture FESCO as providing the How in response to FAB's What and Why. By setting technical policy, FESCO helps make sure that Fedora stays at the forefront of Free Software development, while being usable across a wide range of use cases. To make use of a metaphor, if FAB says, "Expand our territory", FESCO says, "Let's expand over these two rivers", FPC says "We should use a suspension bridge for this river, and a series of ferries on the other", while FAMSCO says "Look at all the amazing things there are to do in these new areas! Come, enjoy, and help us make it better!"
Marcela Mašláňová (mmaslano): FESCo has to solve technical differences in special cases, when developers are not able found compromise. FESCo should review new major features closely for possible breakage of Fedora principles and breakage of dependent packages.
Matthew Garrett (mjg59): The glib response is to just quote from http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_Engineering_Steering_Committee - FESCo handles the process of accepting new features, the acceptance of new packaging sponsors, Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and SIG Oversight, the packaging process, handling and enforcement of maintainer issues and other technical matters related to the distribution and its construction.
Practically speaking, FESCo is there to make sure that individuals don't make decisions that negatively impact the entire project. FESCo isn't there to restrict the individual packager. It's not an organisation that should frequently be saying no. It's there to make sure that our packagers can build their packages. It's there to make sure that our users can install them. FESCo exists to work out ways for people to make significant changes to the entire project without making life miserable for everyone else.
Miloslav Trmač (mitr): Is this a test whether I can find the official definition (-: ?
The primary roles of FESCo are:
- Steering work on the distribution towards the desired direction, quality and timeliness (where possible and necessary - a lot is decided in individual upstream projects). The specific desired direction/quality/timeliness is also mostly defined by FESCo, with general guidelines from the Board.
- Coordinating distribution-wide changes (mainly the feature process), making sure all relevant contributors are involved as necessary and the changes are consistent with item "1" above.
- Setting up and maintaining processes for individual contributions, if these processes either make it easier to contribute, are necessary to deliver the contributions, or are necessary for item "1" above.
These roles can be accomplished either directly, by delegating, or by setting up a repeatable process.
As for things FESCo shouldn't do, it shouldn't overstep its mission, e.g. by contradicting Board-defined project direction. Also, neither the FESCo mission nor the above-described roles call for instituting a process to solve every problem that has ever happened - handling infrequent issues case by case is perfectly fine.
John Dulaney (j_dulaney): FESCo's role is to direct the new features accepted into Fedora and to maintain Fedora's role as the preeminent Linux distribution in terms of technology.
FAmSCo
What will you be able to accomplish by being elected, that you would not otherwise be able to do as a contributor?
Clint Savage (herlo): I don't believe the question properly considers what a member of FAmSCo should really be doing. The point is that Fedora Ambassador Steering Committee should be following the direction of those doing the work in each region. By providing good support and 'getting out of the way' of real work being done, FAmSCo should be an enabler to other Fedora Ambassadors.
Rejaul Islam (rejaul): no answers provided
Buddhika Chandradeepa Kurera (bckurera): no answers provided
Neville A. Cross (yn1v): I have nothing special that I only can be done being a member of FamSCo. I think being on FAmSCo will save me time to follow budget decision, but I can do it anyway. Just that if I am planning to attend, probably will be better taking a chair.
Igor Soares (igorps): As a FAmSCo member it is possible to change and improve things for all ambassadors in larger degree. For instance to improve how recommendations for a FUDCon are made or to improve how budget decisions are taken.
Shakthi Kannan (mbuf): FAmSCo would be a platform to help me reach out to, and cater to different Fedora groups across various parts of the globe.
Zoltan Hoppar (Zoltanh7211):
- I could improve swag and support media share and further flows for FAms.
- I could support more closely, widely the FAms in the foreign eastern bloc.
Truong Anh Tuan (tuanta):
- make the reimbursement process more transparent and faster. I got a lot of cases in which my requests of reimbursement have not responded timely. At first times, I was so dissapointed and I think others should be the same that; so faster response should be really good in those cases, especially for new ambassadors.
- get in touch much more with ambassadors in regions and countries (1-3 ones per country) to support them more active. I sometimes act as the chair for APAC bi-weekly meeting and I see people who have not got interested in the meeting are also not active enough in their regions/countries; so I see communication better should be one of key points to make ambassadors' work more effective.
Caius Chance (kaio): If I am elected as FAmSCo, I will accomplish as the "bridge" between parties:
- FAms - Funding Source: I will be able to participate in the reimbursement process and make sure it can be done smoothly. I will speed up the process by following up with FAms for invoices and details of fund receiving, and with funding person (currently Harish) for his progress of payment.
- FAms - FAms/Public: I will be able to participate in the mediation and inspection process and make sure dispute and allegations can be done with the best result and with just. I will improve the process by documenting the SOP of the mediation and inspection process.
- FAms - Goals: I will be able to participate in the actions process and make sure FAms Team is moving to the goals we have planned. I will participate in activity organization, swags production and lobbying others when needed.
Gerard Braad (gbraad): As a FAmSCo member you need to have a good idea of what happens in the community and region you represent. It takes leadership and experience to represent all members. As FAmSCo you represent the community and help them get their resources... for this.
Christoph Wickert (cwickert): This is a good question indeed because I already do a lot of things that FAmSCo is supposed to do but doesn't seem to care about or be able to. If others don't do it, I pitch in, but there is a few things I can only do as a FAmSCo member:
- Change the FAmSCo election guidelines in to make FAmSCo stronger. A draft of what I have in mind can be found in my proposal.
- Open FAmSCo'S trac instance. Currently we are sent meeting minutes with links to trac tickets, but we have no idea what these tickets are about.
- Perhaps we could also open FAmSCo mailing list so the work of FAmSCo becomes more transparent to the ambassadors.
What is the role of FAmSCo in your opinion? What is it to do or not to do?
Clint Savage (herlo): FAmSCo's role is to enable Ambassadors to spread Fedora by providing tools, support and direction. FAmSCo should not be dictating what Ambassadors can or cannot do, rather helping to enable any reasonable attempt at growing the contributor base.
Rejaul Islam: no answers provided
Buddhika Chandradeepa Kurera (bckurera): no answers provided
Neville A. Cross (yn1v): FAmSCo role is to empower ambassadors to do their work. Ambassadors main task is to recruit collaborators. FAmSCo should help ambassadors to run more small events where we help people get on board collaborating.
Igor Soares (igorps): FAmSCo should provide the tools and resources for ambassadors to do their job and make sure that everything is done with transparency and responsibility. FAmSCo also should think the Ambassadors program in the long term, fostering a healthy scalable growth over time. FAmSCo should not focus only on the specific local issues of its members regions, but instead should see the Ambassadors project as a truly global program.
Shakthi Kannan (mbuf): Channelize newbie interests towards Fedora sub-projects goals, and help maintain a productive, healthy relationship.
Zoltan Hoppar (Zoltanh7211):
- Coordination within the events, newbies, existing community members, contributors, money - and at many parts of the infrastructure related flows.
- Communication and prevent burn-out, and keep alive an passionate and innovative community through the ambassadors.
Truong Anh Tuan (tuanta): FAmSCo should play well in these roles:
- Support ambassadors in regions and countries.
- Coordinate ambassadors and other groups.
- Review and support for funding ambassadors' work.
- Collaborate with CommArch, Board, etc. to support ambassadors' work better.
Caius Chance (kaio): I think FAmSCo is the servant of all FAms. FAmSCo is the first contact for FAms who need assistance or advice. Because there are so many great and experienced FAms in the team, if FAmSCo is not capable in certain area, FAmSCo is still able to refer inquirers who are the best person for that.
FAmSCo is the leader who lead the team to the objectives. It catalyze all in the team contribute, sometimes FAmSCo is the one who be the first to pilot the new idea and start the change among the whole FAms team. Besides, FAmSCo is not a ruler party who announces policies and urge all to follow. Everyone in the FAms team can lead in any activities.
Gerard Braad (gbraad): FAmSCo takes care of community related activities, budgets and high level tasks needed to make it possible Ambassadors get what they need. However, FAmSCo does not deal with board related issues or unnecessary budget pushing. Last term many issues came from budget issues.
Christoph Wickert (cwickert): To do:
- Enable our ambassadors to do their job, this means to promote Fedora.
- Make sure our ambassadors get all the resources they need
- Coordinate with other groups, e.g. design-team or marketing
- Mentoring, e.g. dealing with problems among team members
Not to do:
- Decide about budget. Currently FAmSCo decides about the budget even for non-ambassadors. If we send a packager to a developers conference, I don't think that FAmSCo or the regional ambassadors should decide about this - they might not even know the person or be familiar with his work. More on this in the last question.
What would you change about the way Ambassadors is run
Clint Savage (herlo): I would be happy to lower barriers for joining the Ambassadors program. I would also like to work with the other FAmSCo members to better improve the communication between FAmSCo and its membership and improve transparency of the processes.
Rejaul Islam: no answers provided
Buddhika Chandradeepa Kurera (bckurera): no answers provided
Neville A. Cross (yn1v): I have no suggestion at the moment.
Igor Soares (igorps): Ambassador is a pretty solid project with a good mentoring process. Even so we need to make sure that we proper allocate the budget and resources to provide a continuous improvement cycle. The Ambassadors project should also deal better with regional differences and idiosyncrasies in a way possible to avoid fragmentation, spreading our core values over the world.
Shakthi Kannan (mbuf): Have a semi-formal, mentoring workflow that can help keep track of things that newbies need to do for Fedora projects.
Zoltan Hoppar (Zoltanh7211): I would like all Ambassadors to actively contribute in whatever ways that is possible. Is that no so hard, and needs to be demystified - because every idea can bring us new things, and improvements. There is no such thing that only this or that group could do, but mentoring or re-mentoring can be important. Also I would like to ensure that communication is the most important before something goes wrong, turns to passive, or burn-out. I also want to ensure that whoever becomes a Ambassador has a strong hold on all the important details, including milestones, successes and failures in Fedora and at least be aware of whom to redirect when they get a question they do not know the answer to.
Truong Anh Tuan (tuanta): 1. Some ambassadors, as I see, have not been active enough yet. They should get much more support to do their work better. 2. We should have campains to *recruit* more ambassadors in some regions and countries, especially where there is no one or only one ambassador. Each country/region should have at least 2-3 ones to collaborate and share ideas, experience, etc. better.
Caius Chance (kaio): I would change the way Ambassadors around the world as the same team. I want every FAms has same opportunity to express their thoughts and know about "what they can participate". i.e. know how to start a FAD in their locations, how to prepare venues, topics, attendants, budget and other resources.
Gerard Braad (gbraad): Not much change is needed. Ambassadors need to understand what they apply for and what the community expects from them. they represent the project, how Fedora works... and the Open Source Way.
Christoph Wickert (cwickert): Overall I think the ambassadors are not doing bad, but of course there are things we can improve. But I think it's not so much the ambassadors that need to improve but FAmSCo itself.
I'd like to be FAmSCo more
- active
- open
- reliable
- transparent
- responsive
When considering the normal situation, how many days(minimum) you need to response an inquiry from a FAm?
Clint Savage (herlo): Generally, a response could take as little as an hour. Though I suspect most will be a few days to a week depending on the depth of the request. Some will need longer when other FAmSCo members will need to be consulted.
Rejaul Islam: no answers provided
Buddhika Chandradeepa Kurera (bckurera): no answers provided
Neville A. Cross (yn1v): Usually one day, sometimes two if there is a weekend.
Igor Soares (igorps): A couple days are enough. For inquiries to the committee itself that would need further discussion we would need a week.
Shakthi Kannan (mbuf): Within 24 hours. If I am traveling, at least within 48-72 hours.
Zoltan Hoppar (Zoltanh7211): Basically I read my mails daily so I could answer immediately, but in relation of my $dayjob maximum three.
Truong Anh Tuan (tuanta): In a day.
Caius Chance (kaio): Less than 24 hours at most case. This is under the assumption of distractions from private life such as: work (8 hours), sleep (8 hours), miscellaneous (8 hours, e.g. transportation, personal hygiene, meals, family, etc.)
Gerard Braad (gbraad): depends on the question, but I keep this to a minimum of 1 day... and a maximum of 3 days. in case it is needed, I will consult the other members of FAmSCo.
Christoph Wickert (cwickert): Although I am just a normal ambassador, many people seem to think I am some kind of community manager already. I get mails almost every day and people ask me to send them swag, organize events, approve budget requests, help them with visa requests and many more things. I do what I can to deal with all these mails but there are many things I simply cannot do (budget etc). When I can do something, I try to do it ASAP, this usually means I get back to the requester within a day. If I have time or something is urgent (e.g. recently the F16 media orders) I respond immediately.
What actions will the future FAmSCo take to encourage more participation to regional FAms meetings?
Clint Savage (herlo): Lowering the barriers of joining Fedora Ambassadors. Enabling Ambassadors by providing better tools and communication for events, meetings, SWAG, etc.
Rejaul Islam: no answers provided
Buddhika Chandradeepa Kurera (bckurera): no answers provided
Neville A. Cross (yn1v): To encourage participation on meeting what it is needed is that resources decisions are handled on meetings. As we have been making multiple ways to reach for resources, then it is natural that people use different channels, and as result attendance to meetings is low. Do we want to force people to attend meetings? I will say no.
Igor Soares (igorps): The future FAmSCo will need to keep information about the meetings more updated. Sometimes the information is outdated or not visible enough. Information about the meetings should be available and updated on the Ambassadors meeting wiki page, and reminders should be sent to regional mailing lists where available.
Shakthi Kannan (mbuf): Facilitate organizing more hands-on workshops to get newbies get started with the various sub-projects.
Zoltan Hoppar (Zoltanh7211):
- More advertising / "ninja" programs.
- We need not only local FAD's, else regional webinars/IRC FAD's either where we could share, teach and show what is changed improved or works already or need to be done for the region.
Truong Anh Tuan (tuanta): Firstly, I think ambassadors should be encouraged to be more active. Active ones should have support more and faster, suggest more ideas, comments, faster getting funds, etc. In those cases, active ones should *automatically* join into regional meetings to discuss add share more ideas with others. There should be at least one FAmSCo join into each regional meeting, I think. As I see, sometimes in our meetings in APAC, we need a FAmSCo or someone with enough power to give ideas, suggestions or make decisions. It would be great to have at least one FAmSCo in each regional meeting.
Caius Chance (kaio): Every FAmSCo member should attend at least 1 regional meeting in their area. FAmSCo should exchange the news and opinions from both FAmSCo and regional FAms. In the organization of activities, FAmSCo should assist everything what FAms need.
In the best scenario, a FAmSCo should visit the FUDCon in their geographic region and a few more FADs if budget is available. The purpose of the trips are analyze the performance of the activities, getting feedback from FAms and public and conclude with retrospective information for future planning of FAm team.
Gerard Braad (gbraad): For China we would need a lot more guidance in how events are organized and make them aware of how to apply for budgets (if they need). Most APAC communities keep a weekly meeting online and kept me in the loop of what was going on. It would be great if those same communities will meet in real. for this, FAmSCo can help...
Christoph Wickert (cwickert): FWIW the attendance of the regular meetings is ok, but I can only speak for the EMEA region. Generally speaking I think we should:
- Meet more frequently and regularly: I am hosting the EMEA meetings for over a year now if there are regular meeting, participation will increase over time.
- Remind people: Make sure to send out reminders a day in advance and announce the meetings in #fedora-ambassadors an hour before they start.
- Have FAmSCo members attend the meetings local meetings regularly: I hope that the next FAmSCo will have members from all regions and I expect them to attend their regional meetings.
Will you participate for FAms regional meetings actively? If yes, what regional meetings you cover?
Clint Savage (herlo): I regularly attend the FAmNA meetings now and will continue to attend.
Rejaul Islam: no answers provided
Buddhika Chandradeepa Kurera (bckurera): no answers provided
Neville A. Cross (yn1v): I have not been active in regional meeting because they occur during my work shift. LATAM meetings will be trying out a new schedule and if that works out I will be on those regional meetings.
Igor Soares (igorps): Yes! I have been chairing the LATAM regional meeting since last year and will continue to do that. I also cover Latin American infrastructure meetings where we use to discuss local resources such as forums and the local community website. It's hard to attend to meetings of other regions but I would like to do that from time to time.
Shakthi Kannan (mbuf): So far, I have been addressing the needs in India: [[1]]
Zoltan Hoppar (Zoltanh7211): Yes, if possible all EMEA.
Truong Anh Tuan (tuanta): Sure. Currently, I collaborate with bckurera and dramsey to chair almost APAC ambassadors bi-weekly meetings.
Caius Chance (kaio): Yes. I had been participate in FAms APAC meetings in last 12 months as last FAmSCo. I will cover the APAC meetings no matter I will be elected FAmSCo or not.
Gerard Braad (gbraad): I will try to participate in the meetings as much as possible or at least read up on the issues and topics from their local meetings and ask questions when needed. Mostly they kept me in the loop of what was happening and approached me when needed.
Christoph Wickert (cwickert):
- Of course I will attend regularly, I am hosting the meetings in the EMEA region. During the last year I only missed three meetings because I was traveling and when I was not able to make it, I asked others to take over for me to assure the meeting takes place.
- When I am hosting a meeting, we usually have a fixed agenda, this means we first cover the reoccurring day to day business (announcements, schedule, events, etc.) and then have an open floor session at the end where people can just bring up whatever they want to talk about. For more details please refer to the EMEA meeting minutes and logs of the last year.
What do you do to improve the budget report?
Clint Savage (herlo): I help form the initial FAmNA budgeting process. My intent is to help form better reporting and tooling to inform not only the Ambassadors and the rest of Fedora. I'd like to implement on-time quarterly reports on budget, events and other items which can be easily compiled with on-time reporting from each region.
Rejaul Islam: no answers provided
Buddhika Chandradeepa Kurera (bckurera): no answers provided
Neville A. Cross (yn1v): All the information is accessible, but not everyone know how to find it. We need to consolidate that information in one place, or at least make a list of places to look at.
Igor Soares (igorps): Budget report can be more detailed. My suggestion is to report not only what FAmSCo already spent but also what we are spending, considering the last tickets approved and to report what we intend to spend as well, considering recurrent spending. Those information are already available but are fragmented, FAmSCo should consolidate them in one place.
Shakthi Kannan (mbuf): Have quarterly reports in place, and generate cumulative reports periodically. Have retrospection in place for events.
Zoltan Hoppar (Zoltanh7211): We need an integrated system for proper management instead of the current wiki editing, and that should be part of the Fedora Insight. We need also include the swags inventory, and require an simple form that could be reused every time.
Truong Anh Tuan (tuanta): I have no idea here.
Caius Chance (kaio): I review all reimbursements in the region I covered for the accuracy of the expenses. This includes checking if the amounts are reasonable to the purpose, confirmation on the receipts are detailed enough to be valid, and audit the money spent in the payment fee such as PayPal, Western Union, telegraphic transfer, and so on.
Gerard Braad (gbraad): A lot has improved in recent time. However, budget application need to be told to any new ambassador. Or at least pointed towards the available wiki pages. Regional FAmSCo members should aid in the application process as much as possible.
Christoph Wickert (cwickert):
- As mentioned before I don't think that FAmSCo should deal with the budget and this also includes the budget reports. See next question.
- I think that we need somebody who is really familiar with accounting. We discussed this as FUDCon Milan and I proposed Jiri. He holds a master degree in accounting and he is willing to do it, however we still need to figure out some details before he can start working on the budget.
- Make sure we have effective reporting guidelines. This means the guidelines
- must be easy to understand. If community credit card holders spent too much time with reporting, nobody wants to hold a community credit card any longer.
- must be common among FAmSCo, community credit card holders and the Comm-arch team.
- IHMO it's not so much reporting that needs to be improved but rather approval and controlling. During the last year I have spent several thousand USD from my own pocket in order to organize events, book hotels or buy train and flight tickets for other community members. Of course I got reimbursed later, but most of the time it took way to long because FAmSCo did not review my tickets.
How do think the budget management can be more transparent?
Clint Savage (herlo): Regularly scheduled budget meetings with each region. And as above, on-time quarterly reports on budget, events and other pieces of important Ambassador business.
Rejaul Islam: no answers provided
Buddhika Chandradeepa Kurera (bckurera): no answers provided
Neville A. Cross (yn1v): If we can have all info in one place or a list of links that will help to follow the process and will seem more transparent. I think that issues with budget goes beyond transparency. I will want more certainty with budget decisions. We had a great legacy given from Max, and now we are charting new experiences with Harish. We have been discussing having meeting about budget at least every month and finish implementing the financial SIG started by Max. I do want to get involved on making budget flow more consistent, and communicate about it so more people on the project knows how it works. That will make things more ordered, and probably will look more transparent as a side effect. In reality will be more easy to follow, as there is nothing “un-transparent”.
Igor Soares (igorps): I think that the approach of the previous question would help a lot already. FAmSCo should also make sure that FUDCons and FADs have their budget well described on the wiki and the tickets for other events have the proper financial information for payment with the community credit cards. Event reports should be must so we are able to have feedback on how the money was spent.
Shakthi Kannan (mbuf): Be open to discussions and answer queries that people might have. Use event reports, and retrospection in place to help with the same.
Zoltan Hoppar (Zoltanh7211): I can be if we produce quarterly sum reports (and also will be included for Famsco schedule), but that also needs even more Fedora Insight that aggregates and inegrates, makes easier the full processing, reporting.
Truong Anh Tuan (tuanta): I have no idea here. I will investigate more when I am elected (I will have more information at that time).
Caius Chance (kaio): Personally I want the reimbursement tickets in the FAmSCo trac available to the all FAms. Also, I want the information of conflict resolution available to FAms as highest degree (given it won't damage the morale of the good of the team). And I want to suggest a budget townhall for all FAms to tell the FAmSCo how they want the money be spent.
Gerard Braad (gbraad): I do believe this is transparent enough. FAmSCo and community architecture take a role in keeping this transparent.
Christoph Wickert (cwickert):
- I want the (yet to be established) Fedora Council to manage the budget.
- The council will consist of delegates from all groups (ambassadors, design, marketing, packagers, websites, ...) and meet frequently to improve communication and cooperation between among different groups.
- By having all these people in the council we not only make sure that all groups are involved in budget decisions and their requests dealt with but also that resources are shared evenhanded.