[guadec-list] Minutes of GUADEC team meeting 2017-01-16

[Sam Thursfield <ssssam gmail com>]

These minutes also available at:
https://wiki.gnome.org/GUADEC/2017/Meetings/20170116

Core team meeting 2017-01-16, at https://meet.jit.si/guadec2017

== Present ==

 * AllanDay
 * JavierJardon
 * AlbertoRuiz
 * SamThursfield

== Actions ==

 * Sam to write draft accommodation & travel info for the website
    => [[https://wiki.gnome.org/GUADEC/2017/Info]]
 * Sam to follow up on regcfp deployment
 * Sam to check in with MMU about payments
 * Allan to polish the sponsorship brochure if needed
 * Allan to finish the logo design
    => [[https://github.com/gnome-design-team/gnome-marketing/blob/master/events/guadec/2017/]]
 * Sam to request next accommodation deposit from the Board
 * Sam to coordinate collecting stuff from benzea at FOSDEM
 * Alberto to continue looking for sponsors
 * Sam to call out for keynote ideas on guadec-list
 * Javier to plan the 20th birthday event

== Meeting summary ==

Agenda:

 * status of current tasks
 * how to meet going forwards

=== Website & annoucement ===

The venue is booked & the dates are now fixed: 28th July to 2nd August
2017.

We want to announce ASAP but are waiting to have a basic website ready
first. Carla Quintana is working on this but we don't know her progress.

The 2017.guadec.org Wordpress instance is already up.

 * We'll wait til next Monday (23rd January) and if it's not ready, set
 * up a very basic website on the Wordpress instance ourselves
  * We need access to the Wordpress; we can contact Oliver about this as
  * he already has access.
  * We need info on travel & accommodation; Sam can write drafts this
  * week and get them reviewed on guadec-list

=== Registration ===

We want registration to be open as soon as possible.

Sam has looked at regcfp and implemented accommodation bookings:
https://github.com/puiterwijk/regcfp/pull/167

There is a test instance set up for 2017 running:
http://test-guadec2017-regcfp.herokuapp.com/

Still various tasks before it's ready:

* finalize design & wording
* set up new identity system to replace Mozilla Persona
* deploy to GNOME infra
* configure to use Foundation's PayPal account

Sam will talk to Patrick Uiterwijk about getting this set up.

=== Meetings going forwards ===

==== Extra volunteers ====

We are a small team right now and there local people keen to join in,
but what tasks do we have for them right now?

We will need the most help around July.

Current tasks:

* promotion, including local user groups & universities
* social event organisation

We can coordinate extra volunteers on guadec-list rather than trying
to get everyone to join regular meetings.

==== Meetings ====

We should meet more regularly from now on; we'll try Mondays
16:00-17:00.

IRC or jit.si?

 * jit.si higher bandwidth
 * IRC meetings allow people to lurk and help out
 * IRC meetings are quicker when there's not much to discuss, but can
   become super long if not structured

We'll try IRC for the next couple of weeks, with a fixed agenda and
'meetbot' logging, and we'll decide from there.

=== Payments for venue & accommodation ===

These should have been paid, but haven't received confirmation either
from the Foundation or from the University.

 * Sam will check with Kate at MMU if it's been received

=== Sponsorship brochure ===

We like what Meg has done.

It could have more work from a graphic design aspect. But we shouldn't
block on this.

The graphic "GNOME's influence in the Linux ecosystem" on page 3 is good
but perhaps needs putting in context with an intro paragraph.

 * Allan will lead any 'polishing' work for the brochure

=== Logo ===

The logo is urgent, we need it for the website.

Jakob made a start but needs more work to reflect the city.

We could use the Manchester "worker bee" logo instead of a skyline? But
lots of GUADEC stuff is layed out with a city skyline in mind, so this
would have a big knock-on effect.

 * Allan will finish off the logo design.

=== Second deposit for accommodation ===

This is due at the end of January (quite soon after the 1st payment,
but the 1st payment was delayed by 3 or 4 months in the end).

After this we'll have paid around 80% of the accommodation hire costs.

 * Sam will request the money from board-list gnome org

=== Collecting items at FOSDEM ===

 * Sam is going to attend FOSDEM and organise collection of items.

Lots of Codethink staff are going from Manchester but mostly by plane,
which makes it hard to carry banners etc.

There are some Cambridge folk going who might be getting the train,
collecting stuff from there later on isn't difficult.

=== Sponsors ===

So far we have 1 platinum sponsor confirmed.

Alberto has been following up with potential sponsors, but due to the
Christmas holidays there isn't much to report.

If we gain a new executive director they can take over some of this
work.

 * Alberto will continue contacting sponsors, including regulars

=== Keynotes ===

We need to start contacting potential keynote speakers.

What are the goals with having keynote speakers?

 * Bring different perspectives to the community
 * Attract sponsors and attendees by having big names giving talks, e.g.
   Richard Stallman's keynote in 2009
 * Special cases for "must see" talks that, were they scheduled
   normally, would leave someone else on the other track talking to an
   empty room

We pay travel and accommodation costs for keynote speakers, but not
clear if we would pay speaking fees.

Some years we've rushed with the keynotes and they've not gained us
much.

Plan: to aim high, and consider dropping keynote slots if we're not
able to get speakers that we're excited about.

 * Sam will call out on guadec-list for suggestions to be added to
   https://wiki.gnome.org/GUADEC/2017/Ideas
 * Next month we'll create a shortlist and start contacting people

==== VIPs ====

It's the 20th anniversary of GNOME; we could invite some "emeritus"
contributors to the party.

 * We need to set a date for the party then
 * Javier will look at choosing a venue the birthday party (two options,
   depending on whether we find a sponsor for it)

There are some veteran free software folk in the UK who we could
perhaps invite as VIPs.

== Next meeting ==

Next meeting will be in #guadec at 16:00 UTC on Monday 24th January.

== End of minutes ==

Thanks for reading!
Sam