Summary of the LoCoTeam meeting, 2005-09-21

[Jane Silber]

Yann -

>>Every single one of those is addressed by the arrangement we talked
>>about several weeks ago whereby the LoCo team works with the Ubuntu
>>Foundation.
>>    
>>
>
>I'm kind of overbooked these last weeks, I'm afraid I don't remember this
>arrangement... What does it stated?
>
>  
>
You and I and Mako talked about this in private email. I committed that 
any donations that are made to the Ubuntu Foundation on behalf of a LoCo 
team will be given in whole to the LoCo team. The Ubuntu Foundation can 
also issue receipts for those donations for corporate donors for whom 
that it important.

It is true that these donations would not be tax deductible, but I think 
that is a small tradeoff to make.

>>Not true, it does.
>>    
>>
>
>Legally, yes... but it might take a few more month before Ubuntu is run by
>the foundation, doesn't it? whatever.
>
>  
>
No, not true. I don't know what you are expecting from the Foundation, 
but there will not be significant changes in how things are done. The 
Foundation codified the governance structures that are already in place 
- e.g., the Community Council is the Advisory Board of the the 
Foundation, the Technical Board still controls the distro, etc. This has 
been in place since the announcement. The Foundation is a legal 
structure and a funding commitment to ensure the longevity of Ubuntu. 
Day to day workings will not change.

>
>I think it's all about (de)centralisation... What independence should be
>given to locoteams? that should be discussed at a cc-meeting... I still
>think locoteams should be able to do more on their own, but I understand
>your fears concerning that, especially with the current problems with the
>latvian team.
>  
>
Right now there have been very few limits put on LoCo teams, other than 
this issue of we do not see the need for regional, competing non-profit 
foundations (which is how you started this discussion - with a request 
to establish The Ubuntu Foundation - France).

The other are that has come up with respect to centralisation is the 
local production of CDs. You (and everyone else in the world) is free to 
do that. As soon as Breezy artwork is finished, we'll put that on the 
wiki as a DIY kit. For the money that Canonical spends, we haven't found 
an alternative that is more cost effective for us. I have had hours of 
conversations with people that think they have solutions, but they never 
pan out. It is a complicated, expensive proposition. On average, we pay 
less than .45 EUR for each unit (where a unit is the 2 CD package). That 
includes all production costs up to and including the labour to process 
orders, count CDs and put them in packaging for mailing. The only thing 
that cost excludes is the actual shipping cost. I've said repeatedly 
that if there is an equivalent or cheaper solution out there we will 
switch, but I haven't found one.

>  
>
>Might that be ok if the locoteam leader is elected as a Ubuntu member at a
>CCmeeting? That way, he would also be member of the Ubuntu foundation...
>and the foundation would have his word on the creation of an official
>locoteam entity.
>  
>
This contradicts your (implied) suggestion that you want the LoCo teams 
to have more independence. In general I don't think who the LoCo team 
leader is should be a CC issue. The LoCo team should know its members, 
know who is contributing, etc. The CC is there for dispute resolution 
should that be required, but it is up to the LoCo team to work out how 
they want to be internally organised.

Please note that there is no such thing as a "member of the Ubuntu 
foundation". The same Ubuntu membership process that has been in 
existence from the outset is the only "membership" that exists.

>
>  
>
>> Off the top of my head, I'm thinking of conditions like
>>- must be an active LoCo team in good standing. "Active" could be
>>measured by number of members, number of months in existence, something
>>else?
>>    
>>
>
>These quotas are stronly in relation with the size of the country... maybe
>there may be a vote at the cc meeting for teams asking to get an official
>status?
>
>  
>
There is already CC approval for LoCo teams. That makes a team official. 
Once you have that, the team is official - go forth and Ubuntu-ise!

If we do proceed with some sort of special trademark license, there will 
certainly be an approval process. But it is not related to making a team 
"official". There is already a process for that, and we don't want some 
kind of elite team versus regular team.

>
>Actually there is no such official status of "locoteam member".  That's
>why i don't think a vote would be a good idea.
>Maybe there should be a discussion on the locoteam mailing list, and then
>a vote at the cc meeting...
>  
>
It is not appropriate for the CC to control the LoCo team activities at 
that level. LoCo teams can define their membership in any way they see 
fit. The same with the leadership - the members of the CC can't be 
expected to make an informed judgement on who among a number of people 
they don't know should run a remote organisation.

>  
>
>If the locoteam/non profit hasa budget, then it should be able to finance
>itself; in France it's really cheap, it just takes 30€ to create a non
>profit.
>
>  
>
We may be having an terminology issue here, but one definition of a 
budget is simply a plan for how to spend however much money you have. 
You can have that without having a company. And having a plan does not 
mean that you can then finance yourself. If you mean a budget as in 
"Canonical should give each loco team a some money to operate", that's a 
whole different discussion :).

One issue which you are skipping over is the potential need a LoCo team 
to have a bank account to hold any monies (so that it is not in one 
person's account/mattress). In countries I have experience with, it 
isn't necessary to have a company or non-profit in order to get a bank 
account. Can others comment on this? E.g., if we give you the trademark 
permission, can you go to your local bank and open an account as "The 
Ubuntu-XX Team"? The issue of who has authority to withdraw money from 
that account would be up to the LoCo Team itself.

Cheers,
Jane