Approval and Re Approval for LoCo Teams some Helpful hints

[Laura Czajkowski]

Aloha,

I've had some time recently to review a lot of wiki applications for 
LoCos.  It is truly amazing the amount of work some teams do and is a 
great source of ideas to try for other teams.

With that said, I've also seen some wiki pages which are less than clear 
on what the team is doing which makes it very hard to judge. So I 
thought I'd put down some best practices to make it clearer what is 
expected.

So firstly let's recap:

    The LoCo Council has been tasked with identifying Approved LoCo
    teams which were approved over 2 years ago and thus are due for
    re-approval. The criteria for re approval is the same as for
    approval which is outlined on thegetting approved instructions
</LoCoGettingApproved> and the LoCo Council guidelines can be found
    at the team approval guidelines </LoCoCouncil/TeamApprovalGuidelines>.

    It should be noted that from the day your LoCo is approved, you
    should continue to document all events and history of your LoCo
</LoCo> for this re approval process to make it clear and visible to
    all.

Now it is safe to say some teams do not continue documenting their work 
so when it comes to re approval time it's panic stations, all hands on 
deck!  Things you can do to help elevate this are the following

    * Use the LoCo Directory <http://loco.ubuntu.com/> to log all of
      your events it will make it easier to write up about them and
      possibly in the future link to past events
<https://bugs.launchpad.net/loco-directory/+bug/608797>
    * MONTHLY Reports <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TeamReports>folks, only a
      handful of teams use them and there are more teams there that
      SHOULD be writing monthly reports, list your IRC meeting, any real
      life meet up, projects people are working on in relation to Ubuntu.
    * Take photos of your events it'll help in the long run, assign
      someone at each event to take photos and even create a gallery in
      one place to link to them

When it comes to the creation of the Application be it for Approval or 
ReApproval it's the same thing just NAMED DIFFERENTLY.  You just need to 
document it. LOTS OF DETAILS PLEASE! We'd rather have too much then not 
enough details as the meeting is short and we have a lot of teams to get 
through.

What is expected of a LoCo Team

    * All teams must provide the Council with a wiki page (in English
      preferably) with details outlined in
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoGettingApproved.
    * The team should have demonstrated a significant and sustained
      contribution to the Ubuntu community, from participating in a
      ubuntu-related project, documentation, localization, development
      (bug reports and packaging, marketing, participating in FOSS
      events, release parties. All of these abiding the Code of Conduct
      and following the LoCo </LoCo> team project's policies.
    * The team should have public wiki pages and an open public mailing
      list set up, these initial resources indicate open participation
      and they provide the Council with a log of the Team's activity.
    * The team should have an entry in 
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTeamList.
    * The team should have been running for at least 4 months and have
      had a consistent set of interactions with each other (council
      members should look at mailing list activity to assess how much
      activity there is) - you should also assess IRC activity where
      applicable.
    * The team should have a good roadmap and a good set of goals that
      they want to achieve, The Approved status is only a confirmation
      of their effort and it is also a commitment for further community
      activity.
    * Leadership within the team must be build upon fairness and
      openess. The team must be in agreement with the fair apointment of
      a leader. This leader must represent the team in different
      situations in an efficient and effective manner, so the leader's
      commitment towards the team is paramount.
    * Has there been much conflict in the team, and if so, has it been
      resolved?: This is a very important sign of a team that is mature
      enough to face further situations in the future. Resolving issues
      is definetely a learning experience for LoCo Teams.
    * Do the council feel this team could be trusted with additional
      resources such as additional CDs and being sent equipment for
      use?, Extra resources encourage more participation therefore,
      Being able to administer their resources is paramount, making sure
      that the team has what they need to promote ubuntu locally .
    * Is this team setting a good example to the community? The Team
      must serve as role for new teams. The teams participation in LoCo
      team communication channels (Mailing list and IRC) is also
      encouraged, this way the team can be sure of that the great work
      done by this team gets shared with the whole LoCo Team community.

We also know that from time to time things don't run smoothly, but how 
you cope  resolve and work things out is what we would like to know 
about.  It's not a bad thing unless you hide it.  On the wiki page tell 
us how many is in your TEAM, IRC Channel, Mailing list, Forums and link 
to them.  We need the details, please don't expect us to go looking for 
them, your team is one of a number of teams being reviewed.

When it comes to the IRC meeting if you are called for one, don't come 
alone.  You are not in the team alone.  You don't run the team alone. 
  BRING PEOPLE  TO CHEER THEIR TEAM ALONG!  It's a team effort remember 
this when doing the application ASK FOR HELP, ASK  FOR CONTENT, you may 
miss something when someone else has blogged or taken photos of something.

Remember the LoCo Council idles in #ubuntu-locoteams if you want us to 
look over your application to give you some pointers just ask.  Remember 
being called for reapproval is a normal procedure and do not panic :)

Finally some really good applications just to give you an idea of what 
we're looking for are the following

   1. Colombian LoCo
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ColombianTeam/TeamReApproval2010>
   2. Italian LoCo
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ItalianTeam/ReApprovalApplication>
   3. French LoCo <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FrenchTeam/ApprovalApplication

-- 

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/czajkowski
http://www.lczajkowski.com
Skype: lauraczajkowski