[loco-contacts] Our teams reject the new LoCo Council policy

[Felipe Gil-Castiñeira]

José Antonio Rey <jose <at> ubuntu.com> writes:

> 
> Hello,
> 
> This is a policy the LoCo Council as well as the Community Council has
> come up with after several weeks of discussion, considering what is the
> best scenario for most teams around the globe.
> 
> If you feel a subteam inside your country should be considered as a LoCo
> Team, you can follow the steps outlined in the policy in order to
> request the consideration as a separate LoCo Team. We will have a
> problem taking a look at it. The Catalan team is, even, already
> considered a separate LoCo Team.
> 
> At this current point I, personally, do not see any problems with the
> policy in place and believe that it will help build stronger LoCo Teams.
> We have even seen Brazil using this policy for a good while now and they
> have been doing an outstanding work.
> 
> If there is anything we can help you with, please let us know.
> 
> On 10/11/2014 01:15 PM, Ubuntu-ast wrote:
> > Hello all,
> > 
> > We would like to express our disagreement with the new organization
> > politics on LoCo Teams presented by the LoCo Council. It has been a not
> > consensual decision and even our LoCos were not consulted at any moment.
> > 
> > 
> > Establishing a LoCo per state would create organisational problems
> > between them.
> > 
> > This new politic has been thought regardless of cultures and languages
> > of possible regions on the countries, we consider this extent against
> > Ubuntu philosophy, where from the beginning cultural and linguistic
> > richness were promoted. As for translation teams, always related to
> > their LoCos, this compulsive subordination is offensive for Galician,
> > Basque, Catalan and Asturian translators and could carry abandoning some
> > language translations.
> > 
> > 
> > From Ubuntu-ast, Ubuntu-cat and Ubuntu-gl, we are always looking forward
> > to work with other LoCos anywhere. The hard work from our members is
> > volunteering, and this new politics does not take in
> > account the people, their culture or their work, but only countries,
> > introducing a whimsical administrative organisation element that has
> > nothing to do with people.
> > 
> > As this is volunteering work, the better thing to do would be not to
> > annoy the volunteers.
> > 
> > 
> > This is a moment when Ubuntu community is not growing in any sense,
> > please don’t make things worse with bad decisions. We request the
> > removal of this new policy.
> > 
> > Best regards
> > 
> > On behalf of the Ubuntu-cat, Ubuntu-eu, Ubuntu-gl & Ubuntu-ast teams
> > 
> 


Dear José Antonio,

Although I partially agree with you, and probably this new organization will
be fine (or even the best) for some places, definitely, it won't work for
places like Spain. 

In Spain LoCo Teams aren't organized using a geographical approach, but a
*cultural* one. Therefore, a hierarchical geographical organization for LoCo
Teams could make sense, but a hierarchical organization for cultures don't.
In fact, this organization will arouse strong opposition from many
volunteers (as it creates the impression that their culture is being
considered inferior to the one that is being put in the upper hierarchic
level). 

Our LoCo Team communities are very delicate, as they are only supported by
volunteers. I'm afraid this new organization will destroy many of these LoCo
Teams, and even cause damage to "Ubuntu translators" communities. 

Kind regards,
    Felipe