[Ubuntu-US-CA] Request For Comment: Ubuntu California IRC meeting frequency

[Nathan Haines]

Hello all,

I would like to gather feedback on the way we conduct LoCo meetings.

As you know, Ubuntu California has meetings every two weeks on Freenode 
in #ubuntu-us-ca.  These meetings are a chance to get together and 
discuss LoCo activity, share news, and discuss and plan events.  These 
meetings are then logged and archived for future reference.

They're also very sparsely attended.

On the one hand, meetings are scheduled on Sundays to try to conflict as 
little as possible with school, work, and family commitments.  On the 
other hand, taking time out during the weekend is still taking family 
time away from many members.  With this in mind, in the distant past it 
was leadership policy to cancel most meetings with no agenda items so 
that members aren't taking time away from their family or home life. 
This worked well because members were adding agenda regularly and the 
LoCo was smaller and more active that at present.

This policy changed to one where meetings were not canceled except due 
to conflicts with holidays or major events, about 2 weeks in advance. 
Even if there was nothing to discuss at the meeting, it was still held. 
  Current leadership isn't terribly fond of this.

There are two important, conflicting concerns.  One is that regular, 
predictable meetings are an important part of checking in and working 
together.  A LoCo team is a community, and by meeting regularly, we stay 
in touch and and engaged.  Plus, regular, predictable meetings are easy 
to commit to attending.

The other concern, of course, is that everyone's time is valuable and a 
10 or 15 minute meeting on Sunday when people would otherwise be getting 
ready for the work week or spending time with family is a questionable 
use of time when we're all unpaid volunteers.

I'll chime in separately with some thoughts later, but for now I would 
like to hear what everyone thinks about meeting scheduling: dates, 
times, duration, and frequency.

-- 
Nathan Haines
Ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com/