18:01:06 <kital> #startmeeting FAmSCo Meeting 2010-07-12
18:01:06 <zodbot> Meeting started Mon Jul 12 18:01:06 2010 UTC.  The chair is kital. Information about MeetBot at http://wiki.debian.org/MeetBot.
18:01:06 <zodbot> Useful Commands: #action #agreed #halp #info #idea #link #topic.
18:01:13 <kital> #chair spevack
18:01:13 <zodbot> Current chairs: kital spevack
18:01:24 <kital> #topic Roll Call
18:01:35 <spevack> Max Spevack
18:01:41 <tatica> María Leandro
18:01:42 <kital> Joerg Simon
18:01:57 <kital> susmit right in time ;) for Roll Call
18:02:10 <susmit> Susmit Shannigrahi
18:02:28 <kital> ping ke4qqq lfoppiano for RollCall ?
18:03:09 <kital> hello all to famsco meeting
18:03:23 <kital> #topic meeting-agenda
18:03:41 <kital> todays meeting agenda http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FAmSCo_agenda
18:03:58 <kital> hope you are all in good shape and ready to start ;)
18:04:07 <kital> anything to add?
18:04:13 <kital> or questions?
18:04:31 * spevack apologizes for not having his part of the monthly report complete, and will be working on it as his next action.
18:04:37 <tatica> not me
18:05:10 <kital> spevack: thanks! as long as we get it ready one day  ;)
18:05:18 <kital> hihi
18:05:20 <susmit> looks fine..I shall like to discuss about delay in reimbursement though..if spevack does not mind
18:06:18 <spevack> of course we can discuss that
18:06:25 <kital> spevack? ok for you to start with this topic
18:06:29 <spevack> of course
18:06:38 <susmit> spevack, thanks :)
18:06:42 <kital> #topic reimbursement requests
18:06:48 * spevack assumes this topic is "max didn't pay someone back and needs to ASAP"
18:06:50 <kital> #chair susmit
18:06:50 <zodbot> Current chairs: kital spevack susmit
18:06:57 <susmit> spevack, no
18:07:01 <kital> susmit: it is all yours ;)
18:07:54 <susmit> ok..all I want to discuss is: what are the bottlenecks involved in the reimbursement process and what we can do to reduce that?
18:08:06 <spevack> sure.
18:08:15 <spevack> From my point of view, it is simple:
18:08:47 <spevack> (1) The biggest bottleneck is that not all parts of the world can use PayPal.  And when we can't use PayPal to reimburse people, it gets complicated.
18:09:05 <spevack> (2) The second bottleneck is when people don't have all their receipts, but that's not really something to solve.
18:09:43 <spevack> And the goal is to help reduce (1) by getting credit cards that community members can use, but we still have parts of the world where credit cards aren't always accepted.
18:10:11 <spevack> For instance, some of FUDCon LATAM is paid with credit cards, but there is a lot that isn't, and Red Hat LATAM is paying those bills and then transferring the costs to the budget that we use for FUDCons.
18:10:22 <spevack> susmit: what are the pain points you are seeing with reimbursements?
18:11:04 <kital> spevack: who is doing the paypal reimbursments if you get "hit by the bus" - even a bit?
18:11:59 <spevack> kital: there are a few people who could do them.
18:12:07 * spevack looks for the place where this is written down on the wiki
18:12:25 <spevack> #link https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Reimbursements
18:12:40 <susmit> the most important pain point that I see is: when it comes to APAC or LATAM, the amount which is relatively small in USD gets multiplied manifold when converted to local currency. Hence delay in reimbursement means a lot of personal fund being blocked at the event organizer's end.
18:12:52 <spevack> susmit: yep
18:13:17 <spevack> susmit: we have that problem in LATAM also
18:13:52 <spevack> susmit: one of the ways we try to solve that is by having Red Hat directly pay for things.
18:14:13 <spevack> susmit: but in your part of the world that is usually Harish or Sankarshan, and I don't personally know how difficult it is.
18:14:48 <spevack> susmit: would a credit card that can be used in India help?
18:14:51 <susmit> for India, it is fine.
18:15:02 <susmit> I am talking to APAC sans India
18:15:19 <spevack> susmit: i know you talk to dramsey -- what sort of solution would he like to see?
18:16:47 <susmit> we have not discussed this yet with him...I don't know what are the bottlenecks at Harish's part, may be I should talk to him too.
18:17:19 <susmit> but I have seen one ortwo requests getting blocked for a long time.
18:17:44 <spevack> susmit: which ones?
18:17:53 <spevack> susmit: maybe we can make progress on them right now
18:18:03 <susmit> right now, the vietnam one.
18:18:11 <tatica> spevack, btw, did the Perú information get to you?
18:18:24 <susmit> before that there was delay in reimbursing the fedora-bd one
18:18:38 <spevack> tatica: yep
18:18:43 <tatica> oki
18:18:49 <spevack> tatica: thanks :)
18:18:52 <tatica> np
18:19:07 <spevack> I'm getting ready to go on a trip from tomorrow until the next Tuesday, and I've been behind on email as a result, a little bit.
18:19:17 <spevack> susmit: let me open the famsco tickets and look
18:19:57 <susmit> spevack, https://fedorahosted.org/famsco/ticket/65 this is pending for two months
18:20:00 <spevack> Oh, well Tuan now has PayPal, so I need to just send that.
18:20:10 <kital> so the question is - do we have to rework on the reimbursement - payment process? are we able to do that? is it necessary?
18:20:15 <spevack> susmit: i'll do it today.
18:20:24 <spevack> susmit: last time, Tuan didn't have paypal, and that caused major problems
18:20:28 <spevack> I'm glad it will be easier now!
18:21:22 * spevack is looking at the receipts and pulling up paypal right now
18:21:48 <kital> tatica: susmit: more to add to this topic
18:21:50 <kital> ?
18:21:52 <susmit> kital, spevack I think the problem is not this ticket only. But the process in general. Do we want to set a time frame within which people must be paid? may be one month?
18:22:11 <tatica> kital, not at this meeting
18:22:13 <susmit> may be two?
18:22:37 <susmit> but putting a definite time frame helps people to arrange their own budget accordingly
18:22:47 <spevack> susmit: you are right
18:23:05 <spevack> FAMSCO should commit to 1 month after all the receipts are delivered.
18:23:25 <kital> susmit: i agree to have deadlines - but if we think of reimbursements for travelbudget i tend to go a different way and pay the bills in advance than have the contributor to pay a lot of money and wait 2 month
18:23:43 <tatica> spevack, is there anything that we as group can do?
18:24:02 <tatica> spevack, maybe set a resume each X days to remind you or help you collect the tickets
18:24:16 <susmit> spevack, if you find some time (;)), please review the possible delays and come up with a deadline suitable for everyone concerned?
18:24:22 <spevack> i think the best thing is to help make sure that people in your region are getting all their receipts, and then doing exaclty what susmit did which is hitting me on the head to make sure things aren't lagging
18:24:36 <tatica> oka
18:24:50 <susmit> spevack, sorry for that :)
18:25:36 <spevack> susmit: not at all :)
18:26:21 * spevack has updated tuan's ticket
18:26:29 <susmit> also, we should fix the ceiling "non-receipted" amount to (maybe) 5% of the total amount or so..that will reduce the wait time
18:26:38 <susmit> no receipt, no money
18:27:09 <kital> susmit: +1
18:27:28 <susmit> may be 2% or 10%... spevack will be best person to decide that
18:27:42 <tatica> susmit, +1
18:28:12 <kital> i also want to remind that if we talk about travel budget - which different from running a booth and producing swag
18:28:27 <kital> we should at least focus a bit on this process http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Sponsoring_event_attendees
18:28:32 <spevack> The rule that Red Hat has, which I need to obey, is that anything under $25 USD does *not* need a receipt.  Once you go over $25 USD, a receipt is required.
18:29:22 <susmit> kital, ok
18:30:05 <spevack> EOF from me
18:30:25 <kital> and as said in EMEA it turned out it is best if one person coordinates traveling and accomodation and can pay in advance if the requirements for event sponsoring are matched
18:30:32 <susmit> spevack, ok...syncing both RH and FAmSCo's process will be best to reduce the bottlenecks...
18:31:24 <kital> lets see how it goes if the credit cards arrive it will help to act much faster in regional affairs
18:31:40 <kital> susmit: do we need a action item for this topic?
18:31:44 <susmit> spevack, kital can we have an action item to review, modify and document the reimbursement process?
18:31:58 <kital> ;)
18:32:14 <kital> mind uplink to susmit
18:32:24 <susmit> :)
18:32:46 <kital> #action review, modify and document the reimbursement process till 2010-07-26
18:33:09 <kital> this are two weeks from now
18:33:43 <kital> next topic?
18:33:43 <susmit> #link https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Reimbursements
18:33:47 <susmit> kital, yes
18:33:55 <lfoppiano> sorry guys I'm still in the office..and I lost this chat :/
18:34:25 <kital> i want to skip the famsco trac instance topic - the last what i saw is http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/famsco/2010-June/000217.html
18:34:48 <kital> do i remind right?
18:34:50 <kital> hi lfoppiano
18:35:12 <susmit> kital, yes.
18:35:15 <kital> lfoppiano: we discussed reimbursement process till now
18:35:29 <kital> ok then i will skip this point
18:35:45 <kital> susmit lfoppiano - review of the release parties
18:35:54 <susmit> kital, do we discuss more on this? or we are dropping it from the agenda?
18:36:35 <spevack> ke4qqq was going to work on this.  I think we drop it for now.
18:36:47 <susmit> spevack, ok
18:36:51 <kital> ok
18:37:13 <kital> #topic review of the F13 release parties
18:37:43 <susmit> kital, please bear with me, I shall be done with the release events and the ambassadors FAQ (I have written down the questions, I need to write the answers) in an week, 18th July.
18:38:10 <kital> i think the main point is to decide who submitted a proper enough report to get the "Community Dinner"
18:38:19 <kital> and a short announcement about it
18:38:43 <kital> different from the last times we have not to decide who was the very best - all are the best this time
18:39:06 <kital> so susmit may  lfoppiano can help you?
18:39:50 <lfoppiano> sorry I didn't follow this task :/
18:40:56 <susmit> kital, I shall take care of it...if lfoppiano helps me, it is even better, I surely need that :)
18:41:35 <kital> so i asume you both will sync you via pm
18:41:56 <lfoppiano> ok
18:42:13 <susmit> sure
18:42:23 <kital> #topic Mentors Survey
18:42:38 <kital> just a short update till now i only got 4 answers
18:42:55 <susmit> May be time to send another ping?
18:42:59 <kital> i will send out a reminder
18:43:02 <kital> susmit: yes
18:43:13 <susmit> mind uplink ;)
18:43:30 <kital> ;)
18:43:57 <kital> #topic FAmSCo Report June 2010
18:44:08 <kital> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FAmSCo_report_2010-06
18:44:41 <kital> i updated the stats this time and also the membership stats -
18:44:56 <kital> max stated that he is working on the budget today
18:45:04 <susmit> oh..
18:45:11 <kital> and we miss information for the NA and the APAC Section
18:45:20 <susmit> kital, no update for APAC
18:45:37 <susmit> no events, no update
18:45:40 <kital> ok - then it is fine
18:45:56 <susmit> as for the membership section
18:46:35 <kital> susmit: should we not integrate the APAC Release Events in June here
18:46:37 <kital> ?
18:46:51 <kital> i remember rangeen
18:46:53 <kital> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Release_Party_F13_Bangalore#Reports
18:47:09 <kital> or will you do this separate?
18:47:12 <susmit> kital, oh...sorry.
18:47:16 <susmit> I missed it
18:47:20 <kital> ah no just asking
18:47:22 <kital> ;)
18:47:46 <susmit> as for the FAmA, but we have updated the membership page to include regional listing
18:48:01 <kital> yes right !
18:48:04 <susmit> #link http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/MembershipService/Verification
18:48:15 <susmit> s/but//
18:48:58 <kital> did you got my Feedback - it would be great if we can change Africa to EMEA-Africa
18:49:05 <kital> in that list
18:49:08 <susmit> kital, yes, will do that.
18:49:11 <kital> super
18:49:54 <susmit> EOF
18:51:23 <kital> so spevack susmit ke4qqq do you think we can have it ready till tomorrow 18:00 UTC?
18:51:44 <kital> for the next report tatica volunteered to be our pain - to have it ready earlier
18:51:52 <susmit> kital, I shall be done in an hour
18:51:59 <spevack> i can have my part of the famsco report done today
18:52:11 <tatica> :)
18:52:13 <kital> spevack susmit perfect -
18:52:42 <kital> so she will take care for the future reports if you all are ok with that?
18:53:16 <kital> (not to fill them all up but to coordinate it)
18:54:39 <susmit> kital, fine for me
18:55:28 <spevack> +1
18:55:53 <tatica> I will still need kital help
18:56:09 <kital> sure as said we are all here
18:56:15 <kital> ;)
18:57:02 <tatica> :D
18:57:23 <kital> spevack can you please send a ready statement to the list so susmit can compile it
18:57:48 <kital> and i can announce it when this is done - or susmit can announce it what you think is best susmit
18:58:07 <susmit> you do it
18:58:09 <susmit> :)
18:58:27 <susmit> oh..oh..wait
18:58:42 <spevack> yes
18:58:46 <susmit> if you are talking about the nice version, that will take a couple of days
18:59:06 <susmit> please push out the wiki one, and I shall reply with the nice version when done
18:59:18 <kital> susmit +1
18:59:24 <kital> perfect
18:59:28 <susmit> I shall be traveling for a couple if days . :(
18:59:33 <susmit> s/if/of
18:59:57 <kital> we still have one "major" topic left
19:00:03 <kital> Our Ambassador Conduct needs some love ?
19:00:06 <spevack> I will miss next week's famsco meeting due to travel
19:00:29 <kital> spevack: can you put some of your smart braincells into this ?
19:00:37 <kital> this a perfect offline job
19:00:51 <spevack> kital: i can do so!
19:00:59 <kital> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/Conduct
19:01:35 <kital> spevack: or can you think of anyone else?
19:01:44 <kital> i did not want to burden you more and more
19:02:25 <spevack> nothing more from me, for this meeting
19:02:32 <spevack> as always, thank you to kital for running the meeting
19:02:48 <kital> thanks all for coming
19:02:57 <susmit> kital, thanks
19:03:02 <susmit> see you all
19:03:04 <kital> #endmeeting