(18:14:28) tgeller: I'll try to do a transcript as we go.
(18:14:35) tgeller: Right now there's nothing happening -- microphone noise
(18:15:00) jredding: lisarex: unfortunately this is not being recorded.
(18:15:02) tgeller: Jacob says, "You can also ask questions in IRC, I'm monitoring there as well."
(18:15:05) jredding: that I'm aware of.
(18:15:21) tgeller: No questions on drupal.org. Moving on to git migration.
(18:15:48) tgeller: Earlier this summer, in an ongoing discussion, the community decided on moving Drupal from CVS over to git.
(18:15:57) tgeller: Reasons: listed on drupal.org, it's a big discussion.
(18:16:03) tgeller: They decided to move to git in the end.
(18:16:09) tgeller: That was a community decision.
(18:16:41) tgeller: But it was a project the association needed to take on. There's currently around 9,000 projects, 2,200 developers with active CVS accounts, lots more participating in issue queues.
(18:16:53) tgeller: Repository needs to be either CVS or git, and you can't take the decision lightly.
(18:16:56) lisarex: (summary of drupal.org redesign update: Volunteers were aided by paid contractors to ensure continued community contribution, site launched Monday, we aren't done yet. Ongoing cleanup of the UI)
(18:17:05) tgeller: If we switch to git, we can't have some releases in CVS and some in git.
(18:17:15) tgeller: We noticed: Some people are starting to host things on git.
(18:17:19) ***palantir-confere is on the phone.
(18:17:30) tgeller: We wanted to make sure that all projects are accessible on drupal.org so they can find what they want.
(18:17:39) palantir-confere: .. with John Albin, Matt Farina & Bevan
(18:17:54) tgeller: It's a hard shift: You have to turn off CVS one day and turn on git. , with nobody in the middle. The ass'n showed up to coordinate this. It's a funded project.
(18:18:01) tgeller: We made a job posting, set a budget.
(18:18:07) JohnAlbin [~JohnAlbin@h-66-166-38-115.chcgilgm.static.covad.net] entered the room.
(18:18:08) timmillwood left the room (quit: Ping timeout: 240 seconds).
(18:18:09) tgeller: Sam Boyer is heading up our git migration. He's very talented.
(18:18:16) tgeller: He's a Drupal developer and understands git.
(18:18:19) tgeller: (jredding speaking)
(18:18:29) tgeller: It's going to have enormous benefits for the community.
(18:18:43) tgeller: It's a better collaborative tool than CVS, which is rather old.
(18:19:10) tgeller: We hired somebody because of how serious the switch is. If it goes wrong, drupal.org and all modules on it would be inaccessible. All themes as well. It would just shut down.
(18:19:31) tgeller: It's a big project. We're not sure at this point when we'll migrate, but we're setting the schedule, and hope that it happens in Q1 (2011).
(18:19:43) tgeller: Lots of efforts -- DrupalCamps, meetups, etc. You're all a part of it.
(18:19:58) webchick [~Adium@drupal.org/user/24967/view] entered the room.
(18:20:00) tgeller: If you're constantly working on CVS, at some point you won't be able to do that next year. Be clear about that.
(18:20:04) greggles [~greg@drupal.org/user/36762/view] entered the room.
(18:20:12) webchick: Sorry. Late. :(
(18:20:16) tgeller: We're not talking about 5 or 10 people -- we're talking about thousands logging in, and tens of thousands more.
(18:20:23) tgeller: (jredding speaking, keeping transcript here.)
(18:20:27) tgeller: Other questions on git migration?
(18:20:32) tgeller: And how the ass'n is helping that effort?
(18:20:39) jredding: IRC or over voicce
(18:20:42) tgeller: (Taking questions in IRC as well -- he's watching this.)
(18:20:48) jredding: tgeller: Thank you for taking notes and typing it in.
(18:20:51) tgeller: Voice question:
(18:21:04) tgeller: Q: Under CVS, you needed accounts to make a new project. Same under git?
(18:21:24) tgeller: jredding: Yes. You'll still need an account. On d.o there's now a place for your SSH key. git is based on SSH -- it's more secure.
(18:21:45) tgeller: That's part of why it's a very difficult transition, because we need to maintain usernames and passwords, and get keys, and it all needs to tie into drupal.org.
(18:21:49) tgeller: That's what happens with CVS now.
(18:22:05) tgeller: As you notice, you don't do much straight CVS stuff -- you can do a lot via d.o.
(18:22:15) tgeller: I think the way we manage releases on d.o. is good.
(18:22:21) palantir-confere: (If you were wondering the speaker is Jacob Redding)
(18:22:23) tgeller: In short, yes, in answer to your question.
(18:22:34) palantir-confere: Speaker; please Identify yourself
(18:22:35) tgeller: Q: Did you look into tying into github?
(18:22:53) tgeller: A: we did. There are a few things: One, we have thousands of modules and themes.
(18:23:13) tgeller: There's roughly 9,000 projects, with branches and trunks and such in CVS. Once you get into those, we're probably into tens or hundreds of thousands.
(18:23:23) tgeller: Two is legal. We're GPL, and we want to make sure that's maintained.
(18:23:37) tgeller: One rule of getting a CVS account, and now git account, is saying that everything is GPL.
(18:23:50) tgeller: Maybe we could have gotten over it with a third party, but then we wouldn't control our code.
(18:23:53) amye [~amye@c-76-105-238-158.hsd1.or.comcast.net] entered the room.
(18:24:02) ezra-g [~ezra-g@66.234.239.198] entered the room.
(18:24:09) webchick: There were other reasons too..
(18:24:16) tgeller: Three: We'd be giving your work over to a third party. Right now we partner with OSU and OSL, and it's great.
(18:24:20) webchick: integration with d.o would've been incredibly difficult/time consuming
(18:24:31) tgeller: webchick: Want me to repeat that in voice?
(18:24:38) webchick: And there's also the aspect of retaining a centralized collaboration hub on d.o betweeen developers, end-users, etc.
(18:24:41) webchick: tgeller: sure!
(18:24:47) tgeller: [jredding: maybe you should repeat her question and comments.]
(18:24:51) webchick: our project benefits greatly from that
(18:25:01) tgeller: [My computer set-up is screwy.]
(18:25:06) webchick: and "siloing" the developer in their own space means less cross-over and higher barrier to entry
(18:25:16) webchick: developers*
(18:25:37) tgeller: [Sorry: Is jredding speaking for himself now, or Angie? I'm off track.]
(18:25:56) tgeller: jredding: There's a huge tie-in with Drupal.org.
(18:26:28) tgeller: Where we meet is drupal.org. We don't want themers/module devs etc. being fractured. Let's make sure our home is drupal.org.
(18:26:32) tgeller: [back on track here.]
(18:26:47) deviantintegral: What changes do we expect in terms of human or computer resources once the transition is done?
(18:26:55) tgeller: jredding: Angie, want to add anything here? You're much more eloquent when it comes to git.
(18:27:01) deviantintegral: will there be a need for more hw to support git, less human involvment to maintain, etc
(18:27:18) smoothstr: thanks jacob & angie - answered my questions
(18:27:34) tgeller: jredding: Good question (re resources).
(18:27:54) tgeller: On hardware: We haven't done full load testing, although I've asked that question. Is the move over to SSL going to tax our servers? Will we need more?
(18:28:04) tgeller: So far, it doesn't look like it. But generally, d.o. needs hardware improvements.
(18:28:10) tgeller: So we buy new servers when we can.
(18:28:28) tgeller: In the past year: Two brand-new Dell servers, plus some old servers from Wikimedia Foundation.
(18:28:37) tgeller: But I don't think there's any pressing need for hardware right now.
(18:28:38) JohnAlbin: Git knowledge is more wide spread then is CVS knowledge. More people will be able to contribute.
(18:28:55) tgeller: In terms of human resources: We need them right now to get the git migration done.
(18:28:57) JohnAlbin: I'm working on Git Training screencasts.
(18:28:59) tgeller: Skilled developers especially.
(18:29:04) tgeller: We need you , and we need you now.
(18:29:39) tgeller: We always need people, not just for the transition. We're constantly upgrading (d.o.) and adding new features.
(18:29:56) tgeller: In terms of major changes: I haven't heard of new [needs for resources because of git].
(18:29:59) webchick: Anyone who wants to help with Git: please add the #drupal-vcs channel to your autojoin, and subscribe to http://groups.drupal.org/drupal-org-git-migration-team
(18:30:06) tgeller: We try to build in things to prevent such needs.
(18:30:19) tgeller: Any way you could help is appreciated.
(18:30:20) deviantintegral: thanks jredding
(18:30:38) webchick: We could use help on everything from development to review to testing to just even helping us write *status updates* so people know what's going on. :)
(18:31:06) tgeller: jredding: JohnAlbin brought up that git knowledge is more widespread than CVS knowledge. That's true. It's amazing that he's doing screencasts. We just need to get that message out into the community.
(18:31:14) tgeller: The reasons for git are quite strong.
(18:31:19) webchick: tgeller: could you say that "how to get started" stuff on the call too?
(18:31:23) webchick: tgeller: and thanks SO much for doing this!
(18:31:25) tgeller: It encourages more interaction.
(18:31:56) tgeller: [Trying to get my audio working so I can speak some of the IRC stuff.]
(18:32:03) webchick: Ah, no worries.
(18:32:14) jredding: tgeller: you're doing an amazing job.. Thank yo.
(18:32:20) jredding: Thank you.
(18:32:26) jredding: tgeller: is talking now.
(18:32:54) jredding: repeating information on how to assist with Git.
(18:33:01) webchick: yay!
(18:33:09) tgeller: [typing again]
(18:33:10) ***webchick looks forward to new faces in #drupal-vcs. :)
(18:33:22) tgeller: Still time for more questions...
(18:33:30) nowarninglabel: I'm looking at: http://drupal.org/node/288873 but it doesn't really have a complete walkthrough like http://drupal.org/handbook/cvs/quickstart so is there/or will there be a full handbook quickstart guide for git with all the steps needed to maintain modules?
(18:33:37) tgeller: [jredding awaiting questions]
(18:33:49) tgeller: One question... on CVS, but it looks like it can be handled in IRC.
(18:33:59) tgeller: I'll let someone solve that in IRC and continue with the talk.
(18:34:00) webchick: nowarninglabel: yeah, that's not quite the right place. one sec.
(18:34:02) tgeller: Update on the ass'n.
(18:34:04) dstol: http://drupal.org/handbook/git
(18:34:06) tgeller: Quick history:
(18:34:11) webchick: dstol: thanks!
(18:34:14) tgeller: The ass'n was started a little over 4 years ago, in Belgium.
(18:34:14) eric_sea: Drupal Dojo should be able to help with training materials re GIT... right now we're looking for someone to help us the Dojo to Drush & GIT... we'll try to capture / generate materials in DrupalDojo.com along the way
(18:34:21) webchick: nowarninglabel: that page is for people who want to use Git *now* even though Drupal.org is on CVS
(18:34:29) tgeller: It was created primarily as a way to accept hardware from Sun before Oracle took over [laughs]
(18:34:41) tgeller: They needed a legal entity to take the hardware in, as well as to accept money from some part.
(18:34:45) nowarninglabel: webchick: Yes, I just mean before the move to Git if there would be a similar handbook page
(18:34:49) nowarninglabel: I'll ask later on drupal-vcs
(18:34:56) tgeller: Dries and Kieran and others wondered, "What do we do with this stuff?". So they created the ass'n.
(18:34:58) webchick: nowarninglabel: yep. http://drupal.org/handbook/git which dstol linked above
(18:35:06) tgeller: So it would be available for public benefit -- not anything private.
(18:35:10) tgeller: So it's for the community's benefit.
(18:35:17) tgeller: For a good 4 years, that remained a 100% volunteer org.
(18:35:23) gusaus: eric_sea: that's great - thanks for mentioning :)
(18:35:35) tgeller: People took time out of their days to volunteer in the eveningns or on the weekend to assist in a strong way.
(18:35:35) nowarninglabel: dstol: thanks
(18:35:41) dstol: no problem
(18:35:44) tgeller: In a way that's *legally* tangible.
(18:36:09) tgeller: A lot of it was behind-the-scenes stuff. With copyright issues; questions like, "Code is GPL. What about images? Themes? CSS files?"
(18:36:22) tgeller: Those are questions that need to be answered, because thousands of people rely on this code (etc.).
(18:36:53) tgeller: Other basic things. People want to go to a conference, and have to pay for it. We were starting to handle a lot of money, and tax authorities want to be able to see our books.
(18:37:01) ronald_istos [~ronald_is@host1-59-static.34-79-b.business.telecomitalia.it] entered the room.
(18:37:09) Crell [~Crell@209.41.114.202] entered the room.
(18:37:13) tgeller: Infrastructure: It's great that you go to d.o., but every now and then it gets heavily spammed that pull it down.
(18:37:15) gdemet-afk [~gdemet@209.41.114.202] entered the room.
(18:37:26) tgeller: By bots; DDOS attacks. We need to fight that.
(18:37:43) tgeller: These are behind-the-scenes efforts needed. Plus, sometimes someone needs to put a new server into that rack.
(18:38:00) tgeller: Etc. The ass'n was doing all this on a volunteer basis. This year, it all accumulated, and was consuming a lot of time.
(18:38:08) tgeller: People were spending money and not getting reimbursed on time.
(18:38:18) tgeller: Things like that.
(18:38:27) tgeller: [bad mic noise: Request to mute all phones.]
(18:38:31) deviantintegral: anyone else's phone connection get completely distored?
(18:38:35) deviantintegral: *distorted
(18:38:43) amye_ [~amye@74-93-189-214-Oregon.hfc.comcastbusiness.net] entered the room.
(18:38:44) coltrane: Yes, if you're on the audio can you make sure you're muted.
(18:38:47) lisarex: It could be webex too ;)
(18:39:01) tgeller: [trying to mute all sound]
(18:39:06) tgeller: Ah, it's gotten better!
(18:39:07) eric_sea: better now
(18:39:19) tgeller: [all good now.[
(18:39:33) tgeller: jredding: Anyway, this year the ass'n took a big step forward to staffing.
(18:39:40) amye left the room (quit: Ping timeout: 250 seconds).
(18:39:43) tgeller: I was that first hire, and have been working full-time for the ass'n for a little over 7 months.
(18:39:47) tgeller: It's my full-time day job.
(18:39:53) tgeller: A lot of what I do is very behind the scenes. For example:
(18:40:11) tgeller: DC DenmarK: I worked with our accountants to set up an org in Denmark.
(18:40:20) tgeller: Set up an org in the U.S., which took a year.
(18:40:28) amye_ is now known as amye
(18:40:36) tgeller: A lot of back-and-forth with lawyers. But now we have DrupalCon Inc. which is a 501c3 that puts on DrupalCon.
(18:40:50) webchick: Yeah. You know the DA is working well when stuff just keeps working and you never have to wonder why. ;)
(18:40:50) tgeller: Creating budgets, managing cashflow, interacting with sponsors... etc.
(18:41:12) tgeller: To give you an idea of scale: Four years ago, we had a volunteer base, maybe $10,000-20,000 in the bank.
(18:41:28) jredding: 1.6 Million
(18:41:29) tgeller: We ran 1.6 million through the bank
(18:41:29) gusaus: nice
(18:41:33) tgeller: this year.
(18:41:36) tgeller: Thanks, jredding. :)
(18:41:40) arianek [~arianek@drupal.org/user/158886/view] entered the room.
(18:41:44) gdemet-afk is now known as gdemet
(18:41:58) tgeller: This came through in ticket sales, sponsorships... all kinds of things. Affiliate hosting, royalties from books, people give money... a lot of it was DrupalCon.
(18:42:02) tgeller: It's a huge conference.
(18:42:16) tgeller: We take on a lot of liability. You don't run 1.6 million dollars a year through the bank without some liability.
(18:42:30) tgeller: We have to accept a certain amount of liability to throw an event for 4,000 people.
(18:42:39) tgeller: We have to sign contracts a year in advance, and take on a lot of risk.
(18:42:42) tgeller: We're putting together a staff.
(18:42:51) tgeller: Over 6 weeks ago we put out two job postings:
(18:42:54) tgeller: Event coordinator
(18:43:01) tgeller: And Sponsor/fundraiser person.
(18:43:04) tgeller: Posted widley.
(18:43:17) tgeller: Got hundreds of responses. Over 270 for event manager and some big number for the other.
(18:43:22) tgeller: We've extended offers and hired these people.
(18:43:25) tgeller: We'll announce them next week.
(18:43:33) tgeller: The contracts haven't been signed, but they've accepted.
(18:43:43) tgeller: It's a big step for the ass'n because we have people dedicated to these funcitons.
(18:43:50) gusaus left the room (quit: Read error: Connection reset by peer).
(18:43:55) tgeller: We can now work on these initiatives, and others from community decisions.
(18:43:59) drumm [~drumm@c-24-5-67-187.hsd1.ca.comcast.net] entered the room.
(18:43:59) tgeller: For example -- again, git.
(18:44:09) tgeller: The ass'n stepped up to fulfil that.
(18:44:13) tgeller: We're growing quickly!
(18:44:21) tgeller: Questions. Anybody?
(18:44:24) gusaus [~gusaus@drupal.org/user/22137/view] entered the room.
(18:44:28) tgeller: One in Voice...
(18:44:42) tgeller: How can we be sure the ass'n won't separate from the community as a whole?
(18:44:56) tgeller: Question is from... sorry, loestra?
(18:45:00) ***arianek is trying to log onto webex but it hates me
(18:45:13) tgeller: [Please correct that spelling.]
(18:45:25) tgeller: jredding: To repeat: How can we be sure the ass'n is representative of the community?
(18:45:29) tgeller: That's a very valid concern.
(18:45:36) tgeller: Let's talk about how the ass'n works.
(18:45:42) coltrane: It sounds that you're saying the DA is growing to meet a need right now. Is there a goal in size and output from the DA for the future? i.e. How big is the DA going to get?
(18:45:44) tgeller: It was set up as a Belgian nonprofit.
(18:45:50) tgeller: 24 permanent members, 9 board members.
(18:45:52) tgeller: Elections once a year.
(18:45:59) tgeller: Anybody can apply to be part of the ass'n. Anybody.
(18:46:21) dstol: When are these elections typically?
(18:46:28) tgeller: Applicants make statements about why they want to do that. Permanent members are elected, and they vote in board members.
(18:46:39) tgeller: Calls like this are part of the outreach to find these people.
(18:46:56) tgeller: The permanent members includes U.S., Canada, German, Belgian, China, Austalia people.
(18:47:08) tgeller: That bubbles up to the board.
(18:47:14) nnewton [~nnewton@osuosl/staff/nnewton] entered the room.
(18:47:23) tgeller: Staff: They're not being hired from the community. The two new hires aren't from the community.
(18:47:35) tgeller: The executive director is hired by the board. [yes?]
(18:47:40) arianek: oh well, being that there's only 10mins left and i can't get into webex, maybe next time...
(18:47:43) tgeller: If staff begins to wander, the board has full authority to fire.
(18:47:54) arianek left the room.
(18:48:11) tgeller: Question: Voting?
(18:48:24) tgeller: Happens spring of every year in February. That's when new permanent members and board members get elected.
(18:48:41) eric_sea: http://buytaert.net/drupal-association-2010-election
(18:49:25) tgeller: Awaiting questions.
(18:49:28) tgeller: ...
(18:49:45) tgeller: Question -- couldn't hear name.
(18:50:05) coltrane: tgeller: me, Ben Jeavons
(18:50:05) tgeller: Q: Is there a sense of how big the ass'n could get?
(18:50:17) eric_sea: Q audio was very low
(18:50:18) palantir-confere left the room.
(18:50:18) tgeller: Questioner: Ben Jeavons.
(18:50:28) tgeller: [coltrane in IRC]
(18:50:38) tgeller: Might the ass'n be changing as it gets larger?
(18:50:42) amye left the room ("Ciao.").
(18:50:52) tgeller: jredding: Goals are set once a year by the board at DC (USA).
(18:51:07) tgeller: This gives the new board members a month to ramp in, then they meet at the conference and hash out goals and objectives for the year.
(18:51:16) tgeller: Could the ass'n get bigger? Sure. There's a large demand for Drupal right now.
(18:51:33) farriss [~farriss@209.41.114.202] entered the room.
(18:51:41) tgeller: At the moment, I've had to delay decisions on fundraising efforts. That's hard, because people actually want to give us money, but we don't have the bandwidth to accept it.
(18:51:49) tgeller: That's a big problem! We should be able to take money!
(18:52:06) tgeller: Dries had a vision that he put forth in Copenhagen: Ten years from now, a permanent office and ten staff members.
(18:52:21) tgeller: We probably won't turn into a Mozilla Foundation -- 3.5 million dollars.
(18:52:30) tgeller: But possibly like a Linux Foundation.
(18:52:49) tgeller: The ass'n is there just to support Drupal -- but we don't do any code, and don't intend to.
(18:53:22) tgeller: But if one company -- small Drupal dev shops and such -- wants to give us money, but needs customer service to understand how to work with the community...
(18:53:36) tgeller: They come to us and say, "We want to fund git migration, how do we do it?"
(18:53:50) eric_sea: Is there a plan for Committee structure? Potential involvement of non-voting members of community?
(18:53:52) tgeller: There are several ways, but they need to discuss it, and want to make sure there's a real plan before they devote resources.
(18:53:57) tgeller: So we could definitely grow a bit.
(18:54:14) tgeller: Question on IRC: Is there a plan for committee structure? [etc.]
(18:54:34) tgeller: jredding: That's a great question, because it speaks to the core: Is there a way to be involved without becoming a permanetn or board member?
(18:54:49) tgeller: One, non-voting members: There's LOTS of involvement already.
(18:54:55) tgeller: We receive and respond to a lot of emails.
(18:55:00) nowarninglabel left the room (quit: Quit: Leaving.).
(18:55:17) tgeller: I was working with a Belgian group... people involved in DrupalCon... not members of the ass'n, but they're involved.
(18:55:28) tgeller: Git came from the community, but it bubbled up to the ass'n.
(18:55:51) tgeller: We don't have a plan to create multiple committees or hierarchies. Mostly, that's because we're very accessible right now, and we do what the community is asking for.
(18:56:01) tgeller: We believe the permanent and board members are representative of the community.
(18:56:14) tgeller: If you feel that's not so, become a permanent member. It's not a big time committment.
(18:56:25) tgeller: I think there's huge potential right now to be involved in the ass'n.
(18:56:38) tgeller: If that doesn't work, just pull us aside at DrupalCon. [chuckles]
(18:56:51) tgeller: Moving on to DrupalCon...
(18:56:52) webchick: not only that, but the vast majority of drupal.org redesign contributors, for example, were not permanent members.
(18:56:54) tgeller: [jredding speaking]
(18:57:02) webchick: http://groups.drupal.org/redesign-acknowledgements
(18:57:10) tgeller: Clarifying questions:
(18:57:26) webchick: so lots of ways to help on these initiatives both inside and outside of the DA
(18:57:38) tgeller: Q: Involvement with DrupalCon? Structure the ass'n is putting into place to handle future DrupalCons?
(18:57:55) tgeller: jredding: Summary: How does the ass'n put on DrupalCon?
(18:58:00) tgeller: Then we can get into specifics.
(18:58:22) tgeller: DC is a unique conference. It's different from a lot of other tech and open-source conferences. Vastly different from marketing conferences.
(18:58:32) tgeller: First: Non-profit. There's no single beneficiary.
(18:58:45) tgeller: DC makes $290K? Nobody's getting that but the community [via the ass'n, I assume.]
(18:59:15) tgeller: Second, it's a community-based conference. One example: When DC was getting bigger, from 700 -> 1,000 people. There was an outside entity that wanted us to outsource it.
(18:59:37) tgeller: The ass'n thought very hard about it. It would have relieved a lot of stress.
(18:59:46) tgeller: We decided it was not the right move.
(18:59:56) tgeller: Result: We did take on DC as a project.
(19:00:10) tgeller: It was a 1,000, then 1,500, then 3,100, now 4,000 [U.S. conferences].
(19:00:17) tgeller: Expecting 1,500-2,000 in Europe DC next year.
(19:00:25) tgeller: Lots of money involved.
(19:00:31) tgeller: Lots of liability, lots of management.
(19:00:54) tgeller: Before, conferences were held by a local community. Consider Boston: It was just a group that found a venue, did some logistics, and just ran it.
(19:01:06) tgeller: We found out that at the end of the day, those volunteers were BURNT.
(19:01:12) tgeller: They had to do their day jobs.
(19:01:16) tgeller: Then they had to work on Drupal.
(19:01:25) tgeller: Then they had to call a caterer to make sure lunch would be there, etc.
(19:01:44) tgeller: In Boston: We hired a company to do the wifi, and they failed. We as a community got together and bought routers and made it work.
(19:01:54) tgeller: It was awesome, but was a lot of work, and very stressful.
(19:02:02) tgeller: Those people were busy -- couldn't really attend the conference.
(19:02:08) tgeller: So we put in a plan to remove some of that stress.
(19:02:14) tgeller: One thing we did was to hire a logistics team.
(19:02:27) tgeller: They do all our basics: Chairs, lighting, A/V, wifi, registration...
(19:02:36) tgeller: We did that both in U.S. and Europe.
(19:02:47) tgeller: Cary Gordon became our events manager (two years ago).
(19:03:31) tgeller: He put in a great new structure: The ass'n has regional organizing groups that are outside the ass'n. The regional group has control over some aspects to make sure it remains a community conference. Scheduling and scholarships, for example.
(19:04:16) tgeller: We don't want volunteers at the conference to get burned out.
(19:05:01) tgeller: [The hired company makes sure there's consistency, but the regional org keeps local control. The events manager is communty memory.]
(19:05:22) tgeller: This is a unique [structure].
(19:05:36) tgeller: Most conferences are just a single company that does it: There's no regional involvement.
(19:05:50) tgeller: [jredding still speaking]
(19:05:58) tgeller: Pause for questions:
(19:06:08) tgeller: [Accepting questions]
(19:06:16) tgeller: jredding: Elaborating on why we need to do this.
(19:06:36) tgeller: I've watched way too many people pull out their hair at the end of the conference, where they don't want to do it again.
(19:07:08) tgeller: But also: Our sponsors. We have a huge group of sponsors, and when we weren't centralizing this work, every 3-6 months they were communicating with a new group of people. They got confused.
(19:07:29) tgeller: Conferences are expensive! They became hundreds of thousands of $$$, and we've reached the million-dollar mark for Chicago.
(19:07:42) tgeller: We need those sponsors! Otherwise, they'd be 800-1200 dollar tickets.
(19:07:58) tgeller: So: Consistency helps us treat our sponsors better, and give them better value and customer service.
(19:08:02) tgeller: Result: keeping ticket prices down.
(19:08:21) tgeller: So: Our $300 conference is on par with $1,000 conferences elsewhere.
(19:08:39) tgeller: [accepting questions]
(19:08:44) gusaus: how does/could the DA support smaller events like Camps or even sprints?
(19:09:10) tgeller: [allowing another 30 seconds for a queue]
(19:09:11) tgeller: \
(19:09:23) tgeller: IRC question: camps and sprints?
(19:09:28) tgeller: We're starting to explore that.
(19:09:41) tgeller: [jredding speaking]
(19:09:56) tgeller: People ask, "could you help with funds, or this or that" [for camps and sprints]
(19:10:05) tgeller: There's probably a camp somewhere in the world every few days.
(19:10:12) tgeller: This past year, something like 200 camps and sprints and meetups.
(19:10:27) tgeller: We're trying to figure out [how to help them]
(19:11:02) tgeller: One way we've experimented with: DrupalCon Inc. has been helping U.S. camps with fiscal sponsorship. That simply means we give them a PayPal account, or help them with expenses. They still do fundraising, but we give them the legal structure to help run those camps better.
(19:11:13) tgeller: We've done that for Chicago and Colorado, New York, L.A..
(19:11:19) tgeller: Working on how to make that scaleable.
(19:11:24) tgeller: We're open to ideas.
(19:11:30) tgeller: Greg is helping out with that.
(19:11:38) tgeller: We're also looking at how to do that in Europe as well.
(19:11:53) tgeller: Our goal is to help the camps reduce the tedious work.
(19:12:04) tgeller: So they can focus on Drupal, and not a bank account, or taxes, or such.
(19:12:33) tgeller: [tgeller making a comment]: Fiscal sponsorship doesn't mean giving money.
(19:12:54) tgeller: [jredding again]: We're also looking at giving grants, but right now we only have so much money, so we haven't done that yet.
(19:13:11) tgeller: But perhaps once we get our salesperson on full-time, we'll have more bandwidth to do something like that.
(19:13:58) tgeller: Clarified: "Fiscal sponsorship" means giving them a legal structure to operate under.
(19:14:05) gusaus: great - thanks
(19:14:07) tgeller: [awaiting questions]
(19:14:34) tgeller: That's the end of the agenda. We're over time, but it's a town hall meeting, so it can be whatever you want to talk about. I want to make myself available.
(19:14:38) ***farriss thanks tgeller for the transcripts.
(19:14:41) tgeller: [that's jredding speaking]
(19:14:50) farriss: tgeller++
(19:14:51) tgeller: Would anyone like to publish the transcript?
(19:14:53) tgeller: jredding?
(19:15:05) tgeller: It started in the middle, so maybe it's not really "official", but your call.
(19:15:16) tgeller: [mic noise]
(19:15:18) jredding: tgeller: I think it would be great to publish the transcript. Can we download this as a text file and attach it to the meeting announcement?
(19:15:32) tgeller: jredding: Please do! I think that's a good idea. Sorry it didn't start at the beginning.
(19:15:37) jredding: We started very close to the start.
(19:16:33) tgeller: jredding: No more questions! Thank everybody who's on the call and in IRC. Contact us with feedback. This is very experimental, and next one could have more structure if you want to dig deeper... we could go over more topics. Just let us know.
(19:16:48) tgeller: QUESTION: Preferred email address or other contact method?
(19:16:57) tgeller: [for the ass'n, I mean.]
(19:17:02) gusaus: how often do you think you'll be having these?
(19:17:38) stevepurkiss: thanks, was very interesting!
(19:17:40) tgeller: We still need help with git; please become a member, as they help us fund everything we do.
(19:17:50) tgeller: How often? I'm shooting for every other month. [jredding says]
(19:17:50) smoothstr: awesome. thanks. sorry for dominating questions. kinda. and another: what future projects do you have in mind?
(19:18:03) tgeller: I scheduled these for immediately after our gen'l assembly meetings.
(19:18:14) tgeller: Next one will be two months from now.
(19:18:27) tgeller: It'll fall right around Christmas, but not on Christmas. :)
(19:18:42) tgeller: [pause]
(19:18:59) tgeller: Ending the call. Thanks everybody, and hope to hear from you at the next one! Send in any comments and questions you have.
(19:19:01) coltrane: thanks jredding
(19:19:03) tgeller: [end of call.]
(19:19:05) tgeller: Thanks, all!
(19:19:06) gusaus: thanks jacob!
(19:19:06) deviantintegral: thanks!
(19:19:10) stevepurkiss left the room.
(19:19:16) jredding: Thanks everyone.