Re: Request for budget to update the event box contents

[Nuritzi Sanchez <nuritzis stanfordalumni org>]

Hi Elle!

On Thu, Feb 8, 2018 at 5:25 AM, Elle O <elleoltman gmail com> wrote:

Are the printouts/related stuff already settled/designed? If not then I might have time to do it later this week. 

We can definitely add more! Just as an FYI, one of the problems we've faced in the past is designing print-outs in the correct size for different geographical locations. If you'd be interested in helping us create a few new items for events we would love the help!

Unfortunately the engagement group calls are now a little early for me (since I'm in CA), so I'm out of the loop on those and may have missed something. 

Yeah, we scheduled calls at that time so we could encourage our friends in Asia to join. The time is still pretty terrible for them, and now is also pretty bad for us on the West Coast of the US, so we may have to rethink meeting times yet again. If the meeting time were to shift 30 minutes later, would that help you join, or when would you generally be able to join? Just curious :) 

Also -- we are now using the Engagement team workboard on GitLab in order to work together asynchronously. Let me know if you want to jump on a call sometime and learn how to use it if you don't already know how to! Also, feel free to send me your username and I can add you to the board. 

 

... Answering the rest of the thread here... 

> Ekaterina Gerasimova <kittykat3756 gmail com> wrote:
> ...
>> There was already one in the US when I was on the board, what's happened to it?
>>
>> https://wiki.gnome.org/Events/Box/NorthAmerica
>
> As far as I know, Emily still has it. This has been discussed at
> various points while I've been on the board and I'm not entirely sure
> what the current status is. It's possible that we decided that the box
> is too big to be practical, but I might be wrong about that.

There are a few issues at play: 1) we've tried to recover the box for several years now (even before I joined the Engagement team), without success; and 2) everything in the box is pretty old by now and would need a serious refresh anyway. The Engagement team discussed this on a call a few times and we would really like to create a new box if we move forward with having a box in North America. One problem though is that we don't have a designated place to store the box. 

Endless donated a GNOME tablecloth last year that I have stored in SF and can add to a North American travel box. 

@Sri -- do you think System 76 has any extra storage space? :) Unfortunately, the Endless office in SF doesn't have a lot of storage space, so I would only be able to keep the small box with me. 

 

I think that box is the same size as the smaller European box. If
there was a size issue, then it would make sense to have a critical
look at what it would be used for and how it would be transported.
e.g. if it's always transported by someone rather than shipped, then a
smaller suitcase could work, but contents would be restricted to
pretty much laptop and stickers.

If the box will be shipped, my recommendation after having gone
through 4 cases is to go for heavy duty ones because while they are
heavy, they won't need to be replaced every year. 

I think it makes sense to have two boxes, a small one and a large one. Noted: we should buy a sturdy box.

 

>> Our table cloth is green because we wanted to use the Foundation
>> colour. The roller banner is blue. One of the old banners is green and
>> the other is blue. As we're next to the KDE stand, if we have only
>> blue banners, we blend in too much and it looks weird. Also, we do
>> represent the Foundation rather than just the project at FOSDEM. i.e.
>> we talk about the Foundaiton and the work that it does, we've signed
>> people up for FoG before, etc. I don't know how much this is the case
>> at other events though.
>
> I'd like to encourage people to use the colours in the draft brand
> guidelines. There was a fair amount of work put into these, and it's
> important that we use consistent branding wherever possible. go for

+1 to what Allan said.

On Thu, Feb 8, 2018 at 8:43 AM, Ekaterina Gerasimova <kittykat3756 gmail com> wrote:

> Here are instructions for how to ask for reimbursement after you have made
> the purchases: https://wiki.gnome.org/Engagement/Reimbursements.
> Note: this page needs to be slightly updated, but is mostly correct. In this
> case, you can send the reimbursement request to nuritzi gnome org and cc
> zana gnome org.

I think it's better all round to share reimbursement details with as
few people as possible. Can the process be changed so that Rosanna
gets the ack about the funds being approved and the reimbursement
(bank) details are only sent to her?

Unfortunately, someone else still has to check the reimbursement details and put it on the Board wiki for Rosanna, so it's a 2 person job. Since I'm on the Board right now, I'm able to have access to the reimbursement info page, but once we have a committee I'm not sure how we will want to handle this. 

Once we get more into the logistics of creating the committee and new processes, it'd be great if you could be involved, Kat. Your experience will no doubt help us think through all of the details and would be really useful!

 

As the former treasurer, I am also interested in how you are keeping
track of the budget. Are you using a spreadsheet? I actually manage
similar sorts of budgets at work and would be happy to share how we
separate the reimbursements from the approval and our processes.

Yes, I'm using a spreadsheet to track expenses but we will rethink the whole process as we begin to create the new committee and reimbursement process. 

During our last call, Michael shared some ways that Ubuntu approves and tracks community reimbursements -- if you have some examples, please do share them.