Re: Did we decide what to do about weekly meetings?

["Bryen M. Yunashko" <suserocks bryen com>]

On Fri, 2010-04-02 at 21:42 -0400, Joanmarie Diggs wrote:
> Hey Bryen.
> 
> > I honestly think that even if it hasn't been perfect, the hour we've had
> > lately is working pretty well for us this year.
> 
> Well.... Maybe.... 
> 

Actually my "semi-endorsement" of the current meeting time is based on
the fact that we've had pretty good attendance lately compared to past
meetings.  However, let's be honest, most of the recent meetings have
been about preparations for CSUN, and possibly, we won't see the same
effect on new meetings hence forth.
> I cannot help but wonder if those for whom it does not work well are
> simply too polite to complain.
> 
> For instance, I believe that the current meeting time winds up being 4-5
> AM for Li Yuan and Ke Wang. If I recall correctly, it is 10-11 PM for
> Alejandro. I cannot remember what time it takes place for Luke (sorry
> Luke!), but I think it's in the wee hours of the morning for him.
> 
> If we as a community agree that there is value in continuing to have
> these meetings, I would argue that there is equal value in doing
> everything we can to make it not only possible, but also reasonably
> convenient, for all key contributors to participate. That means not
> expecting folks to meet at 4 AM.
> 
> > well could be a subject of debate, but as it stands now, I wouldn't
> > change the current time we have.
> 
> As it stands now, I would. Not every week, mind you, but every other
> week.
> 
> --joanie
> 
In the past, we've tried various approaches.  Looking back to what we've
done in the past two years (and I'm referring to times relative to US
time):

- We've had Monday morning meetings.  This worked well for Europeans as
this was mid-day for most of them.  And it was suitable for those in the
US provided we didn't have other Monday morning commitments.  It *could*
work for folks in China and India (a region that I see highly
enthusiastic about a11y but don't come to meetings), if we schedule the
meetings slightly earlier in the morning.

- We tried Monday evening meetings.  This worked VERY well for those in
Beijing, but left out the Europeans.  But the rest of the world was
generally left out during this time frame.  While I personally didn't
have an issue with an evening meeting, I think it was a strain for
others in the US.

- I tried to do an alternate meeting format for a while where we
accommodate different regions fairly by having fixed meeting times
changed every two weeks.  I philosophically endorse this approach
because everyone gets a chance to attend at least one meeting a month.
But, as with our meetings and other projects' meetings I attend with the
same approach, this often fails miserably because people get confused
about which week is their favored time.

- Friday afternoons, which we're doing now, has worked well in terms of
number of people attending, but obviously as you point out, it leaves
out great swaths of regions for existing contributors as well as new
contributors.  But was the great attendance due to the fact we were
prepping for CSUN?  Could be.  I do get leery about Friday afternoons
for us though because that's when we're ready to jet for the weekend and
perhaps if we do like this time slot, a different day works better?  I
don't know.

What I do know is that there's always a challenge in finding an ideal
time slot that covers the fairest amount of regions.  What I feel we
need to do is augment our meetings with good documentation of the
meetings.  These are things we don't do well at the moment and should
get to it.  Examples are:

-- Posting meeting summaries on our mailing list
-- Posting meeting summaries/transcripts/etc. on our wiki or a
GNOME-A11y blogsite (which I really do want to get us on soon.)
-- Setting up a meetbot that automatically records relevant information
about the meetings, such as transcripts, AI's, etc.  I've recently
started using meetbot in other meetings with very pleasant success and
was thinking of getting one set up for our IRC meetings.

In this way, we ensure that regardless of whether we can attend meetings
or not, we can still get the relevant information about those
meetings.  

At least those are my thoughts.  I'm not opposed to changing our times,
I just think we need to expand the way we participate and get
information from these meetings.

Bryen