Discussing governance for FOSSUnited at IndiaFOSS

[vishnus]

@rushabh

I can take responsibility of this.

End to end of entire membership program?

There were 100s of volunteers who contributed to the success of FOSS United over the last few years. If someone in that is not able to afford / do not wish to pay for membership, essentially doesn’t get a voice? There are quite a few people who just talks and does not really do any work on the ground, and they can easily get a vote by paying for membership? I don’t think that is fair.

I don’t have an alternative as of now, but I am just questioning the whole idea of essentially paying to get a vote for selecting governance instead of time and commitment.

[rushabh]

@vishnus

End to end of entire membership program?

Yeah, setting up the membership platform essentially and then driving discussions on this forum. Do you see anything else?

@vishnus

I don’t have an alternative as of now, but I am just questioning the whole idea of essentially paying to get a vote for selecting governance instead of time and commitment.

Good point. We can also have nominated members for those who have contributed time. Maybe the staff / board / existing members can nominate?

[wisharya]

@Balu_B

I like the idea of memberships, however, putting it behind a paywall ( irrespective of the price) I think would turn away a lot of potential members from this amazing community.

There won’t be anything pay-walled ever except the major events, like IndiaFOSS.

@Balu_B

Finally, even if I am a member that pays 10K every year I am really not interested in all the day-to-day workings and I doubt I will participate in it even though I am a member.

I think, If the community members see the membership as a way to donate, they can choose to do so.

@rushabh

I can take responsibility of this.

As you are leading this project, could you please give us an outline of the next steps in detail, along with a timeline? I’m assuming that we will go live in January 24, since you are thinking about integrating it with the platform,

We can learn from our previous attempt (FOSS United Memberships [Version 1]) and make a new effort in a way that doesn’t negatively impact our current processes - I feel there will be three sets of people who would like to contribute - time, money and mixed of both. We should have all of them. We can identify the members who have contributed time and give them an option to skip paying.

@vishnus

There are quite a few people who just talks and does not really do any work on the ground, and they can easily get a vote by paying for membership? I don’t think that is fair.

This is a valid point. Perhaps we should establish criteria for who can nominate themselves for the steering committee. Even if people gain the ability to vote by paying, they would still be voting for one of the eligible members. Does this approach sound good? @rushabh @vishnus

[rushabh]

@wisharya

As you are leading this project, could you please give us an outline of the next steps in detail, along with a timeline? I’m assuming that we will go live in January 24, since you are thinking about integrating it with the platform,

If there are no standing objections, we can go ahead. Since this is dependent on the platform - I am not sure how long this will take - the platform itself is not in any shape for a release. Trying to get some folks from Frappe to volunteer for this. My best guess would be end of Jan.

(and remind me to ask for timelines on all your pending tasks as well )

[wisharya]

@rushabh

(and remind me to ask for timelines on all your pending tasks as well)

This is off-topic for this thread. Earlier, I replied here but now moved to a new post.

Tasks & Timeline - Vishal Arya

To see the updates, please join our team on ‘Plane’ (I’ve just sent an invitation to your email) to view the tasks assigned to me and others at FOSS United. Also, you can view the past tasks on GitHub [inactive now]. Most of my tasks are dependent on various other people. I work on multiple things, big or small: FOSS Clubs: This is the latest big program of FOSS United. We need some time before we can come up with a solid roadmap. Each club has unique challenges since we are giving them th…

[knadh]

@rushabh

If there are no standing objections, we can go ahead.

Go ahead with the conceptualisation, membership module on the platform, community calls for membership awareness, membership drives, committee formation, or all (and how)? Like @wisharya said, without a granular breakdown of steps, it’ll be impossible to understand and keep track of what is a critical mega project (tech, people, governance).

@rushabh

(and remind me to ask for timelines on all your pending tasks as well )

This jibe is uncalled for.

A project that defines the future and existence of the org itself should obviously have clear steps and timelines. Without that, there is going to be ambiguity for everyone involved.

The platform development project, for example, the process and trajectory is visible here.

Issues · fossunited/fossunited

[mriya11]

@rushabh

the platform itself is not in any shape for a release.

I would agree that the platform project had been lacking our undivided attention due to multiple factors. Taking this to:

Building FOSS United Platform

I would agree that the platform project had been lacking our undivided attention due to multiple factors - post IndiaFOSS follow-ups, some of the important things to be documented for the CityFOSS tour, FOSS Hack and IndiaFOSS related decisions for next year, that needed thorough discussions before documenting and putting out to the community for feedback and suggestions. And these felt to be valid action items to go out too at the earliest, as it’s one of the crucial decisions for next year, a…

[rushabh]

@knadh

Go ahead with the conceptualisation, membership module on the platform, community calls for membership awareness, membership drives, committee formation, or all (and how)? Like @WishArya said, without a granular breakdown of steps, it’ll be impossible to understand and keep track of what is a critical mega project (tech, people, governance).

I only want to go ahead if there is full consensus. In my head there are only 2 things:

1. Creating a payment tracking system
2. Tracking discussions on this forum.

I had given a tentative end of Jan timeline for this.

@knadh

This jibe is uncalled for.

Wasn’t a jibe at all - in my 3 years working with Vishal, I did not recall a single “let’s put a timeline” discussion, so this was new for me. Maybe this is new organisation culture - so just calling out that the same kind of accountability should everywhere.

On the whole, I am feeling a strong resistance to these ideas and somehow everything I have to say is taken with bad faith. (to me, this feels unfair). At this point, I will back off from org-level discussions. I happy to help for anything anyone needs.