The “Trusty Tahr” development cycle has begun. The LoCo Council has a new look heading into the cycle as it has new members. In light of some statements by Jono Bacon about our local communities, it is time to recap what the LoCo Council does and does not do for the community across Earth.
Our main roles are to:
- Equip communities
- Advise communities
- Mentor communities
We do not have the resources or manpower to engage in top-down control of local affairs. How things progress in local communities is ultimately their own choice. We can help ensure you have a clean bill of health and try to get you what resources we can. When it comes to speaking at a local fair or an UbuCon, it is up to you to put on the show and put Ubuntu in the best light.
We are currently engaged in a Verification Process for our communities. This is our health check. While it may seem like a bit of tedious paperwork, there are common things we ask for in verification and reverification applications to learn what is happening. This is much like completing a “medical history update” form before you visit a physician. From how your community is presented to us we ask questions. These are not meant to be negative things. We simply want to gather information and learn how you are doing. Over time we may adjust our template for the verification application to narrow down the information we seek.
Nobody can help you if you have a problem if they do not know what you have issues with. Our big goal in asking questions is not to seek some way to score against a community or mark you down. We are concerned with you succeeding and want to learn how we can assist you. We do not have the budget to travel the planet as a team to investigate how every community is functioning. To be able to consider all 178 local community groups, the Verification Process lets us do this in a structured manner.
You do not need to wait until Verification comes around to reach out to us. If something comes up that is a problem, you can e-mail us. You truly do not need to wait until a health check comes up. Sending us a message at loco-council@lists.ubuntu.com will copy all six members of the council and at least one of us will respond. If we have the resources to assist you, we will try to do so. If we cannot directly assist you we will try to refer to someone who can.
In the next few weeks we will be attempting to reach out to all active local community groups to check in. This will not be anything to be afraid of. Each of the six council members will take an even split of groups to contact. This will be a simple effort to greet groups, try to ensure we have current “team contacts” listed in Launchpad, and invite those not already subscribed to join the loco-contacts mailing list. Again, if something is not okay, nobody can help you unless you say something.
Let us grow together as we move ever onward!
Originally written by Stephen Michael Kellat.