[Ambassadors] Fedora Ambassadors Steering Committee Election

[Jeffrey Tadlock]

On Nov 19, 2007 1:24 PM, Bart Couvreur <couf at skynet.be> wrote:
> OTOH: I'm going to question the fact if we need a steering committee
> anyway. Basically I was stunned when I read that famsco has a meeting
> twice a year. I don't get the point of it then anymore. If this be the
> case, then we might want to look at two or maybe three people per region
> who are the main contacts for that particular reason and these people
> get together in whatever famsco should be doing. I might be terribly
> wrong about this still.

I agree the Ambassador group seems to have lost some steam since its
initial beginnings.  Though, there still are several parts of the
world accomplishing very good things for Fedora.  I am not sure if
getting rid of the Steering Committee is the right way to correct
things though.  That seems like it might fragment things even further
into isolated pockets of ambassadors.  It might also make
reimbursements tougher, as well as adding another hurdle for new
ambassadors to really get started.  I know the aid of FAmSCo helped me
out a lot during my first event planning for the Ohio Linux Fest in
2006.

I think the Steering Committee can still provide a valuable role, it
just needs some energy injected into it - which this election can be
the opportunity to do.

As for the number of meetings.  The meetings page says they are still
supposed to be meeting every 2nd Monday of the month.  The meeting
minutes do only show one meeting for this year.  While I think the
Steering Committee should have a more active meeting schedule than
that - I don't think the solution is to scrap that committee - rather
use this election to change things.

What does an ideal Steering Committee look like to me?  A group of
energetic leaders, helping lower the hurdles for both Ambassador
membership *and* make putting on an event easier.  A group of people
that can take things to the Fedora Board when needed for ideas that
can reshape the Ambassadors.  A group of people that listen to
Ambassadors from each region to help improve the Ambassador group as a
whole.  A group of people who are active on the mailing lists - both
in supporting other people's events and ideas and bringing new ideas
to the table.

--Jeffrey