Joe Terranova

Hey people, long time no see.

Okay, first up is Software Freedom Day at PACS. The NJ LoCo Team helped out the PA Team with this event, and Dave Harding gave the main presentation. Pictures:

The rest are here.

Next up, the NJ LoCo Team was at the Columbus Farmer’s Market on Saturday. Farmer’s Market, you say? Well, we certainly talked to quite a few people who had never heard of Ubuntu (or linux) before, and we gave out at least 30 OpenCDs and 50 Ubuntu CDs (we never seem to count these things).

Pictures:

More are here.

As a follow-up to this, I figured I should post to let people know that I will not actually be posting a tally of expenses for September’s Event (though I will still be keeping a tally for myself). After talking to a friend, I’ve decided to table this line of discussion for now, as it’s causing more animosity than it should.

I’ve set an entry on my calendar for June 1st, at which point I will bring the issues — handling funds, handling liability, handling sponsors — up for discussion again. There will be disagreements, there will be long discussions, but — most importantly — there should not and will not be hurt feelings, accusations, falling outs, or any other behavior which has tainted current discussion. In 9 months time, we must have matured — both as teams and as team leaders — enough to be able to discuss issues larger than ourselves and our individual teams. If we haven’t, we’ll have larger problems than handling money.

I apologize if I’ve stepped on any toes. Expect a message from me on June 1st.

Update: apparently we’ll be discussing this at our next meeting, which should hopefully resolve this and help us move forward. Huzzah!

For those of you unaware, there’s been quite a bit of discussion recently in the US Teams Project about the possibility of starting a non-profit organization, to accept donations and to shield individual LoCo teams of liability; the main conclusion has seemed to be that having users sign waivers is good enough for liability, and that “teams have and are more than able to function without funding and without liability coverage” (see discussion here and here).

In response to this, this blog is going to have a fun recurring theme over the next few months: how Joe spends his money. I’ll be keeping you all updated on all the things I spend out of pocket (or other people chip in) for LoCo Team events, and I’ll accept suggestions for alternative methods which require 0 dollars. I will also be making requests to Canonical to fund all of these needs, and letting you know of the results.

I don’t mean to call people out, start a fight, or sound bitter; I’m quite happy with my team, and its situation. Other teams are attempting to get donations, and this strange notion that LoCo teams don’t need money for anything is holding them back. Let me make this clear: not all locations are donated, not all us of have Google, Sun, or Novell offices in our back yard, and not all of us are willing to have advocacy events in our basements. Not every LoCo Team can survive on t-shirts and CDs alone, and it’s time this is made clear to those who refuse to accept that notion.

I encourage other team leaders in a similar position to also keep us updated on what they’re spending money on. Expect an itemized list for our next event on September 22nd.

ow ow ow owwwww (

Touch screen iPods tomorrow. Not that I care, but I’m sure someone does.