Ubuntu Tennessee LoCo Team
Leadership Proposal

Purpose:
To provide a stable, non-regionalized method of effecting LoCo Team Leadership.

Rationale:
Historically, the Tn Team has had difficulty establishing effective and continuous team administration and leadership. Due to our state's geography, it has been an apparent obstacle to team growth to schedule regular in-person meeting, release and install parties and informal gatherings. Our team has been localized around three or four different cities (Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga and Memphis) and due to the distances and economic considerations involved, members have been reluctant to travel to these get-togethers. In consideration of these factors and bearing in mind that effective team leadership does not necessarily require that 'one' individual wear the “leaders” hat, I am proposing the following:

Proposal:

1.The Tennessee Team be administratively divided into three or four regional areas, centered on the major cities of our state, each with a geographically chosen leader, to be a Point of Contact for correspondence and a distributor of Ubuntu Linux Materials (documentation, stickers, ISO Distribution Disks...etc).
2.The Regional Leader and their respective teams, will be responsible for scheduling and conducting informal meet and greet meetings, and will coordinate install and release parties with the State LoCo Team schedule.
3.The regional Sub-Team leaders will, in rotation, conduct the monthly IRC LoCo Team meetings on #ubuntu-us-tn.
4.The regional team leaders will act in committee fashion as the corporate leader of the Tennessee Team. All decisions required to be made at the Team Leader level, will be decided by a simple majority vote. If a tie occurs, the assigned team trustee will cast the deciding vote.
5.The Leadership committee will consist of the elected regional sub-team leaders and the trustee (who is normally a non-voting member, and who acts in an advisory role)
6.The elected trustee (currently w4ett) will coordinate administration and reporting functions with Ubuntu-us, the Community Council and Canonical for the purposes of obtaining Ubuntu Materials for forwarding to the regional leaders and completion of the required monthly team reporting (required for team recognition) to the Community Council. The Trustee will also act as the secretary/scribe and the LoCo Team reporter.
7.If, during regional team meetings, matters of policy be introduced, these items will be deferred until the next official IRC LoCo Team meeting on #ubuntu-us-tn. Only proposals brought forward during the Official LoCo Team IRC Meeting can or will be considered for action by the entire team.

Final Statement:

This proposal, if enacted, will benefit the team by protecting us from missing team leader situations as we have experienced in the past, and will further the experience and knowledge base of the entire team and it's leadership.

It is not the intent of this proposal to burden the LoCo with excessive By-Laws and artificial rules and procedures, but to ensure the smooth operation of our team and it's on-going administration and operation.

Respectfully submitted this 21st Day of July, 2009,

Don Harper (w4ett)
Team Trustee